What does it take to win a majority government in this country?
1—You need a tactically ingenious campaign, with lashings of cunning and deviousness, mixed with swaths of sincerity and warmth. You need to catch the attention and imagination of voters, and hold them spellbound. They should be transfixed by what you present.
The best campaign in this vein was the federal election of 1974. Combine a wicked catchphrase (“Zap, you’re frozen!”) with a sweet, beautiful, ingeneue wife, and a leader clearly having fun attacking opponents who simply aren’t in his league…
…the end result was a solid victory. Unforunately, none of the current parties have anyone with enough gifts to orchestrate such a magnificent spectacle. You need men like Keith Davey, Jim Coutts and Martin Goldfarb to plan strategy at such rarified heights. There’s no one these days to match them.
2—You need a leader who is nothing short of electrifying. Someone who inspires adoration…and someone who equally inspires hatred…but a hatred that creates a begrudging admiration for his or her gifts. A silver tongue…sex appeal…outrageousness…these are the marks of men that are burned (for good and for ill) into the pages of history. Irreverent, arrogant, brilliant, and larger-than-life.
This is why Trudeau succeeded. This is why Diefenbaker touched momentary greatness. This is how Brian Mulroney steamrolled to power. Go further back…MacDonald and Laurier both had star power that stayed with them for decades. In order to aspire to greatness, you must inspire an image of greatness, and project it like a beacon in the night.
Lester Pearson was a great man…but he was a dull, boring leader, and a lousy politician. That’s why he never had a majority, and that’s why he only stayed in power five years. Tommy Douglas was also a great man…but he couldn’t inspire the passions of Canadians the way Trudeau did, and it’s why no one voted for him nationally they way they voted for him provincially. A century from now, when asked about Mr. Douglas, people will have to open a book to double check their information about who he is…
Conversely, when the name Trudeau is mentioned in a hundred years’ time, people will swoon, rant, rave, argue, eulogize and praise…with all the intensity & passion on record since 1968. Next to him, everyone else was just…ordinary!
NONE of our current leaders have any of these remarkable leadership traits. NONE of our current political parties have anyone with any campaign genius or inspiration. This disatrous combination leads to an election of also-rans, not real choices. We aren’t being offered a true choice…we’re sifting through the re-heated left-overs of the previous election: the same tired promises, the same tired arguments, the same exhausted & uninspired leaders.
How I long for giants to once more fill the nation’s political shoes…
