TEN months ago, the Conservatives brought a quick end to newly elected Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion's political honeymoon with a brutal attack ad culminating in a stentorian voice proclaiming "Stéphane Dion is not a leader."
Last Saturday at a town hall meeting in Winnipeg, Dion used the ad to showcase himself as a person and a politician who couldn't be more different from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
An audience member urged Dion to go as negative and hard against Harper as Harper has against him.
"I try to imagine myself as a very negative person and to have attack ads like 'Stephen Harper is not a leader'" (and here he mimicked the announcer's doomsday tone, to applause and laughter.) "It's not me.
"I don't want ads that are personal," Dion continued. "Instead, I want ads where you contrast what they are doing and what we would do -- on the environment, on women's rights, on fighting poverty... I am confident in the big heart, the good sense and the judgment of the Canadian people."
Liberals have to fight back positively, the Liberal leader continued. "I don't mind to mention the Conservative record and where I think Mr. Harper is making mistakes. But it will not be his personal character that I will attack. It is what he's doing to this country."
He returned to the theme when asked about proportional representation. He prefers the preferential ballot, which allows voters to rank parties in descending order of choice.
"I like this system, because the information you receive from every voter is richer. It's not just your first choice, it's all choices," Dion said. "The other thing that is good is that there is an obligation to be more civilized in the debate."
Parties will be more respectful of one another because they will be wooing each others' partisans for their second or third choices. "If I insult them and I come out with attack ads, they will not want to vote for me. It will be good for Canada because there will be a more civilized debate."
Dion's plea for civility folded in neatly with his views on the close links between economic growth, social justice and environmental sustainability -- what he called the Liberals' "virtuous circle."
"The Conservatives, they have difficulty in seeing social programs otherwise than as a burden on the economy. We Liberals, we think that social programs that are well-designed will help people be better trained, better-educated, healthier, more confident in life and because of that, they will be better equipped to be competitive in the market... And then the market economy will be stronger and provide more room for social programs."
Dion's positive and inclusive message in Winnipeg stands in stark contrast to the nasty confrontational climate in Ottawa.
Last week, the Liberal leader was savaged in the right-wing media for dodging an election over the throne speech, although Harper and NDP Leader Jack Layton both also ducked non-confidence motions during the short-lived Paul Martin minority. Dion Needs A New Dog, screamed one headline. Master of Disaster, blared another.
Also last week, Canadians learned -- and some voters reacted angrily -- to news that Harper's office had compiled a mailing list of Jewish Canadians and had issued an "outreach" strategy to Conservative candidates on how to target and recruit minority Canadians into the Conservative party that uses the word "ethnic" no less than 85 times.
On Monday, the Conservative party followed Harper's earlier decision to turf Nova Scotia MP Bill Casey out of caucus for refusing to toe the line on off-shore resources by firing his entire Conservative riding association for daring to re-nominate him.
These actions recall and amplify Harper's recent "fish or cut bait" ultimatum to opposition parties and last spring's leaked 200-page manual showing Conservative MPs how to manipulate parliamentary committees even though the Conservatives lack a majority on them as they do in the Commons itself.
Among other things, Conservative committee chairs were told how to select party-friendly witnesses, how to obstruct debate and, if all else fails, to simply storm out, shutting committees down. Those MPs who tried to proceed through all-party consensus were severely reprimanded by party whip Jay Hill.
Finally, there's the new Tom Flanagan book proving that all the dark and duplicitous arts of the American Republican political culture have moved north. In Harper's Team, Flanagan, Harper's close friend, political strategist and former campaign manager, quotes himself in one memorable passage on how to fund raise:
"...(M)ake people angry and afraid and set up an opponent for them to give against."
What happened to Harper's promises of grassroots democracy, respect for voters and for Parliament and ironclad guarantees of free votes on just about everything?
Of course, Dion could disappoint just like Harper.
But as it stands now, the next election will offer one of the starkest choices in Canadian history: between openness and inclusion on the one hand and control and manipulation on the other.
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