CKNW Editorial
for November 21, 2000

I must say, frankly, that I seem to have got this election all wrong. I thought that Stockwell Day, coming out of his leadership win and a pretty good baptism under fire in the House of Commons, would catch a wave, He hasn’t – at least not so far.

The Liberals have benefited two ways – first off, Mr Day has not been able to capitalize on Mr Chretien’s poor showing in the debate and his mounting scandals. Part of this can be laid at the doorstep of the press poodles in Ottawa but most of the blame rests with Mr Day himself. He seems withdrawn and shy – almost as if he feels that out of some deference he mustn’t hit Mr Chretien too hard.

Secondly, by not taking charge of the campaign Mr Day has allowed Mr Clark back into contention in Ontario where he may well steal enough votes from the Alliance to give the Liberals another clean sweep. Mr Clark is entitled to credit but he would only have been a temporary story had not Mr Day left the vacuum there for Clark to fill.

It may well be that I read Mr Day wrong from the start. I thought he was a vigorous, youthful man who understood that politics is a blood sport and played the game accordingly.

Much of what has happened is a matter of style. How much better it would have been, for example, had he simply announced on the first Saturday of the campaign that he was taking Sunday off to be with his family instead of putting it in terms that permitted the Liberals to play the fundamentalist card.

The national media has done its bit – especially the CBC with its show out of nowhere about Mr Day’s fundamentalist beliefs. But the reaction would have been muted had Day played things down a bit.

But the worst thing to happen by far is that the Liberals put Mr Day in a position where he could be laughed at – and was. Politics isn’t rocket science – it’s a game of pretty elementary chess where you have to anticipate moves. The first thing you do is see where you are going to be vulnerable.

The #2 vulnerable area, and just behind #1, his religiosity, and really part of it, is abortion. Now it took some skill for the Liberals to make this old chestnut into an election issue but it also took some help from Alliance stupidity.

What did the Liberals do? They married the Alliance’s fondness for referenda with abortion, looked at Ted White’s private members bill and, presto! The Alliance are going to have a referendum on abortion if about 350,000 Canadians want it. The CBC, ever willing to kick Alliance gonads wherever they show up, through their comedy section, suddenly had half a million or more wanting a referendum to force Stockwell Day to change his name to Doris. Brilliant even though it took the Liberal Party’s communications and propaganda arm, the CBC to make it all happen. Everyone is laughing at Mr Day and the Alliance on this one – no one is laughing with him.

There is only, effectively, three days to go. It’s hard to imagine that Mr Day will get any better headlines than he has from the National Post this past fortnight. He’s going to have to either get lucky or have a lot of Canadians, especially in Ontario, decide at the last minute that they, like those who live west of the Lakehead, want a change.

Looking back, with the advantage of 20/20 hindsight, one has to wonder if Preston Manning could have done worse. Mr Manning, too, is a fundamentalist Christian but people have become comfortable with him and his religion.

But as they say – it ain’t over until the weight challenged, female type sings. Here’s how it looks to me right now. Give me some points and I take a Liberal minority and an understanding if not coalition with the Tories bringing Joe Clark into the center of power. Strange thought … but it could happen.