Television ads show Harper’s losing the plot
How smart is Stephen Harper? Surely he must be smarter than the party’s current television ads suggest. Who but a scriptwriter could imagine any opposition leader asking a lieutenant, in this case Calgary’s solid Jim Prentice, how long Liberals have been in power? ( Should it again slip the Conservative cortex, the answer is 12 years.) Harper and friends clearly hope that’s too long for Canadians. Should the party have its way, voters will watch the commercials and conclude that a young, vigorous alternative is readying in the wings and make the ballot- booth adjustment. As far as it goes, that’s not bad strategy. Voters chilled by Harper and those unsettling anaconda eyes may warm to photogenic Rona Ambrose or be comforted by the calm projected by Diane Findley, another cabinet minister in waiting.
In effect, Conservatives are claiming that Harper is first among equals in a party that is more than the sum of its parts. Nothing wrong with that except that what’s ailing the reconstituted Alliance and Tory caucus is more serious than the staff exodus or lacklustre enthusiasm for the leader.
Indirectly and unintentionally, the television ads confirm that the party doesn’t have much to say and what it says isn’t that interesting. Worse still, the nasty, demonizing yarn Liberals told about Conservatives in the last election remains more gripping even if it wafts lightly over truth. With considerable help from leftover Reform dinosaurs, the hard- knuckle folks in Paul Martin’s backroom continue to position Liberals as all that stands between Canada and the guns, Jesus and winner- take- everything dogma of U. S. Republicans. Instead of countering with a more compelling story about themselves and their rivals, Conservatives reinforce stereotypes.
Harper’s burgers- and- beer summer tour will be remembered best for, holy smokes, his Village People cowboy photo and missed opportunities. At least twice, the party let slip chances to define policy differences. As upset as they are at the pumps, deep down most Canadians know decades of bargain- basement gas prices fuelled unsustainable habits and consumption. That eludes Conservatives who have yet to offer a sophisticated response reflecting the need to conserve while buffering some people and economic sectors from price shocks.
In focusing on gas taxes — which fall short of covering the social costs of cars — they sound as foolishly dated as George W. Bush reassuring Americans there’s no need to change their ways.
Tired thinking and old fears surfaced again when Conservative heritage critic Bev Oda used the CBC lockout to muse about the corporation’s value to taxpayers, particularly English-language television. That stirred lingering suspicion that Conservatives, who formally support the CBC, lean to private networks and give too light a weight to the importance of public broadcasting, including its proven influence on industry standards.
There’s plenty of room for Conservative thinking on both issues. For starters, they could hammer Liberals for still collecting a surtax to reduce the deficit after years of budget surpluses or for favouring patronage over a CBC board with power to hire and fire its president. As the television ads struggle to articulate, after 12 years of first indifferent and now disappointing Liberal rule, change should be a powerfully seductive overture. But the ruling party will be here beyond the next election unless Conservatives speak more loudly in the national political conversation. With Justice John Gomery’s help, that begins with an appeal to our elevated sense of fair play. It shouldn’t unduly challenge Conservatives to remind Canadians that the Liberal abuse of power tilted the electoral contest to their advantage and must be considered before votes are cast. But Conservatives need to do more than argue that it would be unconscionable to reward the Liberal breach of trust with a fifth mandate. They need to explain who they are, why they are different, and what they would do with power.
Conservatives remain a party looking for a story. If they don’t find it, Liberals will again tell it for them and the familiar ending won’t be happy. James Travers’s national affairs column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. jtraver@thestar.ca.