Rex Murphy aka Robert Louis Stephenson

Rex Murphy: Jekyll and Hyde

Posted: February 06, 2010, 8:00 AM by NP Editor Filed under: Canadian politcs,Rex Murphy

 

It’s time to get out the blue sweater again. Or, brush up on some more Beatles’ tunes. Anything except Mean Mr. Mustard ­— if the Liberals are smart they’re practising that classic themselves. The Conservatives’ rather comfortable lead in the polls, where they were hovering interestingly close to a potential majority, has disappeared like mist in the sun. Some, if not most, will ascribe this to the prorogation half-storm. No one, however, seriously believes that Canadians have prorogation as such at the top of their minds. The mechanics of the parliamentary schedule, or the procedural niceties of the House of Commons, do not besiege the attention of the Canadian voter. Prorogation may have been the occasion for the Conservatives’ fall in the polls; it was not, in itself, the cause. The cause, as always in the fortunes of the Tories, is Mr. Harper. He makes them or he breaks them. It is as simple as that. He does not have a star-studded or even a flamboyant front bench. There are no John Crosbies, or Shelia Copps, or (to go back a fair bit) Jack Pickerskills. In the main, the few spokespeople the Conservatives have at their disposal are bland or less. None seems to have developed an independent standing as a Conservative “star.” For example, who’s the Bob Rae of the Conservative party at the present time?

Click here to read more...