[FONT=Tahoma,Arial,Sans Serif][SIZE=+2]Pre-election chest-thumping[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Tahoma,Arial,Sans Serif][SIZE=+1]Harperites dig into their campaign funds early.[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Sans Serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-2]Dateline: Monday, April 09, 2007[/SIZE]
[FONT=Tahoma,Arial,Sans Serif][SIZE=+1]Harperites dig into their campaign funds early.[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Sans Serif][SIZE=-1][SIZE=-2]Dateline: Monday, April 09, 2007[/SIZE]
by Geoffrey Stevens
This is not politically correct, I know, but I sometimes have a dream in which Stephen Harper appears as "George of the Jungle".
Does anyone remember George? He was a cartoon character, a spoof of Tarzan and the hero of a late 1960s television series that was beloved by young baby boomers (of whom Stephen Harper was one). Every week, George, swinging from tree to tree, would be called upon to save the inhabitants of his jungle from one peril or another.
Of course, the Prime Minister does not swing from trees, as far as anyone knows. But there is a whole lot of jungle-style drum-beating and chest-thumping going on these days as the Conservative party ratchets up its war against, if we believe the propaganda, the greatest menace ever to confront our nation. That would be Stéphane Dion.
What has the mild-mannered Dion done to imperil the nation? Why, he got himself elected leader of the Liberal party. Don't forget the Liberals gave us the sponsorship scandal. They embraced the evil Kyoto accord. They tried to create a national day care program. Last month, they dared to vote against the new Conservative budget.
Harper has a plan to save us from Dion. First, the Conservatives will spend the Liberals into the ground — by using public funds to secure the allegiance of every significant interest group in the country and by using the party's burgeoning war chest to buy television time to remind voters of the assorted perfidies of the Liberals. Second, the Conservatives have assembled an election machine designed to plant their enemies six feet under.
The machine will operate out of a "war room" that the Tories showed off to the press last week. Located in an industrial park in suburban Ottawa, it is roughly the size of a small aircraft hangar. It even has its own television studio. The Tories will not have to rely on traditional news media to keep the electorate informed about the Liberal menace. They will be able to cover their own campaign and produce and distribute their own newscasts.
The Liberals described the huge war room as a "fear factory," and intimidation is clearly part of the exercise. As he unveiled the war room, Environment Minister John Baird noted that Dion had voted against the Conservative budget the week before. "We are trying to demonstrate that we will be ready if Mr. Dion tries to call an election again like he did last week," he told reporters.
Baird would not say how much his party is spending to rent and equip the war room. Nor will any Conservative reveal the cost of new ads attacking Dion in Quebec and Premier Danny Williams in Newfoundland. (Williams happens to be a Tory, but no matter; he had the effrontery to suggest that Harper had broken an election promise.)
It's amazing how times have changed. In the old days, the Liberals always had the most money and the best-oiled machine. The Tories, usually in debt, struggled to keep up politically and financially.
In those days, there were no limits on fundraising or spending and the Liberals took full advantage to extract very large donations from corporations grateful for business from Liberal governments. The status quo began to change with the adoption of the country's first Election Expenses Act in 1974. Successive tightening of the rules (most recently in Bill C-24 in 2003 and in the Accountability Act last year) has left Canada with the most stringent political-finance laws in the West.
Corporations and trade unions are banned from making political contributions. Individuals are limited to $1,000. Parties are restricted to spending 70 cents per registered voter in a general election. This means the national parties will be allowed a bit over $16 million apiece in the next campaign. (This sounds like a lot, but it is worth noting that George Bush spent $306 million in the 2004 presidential election while his Democratic opponent, John Kerry, spent $241 million.)
One of the loopholes that remains is the failure of the limits to cover pre-writ spending. In other words, parties can spend to their heart's desire — on hangar-sized war rooms, on ads trashing their opponents or on anything else — until the election is actually called.
Until then, they can play George of the Jungle, although it may be recalled that George was notorious for not looking where he was going and slamming face-first into trees. Not that this applies to any politician today, of course.
Cambridge resident Geoffrey Stevens, an author and former Ottawa columnist and managing editor of the Globe and Mail, teaches political science at Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Guelph. He welcomes comment to be sent to his eddress below.
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