*** Mr. Harper, who is personable and funny in private, disdains the baby-kissing, glad-handing side of politics. Good for him. What are we electing here? A prime minister? Or a best friend? ***
[. . . .] If because of the crazy rules the party has chosen votes in my home province of Quebec get extra weight -- "You could be worth 50 points all on your own," the operative who recruited me sighed -- why simply stand by and watch when you could actually help achieve what you'd be telling readers you favoured anyway? Full disclosure is the best policy for politicians. Why not for people writing about politicians? [. . . .]
Why would I have voted for Stephen Harper?. . . .
The negative reasons are Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement. Ms. Stronach is a welcome addition to Canadian and conservative politics -- even if, at heart, she doesn't seem all that conservative. With time, if she stays in the game and works hard at it, she may become a talented politician. But she isn't one yet.[. . . .]
That so many heavyweight Tories are backing such an obviously underqualified candidate suggests great animus in some parts of the new party against Stephen Harper. If the Conservatives actually win the next election -- a one-in-five shot, down from one in a thousand just three months ago -- or if they get close to power, dissension won't be a problem. But anything less and they may revert to fratricide. [. . . .]
I suggest it is less an animus against Stephen Harper personally (who is NOT a rabid Western redneck, despite what our CBC/Pravda tries to keep alive--that same CBC bought in return for its continued existence and hence beholden to the Liberals). Rather, it is against anyone from the West, anyone to whom the word conservative actually applies. Stephen Harper is a reasoning and reasonable man -- a man who would allow his caucus to stand firm for what their constituents have sent them to Parliament for, their values, not the values emanating from the PMO. The Toronto-centric Liberal Party and old backroom Red Tories aping the Liberals are afraid of democracy and are working to maintain backroom control. May they rot--out of office and working for a living as do the majority of Canadians. NJC
Tony Clement is a much better politician than Ms. Stronach and would be an attractive addition to the Conservative front bench, but few Canadians would see him as a potential prime minister. Too nerdy, too eager, too inexperienced at the federal level . . . . if Mr. Clement, too, hangs around, he could grow on people.
Nerdy? What a change! What a relief! Bring on this man to Cabinet -- though if the following is true, I withdraw that. I hear he is poised to throw his votes behind Belinda which marks him as one of the old Tory backroom decision makers which we all want to be rid of -- those of us not in the back room, anyway. Tony, use your brain and be decent! Don't be profligate with the goodwill that has come your way in your desire for power to remain in Central Canada. Besides, how can you "give" a group of votes to anyone in a democracy? NJC
[. . . . There] are many reasons to be enthusiastic about [Stephen Harper]. He's young (compared to Mr. Martin), smart, hard-working, an economist by training -- which means he thinks in terms of costs as well as benefits, a habit we need in people spending public money. He's also not a lawyer from Quebec and once in a half century we should let someone be prime minister who isn't. It would be good for central Canada, the most welcoming, open-minded and tolerant of all societies on Earth, as it keeps telling us, to prove it by allowing someone from the long condescended-to West have a go at the top job.
Mr. Harper is also conservative, or at least has a history of being conservative. . . . The only good thing to be said for this new-found moderation is that it shows determination to win.
[. . . . ] Mr. Harper, who is personable and funny in private, disdains the baby-kissing, glad-handing side of politics. Good for him. What are we electing here? A prime minister? Or a best friend? Humanizing photo ops -- the leader flipping pancakes, the leader water-skiing, the leader chowing down with ordinary folk -- are designed to show the leader is just a regular guy (or gal). But people who aspire to be prime minister are not regular guys. They are socially useful neurotics. They are driven. They have to be. And they lead very, very strange lives. In a month-long election campaign Mr. Harper's character will out. If in the meantime he wants to keep the official focus on what he'd actually try to do as prime minister, more power to him.
If he loses on Saturday, I hope it's by more than one Quebec vote.
