|
| Harper's road ahead - Friday, March 26, 2004 at 10:40 |
|
PUBLICATION: National Post -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harper's road ahead -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By handing Stephen Harper a decisive victory on Saturday, Conservatives made the right choice. Among the three leadership candidates, Mr. Harper was the only one who looked like a potential prime minister. That said, Mr. Harper still has much to do. First and foremost on his agenda must assembling a campaign team that is capable of seriously challenging Paul Martin's Liberals. For the past decade, Canada's opposition parties -- and especially the former Reform and Canadian Alliance -- have been run by well-intentioned but gaffe-prone amateurs. The most recent reminder of this came only last month, when the new party released a laughably bad series of radio ads attacking Paul Martin. If Mr. Harper hopes to be taken seriously by the mainstream electorate, he must bring amateur hour to an end. That means reaching out beyond his own inner circle to work with the best and brightest from all three leadership camps -- most notably Ms. Stronach's supporters, who ran a slick campaign despite their candidate's many glaring inadequacies. And much as Conservatives might hate to admit it, it also means modeling their communications and organizational strategies after the Liberals -- who, for all their flaws, consistently run the country's most professional campaigns. Mr. Harper's next challenge will be to fashion a positive campaign theme that voters can rally around. In recent years, one of our conservative parties' biggest problems has been the pessimistic tenor of their message, which most voters find off-putting. Rather than telling us that Canada is going down the tubes -- a sentiment that, scandals notwithstanding, most of the public doesn't share -- Mr. Harper must show he has a plan to make a great country even better. In this regard, the Conservatives' early platform, which includes lower taxes, increased defence spending, the end of the federal gun registry, an overhaul of the equalization system and the sharing of gas tax revenues with municipalities, is a good start. But Mr. Harper must shape all of that into a clear, sound-biteable message. And he must stick to it. Liberal scaremongering will be in high gear. And the Conservative leader can;t afford to go off-message as the Alliance did in 2000, when confusion over health care and social issues helped derail its election hopes. Third, Mr. Harper needs to ensure all of the CPC's divergent interests are able to co-exist peacefully under the same tent -- a goal he alluded to in Saturday's victory speech. Red Tories and social conservatives must be allowed to maintain a strong voice. Especially in the next few weeks, it will be essential for Mr. Harper to massage competing egos in the same way Brian Mulroney did in the 1980s. Finally, there is the leader himself. It is a safe bet that, no matter how hard he tries, Mr. Harper will never come across as warm and fuzzy. But he can at least try: A forced smile is better than none at all. To his credit, Mr. Harper has visibly improved his people skills, coming off less grim and ill-at-ease than he once did. But it is a lingering challenge for his handlers to humanize him. Most Canadians don't read policy statements: They vote for the people they like. Adscam and other Liberal scandals have given the Conservatives a real opening in the coming election. But they have also raised the stakes for Mr. Harper: Given the government's newfound vulnerability, Conservatives properly expect their new leader to strike major gains. If he is to satisfy that expectation, Mr. Harper cannot afford to waste time savoring his victory. |