Plan A is Working - Just Two Weeks Too Late

So if you believe that the Liberal election strategy during the recent federal election campaign was to allow Stephen Harper to self destruct you realize now that didn't work. In fact by the time the Liberal insiders figured out that they needed to go to plan B (oh my God we Don't Have a Plan B!) it was too late...

or was it?

Seems if the Liberals had called a 70 day campaign their plan might have worked!

Conservative back benchers, including the always colourful Garth Turner, have started to turn on their leader and his "Two can play that game" decision to recruit political opportunist David Emerson.

This may turn out to be the shortest political honeymoon in Canadian history (less than 2 hours by my count) before the gloves came off and criticisms began to fly in every direction.

Another important element in being a great leader is knowing when to retreat so you can live and fight another day. Not sure Stephen Harper is prepared to die on the David Emerson decision, however with hints of a reversal on the national childcare policy maybe he can't afford to flip flop on yet another decision.

Question - if we have another federal election in 2006 do the same returing officers get to do the job?

Are your Pants On Fire?

A senior conservative political operative (you know who you are) was providing colour commentary for one of the national networks during this weeks swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall. During the great hullabaloo over the David Emerson defection this conservative "mastermind" clearly stated that Emerson approached the conservative party to cross the floor.

When asked to clarify he again stated that Emerson approached the conservatives. 2 hours later Prime Minister Harper unequivocly stated that they (the conservatives) approached Emerson.

That has since been supported by the continued media frenzy over the "coup that went bad.". So either the senior strategist, a man who helped to design national policy or the PM are not telling the truth.

The first rule in being.a good leader is making sure all your supporters deliver the same key messages - scrap that - the first rule about being a great leader is setting example so you don't have to rely on the key messages in the first place.

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Canada's New "leadership"

So Stephen Harper was sworn in as Canada's 22 Prime Minister and he appointed his new, slimmer version of cabinet. While the proof will be in the pudding, it strikes me at first glance that Harper tried hard to balance all interests to the point he may have ended up offending everyone. The big story of the day was the defection of former Liberal cabinet star David Emerson - now the conservative Minister of International Trade. Campaigning on honesty and integrity Harper needed to be even more careful on the decisions he made. While at first glance Emerson looks like big win, it may turn out to be the defining move that labels harper as an also ran who was just like everyone else. Appointing Emerson puts Harper in the same position he recently criticized the former government over. It also may not play so well within his own caucus where competition will continue to grow as wanna be's stand their ground. Emerson also showed that politics and loyalty have no common place - a real reason the Canadian electorate has no trust in the political system. We want to see ourselves in our government but we don't like the lying, cheating part - that's a reflection we can do without.

Perhaps the biggest disgrace of the day though was the shameless media machine who was tripping over themselves to compliment the incoming PM and his team to ensure good access moving forward. If craig Oliver had said one more time that the cabinet was "masterfully" put together I thought I would gag.

So we have our new PM and his merry band of cabinet ministers. Now their vision of Canada can move towards reality. For our sakes I hope it's one that reflect all of Canada - not just the parts that said yes to Prime Minister Harper.

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