There are small signposts that illustrate the incredible political rise of Stephen Harper, an amazing political success story in an age that values warm personality and charisma over plodding determination.
The Liberal Party of Canada has had a dozen leaders in its long and successful history dating back to Confederation.
During the past five years and three elections, Harper has defeated and dispatched three of them, one-quarter of all Liberal leaders – Paul Martin, Stéphane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. By the end of this year, he will pass John Diefenbaker to become the ninth longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history.
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If Harper serves out his full four-year majority term, he will be the second longest serving Conservative prime minister in Canadian history, next only to Sir John A. Macdonald.
For someone branded by vicious Liberal attack ads in 2004 as too scary, right wing and sinister for Canada’s more centrist and gentle political culture, it has been a truly remarkable ascent.
Unlike Ignatieff, who never could get over the Conservative attack ad branding him as a globetrotting visitor to Canada, Harper has proven that a politician can get a second chance to make a first impression.
Now, he’s in the driver’s seat.
During his majority term, Harper will push through legislation that will expand the House of Commons, adding seats in suburban Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia where the Conservatives are growing.
He also will end taxpayer funding of political parties based on vote totals, crippling the Liberals even more because they have not developed the efficient grassroots fundraising apparatus that the Conservatives have used for years.
Meanwhile, as Harper and his Conservatives have been ascending, the venerable Liberals have been sliding down the other side of the hill.
As has been widely noted, the 2011 election produced the worst result in Liberal history – less than 20 percent of the vote and slightly more than 11 percent of the seats.
Through all the bravado that successful Liberal MPs undoubtedly showed when they gathered in caucus in Ottawa May 11 with Liberal senators, it is indeed a grim time.
“This is a profoundly difficult moment for our party,” Liberal president Alfred Apps said in a message to members May 4. “There is no avoiding the fact that we now face an historically unprecedented challenge.”
It begins this week by deciding who will be the interim leader to oversee the start of the rebuilding and then when to schedule a convention to pick the next permanent leader.
It follows in mid-June when dispirited Liberals gather at an Ottawa convention at what they thought would be a celebration and now will be more akin to an Irish wake.
While hardly the only issue, the leadership wars that have wracked the Liberal party for the past 30 years are a key reason for the decline of a once-great party.
This week will tell the tale of whether the party has learned that lesson.
Former prime minister Jean Chrétien has been promoting the appointment of former NDP premier Bob Rae as interim leader. It would be a divisive move.
There is a lower-profile campaign to name Saskatchewan’s Ralph Goo dale as interim leader.
His history of caution, party loyalty, electability and dogged hard work suggest he would be the better choice.
