Harper's Handlers, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?

Going into the final week of the campaign it was expected that Stephen Harper would be on cruise control, his campaign up until this weekend a seemingly smooth, uncontroversial romp in the political park. He had success in both leaders’ debates in French and English, did not strike anyone as particularly strident or mean spirited and was finding that the carefully maintained image was finding some support across the country.

The Martin Liberals were on the ropes by the end of last week, they had mounted a number of negative ad campaigns that for the most party hadn’t been particularly effective in stemming the flow of voters that were tire kicking the Conservatives. The message of Liberals across the country was not getting through, their local candidates were screaming for help and for heads. The smell of panic was coming from Liberal offices across the country, the confidence of the past shattered. The best the Liberals could come up with was the ghost of Brian Mulroney and some kind of secret handshake type of thing between Harper and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein on health care. Neither of which had appeared to do any damage by last week.

All signs were pointing to at least a Conservative minority win at the polls, though that would not necessarily have translated into a Conservative government. But that would be an argument for after the election, up until this weekend past the Liberals were running scared.

And then, in an inexplicable string of errors the Conservatives let the Liberals regain some momentum. The first bit of bad handling was Harper ruminating about forming a majority government, not something that even the pollsters were saying was on track just yet. The thinking out loud of the leader and his helpers only served to give the voter a chance to take a second thought about their ballot one week from Monday. Talking about alliances with parties and forming cabinets and such are all things that of course must be worked out, yet the vocalizing of the agenda only served to have the voter thinking the Conservatives were counting their chickens before they hatched. As Canadians have made clear in this campaign, Arrogance is not a trait they respect.

The announcement from Ralph Klein that health care was up for consultation the day after the election, served only to confirm the conspiracy theories that the Liberals had been putting forth the last three weeks, with Ralph loudly declaring he was ready to go with his changes ASAP, the issue gave the Liberals a chance to reopen the entire “Harper” agenda on health.

The Air Canada situation is another unusually timed announcement, which seemed to come from out of the blue. Givng the aura of hidden agendas a bit of credence, the Conservatives are on the defensive over an issue that hadn't previously had any play in the campaign. How the state of language of a near bankrupt airline factors into the mix of an election makes one wonder in amazement. Stirring up the hornet’s nest of language rights, employment in Quebec and the state of an airliner that may not be in its same shape in two months does nothing to bolster the Conservatives shoot from the lip image.

The only saving grace on those three items is that the Conservatives can at least say they’re fully transparent now, no hidden agenda there. The voter will be fully aware of what the Conservative party may actually do should they take power. Not necessarily a bad thing in this era of trying to be everything to everyone. Yet as the final week of the campaign commences the Conservatives were into the damage control mode, “not what we said, not what we mean.” Better to have not let the genie out of the bottle, but once it has escaped what can you do.

And then there’s the Child pornography flap. Paul Martin may be accused of many things during his lengthy time as a politician. But suggesting that he supports Child Pornography was an incomprehensible addition to the campaign. If Harper and his handlers wanted to sew any doubts into the mind of the voter about the capability to do the job of leading the country, this might have been it.

Most Canadians no doubt agree that Child pornography is an evil thing and should be squashed without delay, but taking the argument to the insane point of accusing the sitting Prime Minister of aiding and abetting the practice takes one far beyond the realm of reason. The botched effort which included numerous contradictory news releases highlighted a Conservative team that can get sidetracked in their own zeal for a political kill. The unseemly remarks only did damage to the Harper agenda and gave life to the Liberal campaign.

Like Jack Layton before him, hyperbole is going to be a costly sin for Harper. Most Canadians found Layton’s comments about the Prime Minister being responsible for the deaths of homeless people to be a cheap political shot, showing Layton’s flippant style of political attack. It did nothing to strengthen Layton’s appeal and the same can be said about this faux pas of Harpers.

What had looked like a smooth campaign, one that had allayed the fears of Canadians about raving right wingers ruling the Conservatives; may have run off the rails in one short weekend. It will be interesting to watch how they try to recapture the center position they had staked out for themselves un until Friday, should the Conservatives end up on the short end of the electoral count next Monday, they can look back to this weekend as the possible turning point.

A string of miscues may send the voter to the ballot box undecided, and as the Liberal ad of the moment says, they’ll now think twice, and vote once!