Category: Other

Stephen Harper kicked off his campaign today by visiting Brockville Ontario at the centre of a riding which went Liberal in 2000 by 58 votes (the pain of that defeat was compounded conservative vote splitting). Indeed, a good place to begin: here’s a riding in which the Conservatives should win.

I was in attendance helping out with the Kingston and the Islands candidate, Blair MacLean, who was introduced at the event along with four other Conservative candidates from the area. Included among these candidates was Gord Brown, the candidate for this very winnable riding of Leeds-Grenville.

Harper’s speech underlined the platform effectively, focusing on government accountability, the gun registry and healthcare.

Other notable: when the members of the media arrived in their bus, a few of them immediately crossed the street to photograph and interview the eight people, most likely sent by the Liberal incumbent, to protest the Conservative gathering. I remarked to one journalist that the real story that they wanted was over on our side of the street as the large crowd behind shook their heads angrily at the disproportionate attention given to the obvious Liberal plants.

Other notable II: I met Paul Wells when he was hanging out in the parking lot killing time before the campaign event got under way. We talked a bit about the campaign, the campaign bus, and what he would expect from Harper’s speech. He also told me that he saw my Liberal Monopoly spoof via Andrew Coyne and told me that Coyne should be back blogging soon enough (he’s working on a book right now).

Other notable III: During his speech, Harper remarked that the Liberal incumbant of Leeds-Grenville is an Elvis impersonator. Harper then went on to impersonate the impersonator (to Heartbreak Hotel) “since my voters left me…” I gasped as he raised one eyebrow and started singing that line as I thought I was witnessing the beginning and the end of the Conservative campaign all rolled into one. But the impression elicited loud cheers from the crowd (and some nervous applause from his support team), so I guess he pulled it off.

Paul Martin called the election.

The writ was dropped at about 1:30pm EST today in Ottawa as the Paul Martin asked Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to dissolve the 37th Parliament and to set an election for June 28th.

Paul Martin wasted no time in defining what he believes will be the ballot box question: What kind of Canada do you want?

Martin assumes that to be Canadian, one has to be a member of the Liberal party. Again, the Prime Minister tried to instill fear into Canadians about what Canada would be like under Stephen Harper instead of appealing to their hopes as to what any politician could do to benefit Canada.

Actually, it was all rather boring and this may indeed be indicative of the Liberal strategy: Drop the writ during the long weekend, when nobody is paying attention, for an election date during everyone’s summer vacation.

The polls have been bad and perhaps the Liberals want us to just relax, take it easy, and forget that anything bad happened at all.

However, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe were hardly silent today.

“After all the scandals, after 10 years of broken promises, after bad Liberal governments in B.C., Quebec and Ontario, people are asking themselves: ‘Do Paul Martin’s Liberals really deserve another four years?'” — Jack Layton, leader of the NDP

“There is a stark contrast between the Liberal Party and Bloc Québécois, but the choice is clear, Jean Chrétien’s Liberals and Martin’s Liberals have never hesitated to undermine the Quebec difference…the Bloc Québécois has demonstrated a determination to protect the Quebec difference” — Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Block Québecois

“You know in this country you can be Canadian without being a Liberal. The government seems to forget that. That’s why they need to be defeated. It’s that kind of arrogance that leads to the waste, mismanagement and corruption that we’ve seen. Martin must answer for the sponsorship scandal, the bloated gun registry and other wasted billions” — Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada

As Paul Martin dyspeptically delays and attempts to manipulate the election date to his own advantage, the latest pre-writ poll indicates that the Grits are headed into a minority government. We’ve heard of this news before, but this time the numbers have a special significance. The Liberal Party of Canada has shown a trend of dropping in support as election campaigns progress. Indeed, Paul Martin may wish that those 36 days, outlined in the law, could be shortened to perhaps one week.

The campaign will not serve Paul Martin well to allow him to stake his own ground and tell voters why he’s not the Liberal Party of Canada while telling them at the same time that he is the Liberal Party of Canada. New Coke was a marketing flop, yet unlike the drink, Paul Martin will have the same bad taste if he reverts to his classic Liberal brand.

The Liberals are at 39% of decided voters, while the Conservatives have narrowed the gap as their party stands at 31 percent. The NDP is at 17%. The Liberals are feeling pressure from their ideological constituents on the left and on the right as the NDP has become more mainstream and as the Conservative Party of Canada has become the moderate and accountable voice of the centre-right .

It may be that the Liberal Party can only sell itself to the Canadian public as “The Government”: We’re what you know. Fear what you don’t. Elections aren’t won this way. Rather this tactic is one that loses. The latest slate of attack ads produced by the Liberal Party show signs of desperation (they’re starting to think they actually might be losing).

If the Paul Martin can tell Canadians why his Liberal Party deserves another term as our federal government instead of telling us why the Conservative Party does not, then they just may form another majority. However, as the CBC’s Larry Zolf writes, Canadians are more likely to point out that the emperor has no clothes.