Stephen Harper wants to neatly reverse the dynamic from the last election; this time, he is stability and the Liberals are the scary risk – in his version, anyway.
By talking about the risks of the “experiment” of the Dion Green Shift, he also de-emphasizes the risk of electing him with a majority government.
How successful was that opening gambit? Quite. Served up with lots of corn about what a committed family man he is, he channelled more Ward Cleaver than Dirty Harry.
Perhaps Stéphane Dion was trying to come across as prime ministerial (one of his perceived leadership deficits) by holding his opening speech in front of the impressive oak doors in the foyer of the House of Commons. Problem is, it came across as just another parliamentary media scrum.
He wants to be the leader of the stop-Harper brigade, but he abdicated that role to Jack Layton yesterday, who gave a hearty partisan appeal in front of a cheering partisan crowd. Mr. Dion’s event later in the day wasn’t bad in terms of energy level. But his techno-babble about trading his plane’s carbon emissions or providing Canadians with calculators to measure their own carbon footprints just underlined the wonk-unbound fears that Mr. Harper raised.
If Mr. Dion is going to check Mr. Harper’s current advantage, he needs to become the default champion of those who oppose Mr. Harper’s brand of Conservatism – not let Mr. Layton lunge for that mantle. Yesterday was not any auspicious start.
published in the Globe and Mail
September 9, 2008
