Modeling Journey

Dion should look south for inspiration.

A wrinkly old man with white hair (as Paris Hilton described John McCain in her ‘campaign’ video) was struggling to make headway against a young, charismatic opponent, who could make a helluva speech, seemed to have millions of charged supporters spreading out all over America to prepare for his coronation as President.

So what did the wrinkly old man do?

He upset the applecart, put a spoke in the wheels of the ObamaMachine, and wrested control of the election from his rising opponent in the last sixty days. And he did this by choosing a more dynamic running mate.

Now McCain is on the stump with Sarah Palin, drawing larger crowds than ever, setting the agenda, generating buzz, firing up supporters, and now leading in the polls.

So what can Stephane Dion learn from this?

Simple: he is in the position of the wrinkly old Republican. He has difficulty firing up crowds, enthusing voters, making dynamic, forceful speeches, and grabbing the agenda from the wily Harper. So, he should take a page from McCain’s campaign book, and emulate McCain.

How can Dion do that?

Also simple: change the dynamics by changing the way he is fighting the election.

The Liberal front bench is the strongest of all the parties in this election. Dion should involve them in his campaign.

He should call on Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Martha Hall Findlay to accompany him on a tour of all the provinces for five days a week during the next month or so, with all four of them speaking on the same platform at the same time, sharing the load between them, acting as a panel when questions are asked, working out the points to be made, and hammering them home.

Such a Big 4 campaign model would generate buzz, compensate for Dion’s campaigning deficiencies, energize Liberals across the country, attract the attention of the voters, steal the limelight from Harper, control the agenda, and introduce Canadians to the strength of the Liberal machine.

The contrast with Harper’s paranoid, one-stiff-man-band would be stunning ...

Use your Liberal machine, Stephane.

And win this election, for Canadians.