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Sunday, January 22, 2006
The Tories end on a high note
I just returned from the Big Blue Harper Machine’s final rally of the 2005-06 campaign, in suburban Vancouver, and it was a barn-burner. It was Stephen Harper’s fourth gig of a poetically alliterative day, in which he ventured from Windsor to Winnipeg and thence to Sidney and Surrey.
There must have been 800 very animated, very noisy people in the wedding hall in which the rally took place. The crowd was warmed up with introductions of two dozen Lower Mainland candidates, and then a short speech by the short Nina Grewal, whose head barely made it above the podium.
Next up was Laureen Tesky, aka Mrs. Harper, who entered the room to a thunderous ovation and spent a good minute waving and smiling her way to her appointed position on the dias, just to the left (from her point of view) of the podium and one step behind. She seemed almost embarrassed, or maybe it was giddy, by the outpouring of good will. And, yes, she looked great: blonde hair perfectly coifed; lovely smile with that crinkly-eyed look that Mila Mulroney had down pat; dressed in an oxblood-coloured, single-button leather blazer over a black blouse; black slacks (I think) finished off a smart ensemble.
The Leader then made what can only be described as a triumphant entrance. A Toronto Star reporter (whom I had met when I was on the tour in December) whispered to me that Harper was looking like a winner. And indeed he was: relaxed; a big easy smile; generous handshakes and waves. He wore a collared shirt, open at the neck, and a sports coat. When he started speaking, it was easy to detect a palpable energy in his voice. His eyes were a bit droopy though -- the only sign of what was an extraordinarily long campaign capped by an extraordinarily long day.
There was nothing all that extraordinary about the speech, though, even though it must have been interrupted three dozen times by cheers, chants and applause. At times, I thought I had entered a time warp because so much of his address was similar to what he was saying in mid-December. There was the "seven percent-to-six-percent-to-five-percent" line about the GST, and the ever-popular and always-guaranteed-to-get-a-throaty-cheer line about the childcare grant, in which Harper lambastes the Liberals for failing to recognize that there are millions of childcare experts in Canada, "and their names are mom and dad."
Interestingly, his standard law-and-order lines -- about cracking down on gun crime, ending conditional sentences, and the like – elicited huge cheers and chants of "Harper, Harper, Harper." They were the biggest cheers of the night, in fact. But I shouldn’t have been so surprised. This was Surrey, a sprawling, blue-collar community whose reputation for crime makes it the butt of many a local joke ("What do you call a Surrey man in a jacket and tie? The defendant.")
Harper exited quickly after about 20 minutes, leaving the buzzing audience to enjoy its afterglow. The tour is spending the night in Vancouver and will fly to Calgary Monday morning.
***
I talked with several Tory spinmeisters and organizers, and not one of them would confidently predict a majority government. The consensus was a near-miss minority of between 145 and 150 seats (155 are needed for a majority). However, most also talked about the volatility of the electorate, especially in metro Toronto and Vancouver, saying they really had no clear picture of how things would swing in these key areas.
Senator Marjory Lebreton, who has been travelling with Harper from Day One of the campaign, volunteered one little nugget: that if the Tories do win a majority (and it’s very close now, she said), Harper is being advised to take it easy and take it slow, and not to be as aggressive as Brian Mulroney was in his first term. The good senator is a moderate, level-headed woman, whose influence on the Harper campaign has supposedly been great. This being the case, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see any new Conservative government moving very, how shall we say, conservatively in its first year in office.
Posted by Terry O'Neill on January 22, 2006 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
I was there, the place was rockin',singing O Canada brought tears to my eyes.
Posted by: Bernie | 2006-01-22 11:59:24 PM
One way a democracy changes into a dictatorship is through propaganda and manipulating news and information. President Bush has promoted self-destruction instead of self-expression. In the Bush lexicon, freedom of press and communication belongs to those who not only own it and control it, but also who murder and raze its competitors. Unfortunately, a fettered press has replaced a free press. Evidently, the British Civil servant has been charged for leaking the government memo concerning President Bush’s plan to destroy Al jazeera. Why not charge Mr. Bush for his arrogant and lawless actions towards self-expression and the free press?
Power Corp bought this election for Harper and he still can't get a Majority. Will he still be able to keep his promises to Bush without a majority?
The media and Power Corp have hung Mr martin out to dry out. Now Harper has to clog the media waves to cover his true plan for a United Canada as the 51st state.
Posted by: sam | 2006-01-23 1:26:04 AM
"Prime Minister has so completely failed to enumerate a plan for the future that he, Mr. Martin, is now left with nothing but rhetorical assault to stave off defeat. "Mr. Martin is talking now ... about highly divisive issues because he has laid out no positive vision for this country," Harper said. That is quite true. And we are glad Mr. Harper has decided to calmly rebut Mr. Martin's inflammatory charges rather than traffic in his own. Hysterical rhetoric versus cool logic: " National Post 2006
Posted by: A Canadian | 2006-01-23 2:27:03 AM
I think going slow in the first year is the worst possible thing to do.
Harper (if he gets a majority) should make all of his agressive moves within the first 12-18 months.
Posted by: The Meatriarchy | 2006-01-23 7:02:14 AM
Rant on Sam . Better to be part of a strong Bush defense , than allied with your heros , Comrade Martin, Hillary and Kofi .
Posted by: dave | 2006-01-23 8:13:33 AM
I suspect neutralsam isn't neutral nor is that his email address. Nor does he do his research unless this is intentional misinformation. Power Corp is a big Liberal supporter, who gave Paul Martin CSL, who is Jean Chretiens son-in-law, who did Maurice Strong work for when he hooked up with Paul Martin. Here is the Wikipedia link on Paul Demarais - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Desmarais
Maybe he got confused by the PC after his name, did he find the link to Sadam Hussein interesting in light of the Oil for Food scandal linked to the Liberals.... Google is our friend.
Posted by: Commsguy | 2006-01-23 9:32:12 AM
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