Harper: No thanks to image makeover
Stephen Harper says he's not interested in image makeover despite summer offensive
Canadian Press
June 20, 2005
CREDIT: (Photo: Canadian Press)
Stephen Harper says he's not interested in an image makeover.
OTTAWA -- Despite Conservative talk of changing tack with a summer-long charm offensive by the party's leader, Stephen Harper says he's not interested in an image makeover.
"I don't intend to change myself," Harper told Vancouver radio station CKNW during a nationally syndicated call-in show Monday. "I'm not a believer in these so-called image makeovers. I've watched politicians who tried to be something they're not and tried to have all these different incarnations. I think it just comes across as phony.
"I am who I am."
Last week, the Conservatives announced Harper would be traveling the country this summer in an effort to soften his public persona as an angry, unknown entity.
"I think we have to show a sunny disposition and show to Canadians that we're competent, we're professional, we're disciplined and we're ready to govern," deputy leader Peter MacKay said at the time.
The following day, MacKay grabbed Harper for an impromptu game of catch football on Parliament's front lawn.
But Harper, 46, said changing his image is more about getting face-time outside Ottawa than rearranging his personality.
His staff is simply trying to draw more attention to his activities away from Parliament, he said.
A pair of callers took Harper to task for his "constant negativity," saying he needs a more positive message.
Harper responded that as Opposition leader, Canadians see him primarily in those "five-or 10-second clips where you're attacking the government."
As a result, people get a one-dimensional image, he said.
It wasn't Harper's only dig at his media tormenters Monday.
The Tory leader also questioned the focus on his anger when "the Liberals used relentless negative advertising quite effectively" in last June's election campaign.
Demagogic Liberal TV ads, featuring a handgun firing directly at the viewer and a young woman weeping in hospital waiting room, have not been forgotten by Conservatives.
Nor does Harper think he's getting a fair shake in the current debate over Christian political activists, including reports that at least eight Tory candidates have been nominated with links to Christian evangelical organizations.
"There's at least that many in the Liberal party that sit in the Liberal government right now," Harper shot back.
"What always disturbs me is how this concern about the Christian right or the Christians involved in politics always becomes a concern if it's in the Conservative party."
He said the same media bias exists in the United States, where no one seemed to think it worth debate when Jimmy Carter, an evangelical Christian, was the Democratic president in the White House.
Harper made no apologies for attempting to recruit people from a variety of faith groups to the Conservative cause.
"If we're to . . . clean up government, end corruption, restore some sense of ethics and morality into politics, then you have to have people who are concerned with these kinds of things," said Harper.
"If you continue to vote for people who say they have no ethics, you'll end up with an unethical government."
Harper made it clear he's not about to soften his stance on the issues that animate his political ambition - because a burnished image is not his goal.
"Some of the image politics frustrates me a bit because that's not, obviously, what I'm in it for," he said.
The real significance of getting out and meeting Canadians this summer, he said, is to reconnect with voter issues.
"That part of the job is important."
There was also an article by Warren Kinsella, Liberal, that says he hopes the best man wins the next election so the liberals can be out of power for a while. His article said that Harper called Kinsella to offer condolences on the death of Kinsellas father during last years campaign, but he heard nothing from Martin, even though Kinsellas dad was a liberal fundraiser.
He also pointed out the conservatives have a younger, more ethnically diverse caucus than the Liberals, and made a refernce to Martin as a tired old man.
I cannot find the link, but it was reported in the National Post.
