Clear Dion's Agenda

I don't care where he supposed to be or what he's supposed to be doing, Stephane Dion needs to get back to Ottawa by five o'clock this afternoon for a in-studio interview Mike Duffy, just to show those expletive deleteds how gracious he can be. Kill them with kindness, I say.

(For some reason the phrase "into the lion's den" comes to mind.)

Do You Take Cognitive Dissonance In Your Morning Coffee?

I came across these two delightfully contradictory passages while perusing National Newswatch this morning:

- Stéphane Dion doesn't have "a plan." He is "making it up in response to the latest news, or the latest change in the stock market." (So says Stephen Harper.)

- Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is recognizing that Canadian families are suffering “dramatic losses” because of the global financial crisis, and is promising to take measures that will ensure borrowers have good access to credit.

What is Jim Flaherty doing if not making it up in response to the latest news (global finacial crisis) and the latest changes in the stock market (Canadian families are suffering dramatic losses).

Once your neuropathways have returned to optimal functioning, I'd appreciate it if someone could square this circle for me.

Dear Liberal Ad Gurus, Thank You

The other day, I was harshly critical of the "Let's get started" tagline from the Liberal Party's advertising (Turn The Page, Liberal Leadership). Well, I'm very pleased to see that you've changed the slogan to "Canada's Liberals: Always there for you" which is much better, since it answers two key questions voters ask themselves when deciding who to support: Who's more trustworthy? And, who cares more about people like me?

Now, with regard to the third question -- who's the stronger leader? I notice you're still going with the Liberal brand instead of Stephane Dion. Note: You do not combat a weakness by running away from it. At some point you're going to have to challenge the conventional wisdom that Dion is drag on the party's popularity head on. He needs to be present in these ads eventually, perhaps surrounded by the Liberal team, but he must be in some future ads. If not, you are tacitly conceding the argument that Harper is making -- Stephane Dion is not a leader.

I don't care what your polls and focus groups are telling you, Dion's continuing absence from all but one of the ads is starting to convey a negative message of its own about the leader, thereby undermining any good the existing ads are doing.

Hapernomics and Bush