When the federal election began political commentators said the electorate wouldn’t pay attention in the early weeks. They would be sedated by long summer days at the beach house and with thoughts of, well, anything other than politics while flip-flops were still in fashion.
It’s generally not in an incumbent party’s interest to have an exciting election, and the conservatives were likely hoping for another yawner that would happen off in the peripheral of many Canadian’s lives and be over before many, especially the younger demographic, started paying attention.
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But the Duffy corruption trial made the election exciting early on and the Conservatives took a beating in the polls. The trial is now on hold until after the election, cue a collective sigh of relief in old-folk homes across the country.
With this trial over one might think Harper could get the boring election he was likely hoping for, except he is not leading in the polls.
Harper has ground to make up which means he may have to change some of his campaign tactics.
When the campaign started political commentators noted the conservative party was running one of the most isolationist campaigns in Canadian election history. Harper was even referred to as “bubble boy” because of tendency to distance himself from anything that might challenge the message he was trying to deliver.
Only carefully vetted conservative supporters are allowed to attend conservative rallies, media access is restricted to a handful of reporters who are only allowed to only ask him a couple of questions per day, and he muzzled many conservative candidates by banning them from participating in election debates or taking media questions.
In some ridings voters will only know their conservative candidate from when they are standing behind Harper nodding like a bobble head in a media clip from a carefully controlled campaign event, which most Canadians are not allowed to attend.
One might ask how we are expected to vote for candidates that can’t withstand face-to-face media or opposition questions — how are we to trust they can adequately represent our local interests without listening to them describe what they represent, in their own word ?
The people who are likely most upset by Harper’s bobble head policy for conservative candidates are some of the candidates who have been muzzled. They are currently vying for a job but are unable to use any of their experience or intelligence to reach out and gather new supporters.
If the Conservatives keep sinking in the polls and Harper is forced to come out of his bubble and into the electorate trenches, and if Conservative candidates are able to campaign on their own merits as leaders, this election might just become the most exciting in recent memory.
