Campaign Trail 2011: Iggy Stardust and the Snide Look of Harp(er)
Inside Television 547
Publication Date: 4-1-11
By: Hubert O'Hearn
rejected costuming for Michael Ignatieff's campaign tour... the eyepatch was just a wee bit much |
Yes it's April Fool's Day. Your fly's undone. Made you look! Ha hah.
Now that we have that out of the way, clearly there is a bigger media story in Canada than my research for the upcoming 'The Future Was Television'. Even bigger than Neil Young being bigger than Justin Bieber, although I do love when justice is not only served, it gets served with the silverware and the good company plates.
In case you hadn't notice there's an election going on. And by the way, if you hadn't noticed, please do the rest of us a favour and don't vote. Yes yes, one isn't supposed to say that. Public duty! Make it mandatory! Soldiers died for your rights!
Well no. As millions of jilted lovers can attest there is not much worse than pretending to care when in fact you don't. If you don't care, then don't care. If you do care, I highly recommend cbc.ca's excellent Voter Compass poll. At the end of thirty gutshot issue questions (e.g. Should all troops be withdrawn from Afghanistan now?) you'll know where you stand in relation to the parties. Honestly, I think this is one of the best things CBC has ever done.
My own score, which I mention in a nod to journalistic ethics, put me right where I thought I was. I stand with the Liberal Party, albeit at a distance, like a married couple who enter a party fresh from a quarrel in the car. They put on an appearance of being together while he is noticing that hot little NDP standing over there in the corner.
I just had a mental image of Jack Layton in a leggy pink cocktail dress beckoning 'come hither'. It's not a pretty picture.
But in these early stages, just what is the imaging presented to you? As I suspected, the issues are coalescing around a central theme of Who Do You Trust? The Liberals' first TV ad has a certain familiarity about it: a series of newspaper clippings listing Tory scandals with unflattering snapshots of a rather snide Prime Minister resembling a cross between Donald Trump and one of Tony Soprano's street captains. Now where have I seen this before?
Ah yes. The ad is a virtual carbon copy of the ad the Conservatives used against Paul Martin in the post-Gomery Commission election. It worked then and I suspect it will now. It plays into the basic mistrust people have with government. After all, who amongst us has not dealt with some unfathomable government program, seen a tax refund vanish in a puff of smoke, or otherwise look fondly at street protesters in Cairo and wonder if they’re booked for the summer.
The Conservative response is a tar baby. The more Stephen Harper yammers on about coalitions, the more appealing he makes the idea. We can ignore the famous letter that Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc keeps waving about, wherein Harper indicates that coalitions are a grand idea so long as they work in his favour. But here's the other side of the story.
The Liberals are promising money to put your kids through school. You like that idea? Sure you do. The NDP pledge to cap interest rates on credit cards. Would you like to be paying less in debt service for crap you've already bought? Sure you would. So would a coalition give you both these things? Hmmm, the voter thinks, that might be a tasty looking buffet. All the Conservatives have offered of theoir own so far is the equivalent of a stale sandwich: A tax cut. Five years from now. If the budget is balanced. And the Tories are re-elected. And the Rocky mountains magically turn into tasty, tasty mounds of butterscotch pudding.
The latest tomfoolery – just announced today as I write this column for Friday – is that Harper wants Ignatieff one-on-one in a steel – er, in a debate. It won't happen, but it would be glorious if it did. As a professor, I'm quite sure Ignatieff is well-accustomed to melting graduate students presenting ill-defended theses. Also, if anything is going to motivate the NDP ground forces, it is being ignored.
Meanwhile, Ignatieff is being quite literally well-positioned. He always has a group of people behind him when he speaks and I’m starting to suspect that his swanky red scarf is intended to be the modern equivalent of the red rose in Pierre Trudeau’s lapel. He appears relaxed and confident, particularly next to an increasingly shrill Harper.
Interesting times, and a barn-burner of an election. Stay tuned. It will be the best thing on TV this year. Be seeing you.