Wanna hear an insider secret about politics? Sitting prime ministers despise party policy conventions. Who can blame them? From the third floor of the Centre Block, prime ministers can command the whole of the federal government. They can name ambassadors, regulate federal industry and direct foreign relations. Draped in the power of a majority Parliament, there are few limits on their control. And being human, they typically quite like it that way.
Certainly Stephen Harper does. Control is something that he has shown an uncommon flair for exerting. Coming off a session littered with Senate scandals, PMO resignations, caucus tensions and trade policy frustrations, you can bet that control is also something he’s looking to regain by the bushelful.
Too bad he must first spend three days in a cavernous cement arena with 3,000 delegates who, as a rule, skew older, whiter, righter and angrier-than-your-average-voter. He’ll get to hear them whisper their worries that he’s been “Ottawashed” and suffer through hot-button debates over guns, gender selection and euthanasia. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
What’s more, the national media will be on hand looking to report the slightest example of internecine conflict, hopeful leadership jockeying, and backbench unrest.
So don’t believe for a moment that the prime minister is looking forward to a weekend of reconnecting with the rank and file. Stephen Harper wants a party convention right now about as badly as Pam Wallin wants a new auditor in her life. But there’s no avoiding it. Just as there’s no point in pretending that it can be transformed into a big win. The goal with conventions of this sort is to survive without a setback, to keep an agitated grassroots from turning toward anger, and from turning that anger toward their own leader
With all that in mind, Harper must decide how to handle himself. In practice it comes down to this decision: Is it enough to simply deflect delegates’ attention or must he distract them with something larger?
Deflection begins by loudly reminding party members that they remain the underdogs of Canadian politics. Much like Quebec’s separatists, the Conservatives love to mythologize their own victimization. This contemporary version of the party found its feet in the fertile soil of western alienation. To this day they see Liberal horcruxes everywhere they look: the courts, the civil service, the dreaded “lamestream” media. And now Voldemort has returned. Unsurprisingly, his name is Trudeau.
Harper’s “us against the world” spiel often backfires by feeding the suspicion that he views himself as the prime minister of a party, not a country. That’s not a worry for this weekend, though. His mission is to persuade the grassroots that he remains their champion. He accomplishes that best by standing with them, not above them, by fanning the flames of their historic sense of grievance and by deflecting their hostility away from the PMO and toward Trudeau.
Manufacturing a distraction is a more delicate matter. A new, carefully selected policy initiative could help. Perhaps a fresh batch of crime and punishment measures — they always prove popular with the core. If he’s feeling bold he might even drag his fingers across the hot stove of Senate Reform — although it’s probably wise to avoid any discussion that invites the words Mike and Duffy.
The big card in Harper’s hand is the cabinet shuffle. It would be tempting to unveil his new inner circle this week, deliberately on the eve of the party convention. Such a move would change the channel dramatically, granting Harper control over an entire week’s worth of messaging and allowing him to shiny-object-away all the naysayers in the media and his own party.
It’s a tempting prospect but there’s a problem. When Harper finally names all those who are in, he’ll also confirm the dashed hopes of those who are out. Does he really want to flood the convention floor with MPs who feel their enormous talents have been overlooked?
Given the risk of blowback, such a gesture is warranted only if Harper perceives a real threat that things might go sideways. On the outside looking in, that doesn’t seem likely. However, if later this week Harper names his new cabinet, we’ll know how worried he has really become. It would constitute a tacit acknowledgment that he’s feeling the kind of heat from his party that demands a big distraction, not just a predictable deflection. Small wonder that — like other prime ministers before him — he’s wishing this convention would just go away.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Scott Reid
Certainly Stephen Harper does. Control is something that he has shown an uncommon flair for exerting. Coming off a session littered with Senate scandals, PMO resignations, caucus tensions and trade policy frustrations, you can bet that control is also something he’s looking to regain by the bushelful.
Too bad he must first spend three days in a cavernous cement arena with 3,000 delegates who, as a rule, skew older, whiter, righter and angrier-than-your-average-voter. He’ll get to hear them whisper their worries that he’s been “Ottawashed” and suffer through hot-button debates over guns, gender selection and euthanasia. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
What’s more, the national media will be on hand looking to report the slightest example of internecine conflict, hopeful leadership jockeying, and backbench unrest.
So don’t believe for a moment that the prime minister is looking forward to a weekend of reconnecting with the rank and file. Stephen Harper wants a party convention right now about as badly as Pam Wallin wants a new auditor in her life. But there’s no avoiding it. Just as there’s no point in pretending that it can be transformed into a big win. The goal with conventions of this sort is to survive without a setback, to keep an agitated grassroots from turning toward anger, and from turning that anger toward their own leader
With all that in mind, Harper must decide how to handle himself. In practice it comes down to this decision: Is it enough to simply deflect delegates’ attention or must he distract them with something larger?
Deflection begins by loudly reminding party members that they remain the underdogs of Canadian politics. Much like Quebec’s separatists, the Conservatives love to mythologize their own victimization. This contemporary version of the party found its feet in the fertile soil of western alienation. To this day they see Liberal horcruxes everywhere they look: the courts, the civil service, the dreaded “lamestream” media. And now Voldemort has returned. Unsurprisingly, his name is Trudeau.
Harper’s “us against the world” spiel often backfires by feeding the suspicion that he views himself as the prime minister of a party, not a country. That’s not a worry for this weekend, though. His mission is to persuade the grassroots that he remains their champion. He accomplishes that best by standing with them, not above them, by fanning the flames of their historic sense of grievance and by deflecting their hostility away from the PMO and toward Trudeau.
Manufacturing a distraction is a more delicate matter. A new, carefully selected policy initiative could help. Perhaps a fresh batch of crime and punishment measures — they always prove popular with the core. If he’s feeling bold he might even drag his fingers across the hot stove of Senate Reform — although it’s probably wise to avoid any discussion that invites the words Mike and Duffy.
The big card in Harper’s hand is the cabinet shuffle. It would be tempting to unveil his new inner circle this week, deliberately on the eve of the party convention. Such a move would change the channel dramatically, granting Harper control over an entire week’s worth of messaging and allowing him to shiny-object-away all the naysayers in the media and his own party.
It’s a tempting prospect but there’s a problem. When Harper finally names all those who are in, he’ll also confirm the dashed hopes of those who are out. Does he really want to flood the convention floor with MPs who feel their enormous talents have been overlooked?
Given the risk of blowback, such a gesture is warranted only if Harper perceives a real threat that things might go sideways. On the outside looking in, that doesn’t seem likely. However, if later this week Harper names his new cabinet, we’ll know how worried he has really become. It would constitute a tacit acknowledgment that he’s feeling the kind of heat from his party that demands a big distraction, not just a predictable deflection. Small wonder that — like other prime ministers before him — he’s wishing this convention would just go away.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Scott Reid
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