>I'm interested in why you think Harper "is now talking like every other politician". Putting aside the ideological gay marriage issue for a moment, his proposals have been fairly concrete e.g.
>
>- reduce GST to 5%
>- give $120/month baby bonus to parents (I thought the Liberal response to this one was priceless and so, so telling)
>
>As I see it the Conservatives are putting out concrete policy alternatives and the Liberals are reacting. That looks like leadership to me. For the Conservatives, I think that's how an election campaign should be run - how would you do things differently?

Hi Al,

PMFJI

There's a couple of other factors that I've read of to keep in mind as the campaign progresses:

1) the Liberals have stated that they're not going to do any policy anouncements (or at least keep them to a minimum) until January. They've specifically said that their strategy is to let Harper do as he's doing now, and they're counting on whatever he's saying to fizzle or fade in people's minds as the campaign progresses.

2) Harper still has alot of baggage (not necessarily his own) to deal with. A poll from this week points to a drop of support for Conservatives in Ontario http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=1be18b10-bd5b-42cb-a33e-17275bd796a2 :

"More worrisome, however, is Ontarians’ fear about what they are not hearing from the Conservatives, Bricker warned. "
"It’s the other stuff ... the things that relate to intolerance and privatization of health care that people haven’t heard enough clarity on. That’s always the problem with Stephen Harper in Ontario ... people think that he’s representing some sort of a Mike Harris-style hidden agenda and he’s not talking about it. Even though the policies may actually sound good, it’s more like: well, what aren’t you telling me - what about a woman’s right to choose, or the separation between church and state?"

This kind of reaction doesn't sound far fetched to me - the feeling here in Quebec is similar (to federalist voters, at least. Separatists don't give a damn about any of this). It's not necessarily Harper, but the current Conservatives still carry a lot of baggage from previous leaders and backbenchers - and it's still going to be a steep climb for Harper in central and eastern Canada.