Want to know what the media have planned for Stephen Harper? Have a look at what they did to Preston Manning.

It’s a two-step game:

Step one: Conduct a character assissination of a Western leader under the guise of reporting on his “image.”

Step two: If he responds by trying to change his image, mock him mercilessly for doing so.

Don’t believe it? Well, they’ve done it before. Here’s a partial sampling of what they said about Manning.

Kingston Whig-Standard, Feb 17, 1997:

The Reform leader’s hairstyle has gone from country crop to city slick. His voice no longer hits notes so high a Vienna choirboy would be proud.

Toronto Eye Weekly, May 22, 1997:

Preston Manning’s idea of reform is to dump the spectacles, dye his hair and proclaim to us, via his new Ron Howard look, that redheads really do have more fun. Manning’s makeover is part of a desperate ploy to appeal to more voters than the bitter white supremacist males in McJobs who currently constitute his following.

Toronto Star, Jun 1, 1997:

Actually, with his recent beauty makeover - the gelled and sprayed hair, kewpie doll eyes and shiny teeth - not to mention his wannabe hip turtlenecks, he looks like a slightly miscalculated Disney World animatronic, mechanically grinning while walking backwards. His image came out of the blender resembling, not hick Preston or slickster Presto, but Uncle Pressie, the small- town hardware store owner, and don’t get him started on those Frenchies.

Toronto Globe and Mail, June 4, 1997:

Mr. Manning prepared for this campaign with a complete makeover, shedding his wire-rimmed glasses, styling and colouring his hair, and outfitting himself with a new wardrobe of casual clothes… The much hoped-for breakthrough in Ontario never materialized. Reform lost its only seat in the province, yet became the official Opposition by dint of Bloc losses. Vast parts of Canada remained terra incognito for Reform.

FFWD Weekly, June 12, 1997:

Alberta and British Columbia have served notice that they’re no longer content to quietly pick up the tab for Appeasement Politics…. So now, the future of the country would come to rest in the hands of a gangly prairie boy with the funny haircut and squeaky voice.

CBC Newsworld Election 97 website:

Observers note that Manning has been taking TV coaching, getting a “big city” hairdo, and investing in an improved wardrobe, courtesy of a reported $31,000 allowance from the party for suits and dry cleaning. The makeover is part of an attempt to woo Eastern and mainstream voters, but Westerners might miss the denim shirts and high-pitched twang .

CBC Newsworld Election 97 website:

Manning has had his eyes fixed, his hair stylized, his teeth capped. All Manning forgot to get was a voice lift. When Manning speaks in that harsh squeaky voice of his, he always converts at least a dozen people in the hall to Reform.

Charlottetown Guardian, Feb 23, 1999:

Prophets can have bad haircuts, ill-fitting suits and funny accents. It lends authority to their words. They don’t need makeovers.

Toronto Star, Mar 8, 1999:

Preston Manning – who, three makeovers ago, reviled “politicians” – now [wants] to rally us to them as a shining defence against moral decay.

Ottawa Citizen, May 4, 1998:

Preston Manning, despite the full makeover treatment, is still a geek. He’s just a geek with a better haircut.

Montreal Gazette, Jun 28, 1999:

Does he or doesn’t he? Some parliamentary observers are asking that question about Reform Party leader Preston Manning, known for previous image makeovers designed to woo voters…. [A l]iberal … said the dye job is a sign Reformers will do anything to get elected. “One day it’s glasses, the next day it’s speech, today it’s hair,” he said.

Montreal Gazette, Oct 24, 1999:

In the good old days when they still made real Westerns, Manning would have been a natural for the adorable, squeaky-voiced stagecoach rider, a shotgun riding his knees, who would have served as John Wayne’s best pal.

Ottawa Citizen, Jan 24, 2000:

He has been tweaked over the years for a squeaky voice that voice lessons didn’t fix, test-running myriad hair colours and styles, ditching untelegenic glasses in favour of laser eye surgery and trading in cowboy chic for Hugo Boss suits.

Chatter about the image makeovers has been a near constant in Preston Manning’s life since he burst on the national scene 13 years ago as the geeky-looking, policy-wonk founder and leader of a party of western malcontents.

But … the cosmetic shifts were viewed as a sign Mr. Manning was uncomfortable in his own skin.

Windsor Star, Jan 29, 2000:

Manning, shown in 1997 with glasses, underwent laser eye surgery as part of his makeover. But the cosmetic shift was viewed as a sign Manning was uncomfortable in his own skin.

Senator Sharon Carstairs, March 9, 2000:

While I still bemoan the fact that some members of the media and the public concentrate on my physical appearance and voice instead of my message, at least I have some hollow satisfaction in noticing that they are expanding their criticism to include … the makeover of Preston Manning upon his arrival to federal politics.

Halifax Daily News, Apr 7, 2000:

[S]mart politics, but devious. When backroom boys told Preston Manning he had to do something to appear less righteous and nasty, he changed his hair style and clothes.

Vancouver Sun, Jun 17, 2000:

Maybe the purpose of this entire Alliance exercise is to undo the damage done by Manning’s ill-advised makeover. Could it be that Stockwell Day and Tom Long exist in order to make Preston Manning look real?

Ottawa Citizen, Jul 7, 2000:

Poor Preston Manning doesn’t have a chance with a makeover appealing more to school marms than hormone-heavy students.

Montreal Gazette, Jul 24, 2000:

Manning had more makeovers than Michael Jackson, but they still couldn’t sell him in Ontario, because he was perceived as the leader of a regional western protest party.

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Sep 15, 2000:

Even the cerebral Preston Manning couldn’t escape the clutches of the image gurus, subjecting himself to the indignities of a “makeover” that featured voice-modulation lessons, a bizarre new hair-do and eye surgery to rid himself of a bespectacled professorial look. That the man had policies aplenty, something worthwhile to say and the ability intelligently to say it, didn’t matter.

Ottawa Citizen, Oct 23, 2000:

Mr. Day … is a national marketing dream compared to the wooden, shy, squeaky-voiced Preston Manning.

Lawrence Martin column in Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Halifax Daily News and others, Nov 16, 2000:

[S]queaky Preston Manning first came to town on the Reform stage coach. It took years for him to rid Reformers of the yahoo image. But he still couldn’t penetrate the eastern time zones…. Miracles may happen in Adam’s garden, but not in these time zones.

Ottawa Citizen, Feb 18, 2001:

The Canadian Alliance caucus has traditionally comprised two personality types, John Wayne and Woody Allen. The John Waynes are rugged, straight-talking cowboys…. And then there are the Woody Allens — Preston Manning, with his squeaky voice and glasses (pre-laser surgery).

St. John’s Telegram, Jul 15, 2001:

Preston Manning might have been our first robotic politician… [I]sn’t it comforting to know Preston Manning’s makeover (hair, eyes, leather jacket and all) cost just a tiny fraction….

Edmonton Journal, Jan 13, 2002:

Counselled by advisors that his Jimmy Stewart-as-thoughtful-hayseed image wouldn’t play in the cosmopolitan strip malls of Brampton, former leader Preston Manning did the makeover thing, foofing up his coiffure, donning new specs and black, tie-less shirts buttoned at the neck.

St. John’s Telegram, Sep 13, 2003:

Sometime the worst thing political handlers can do is excessively remodel their candidate. [Political scientist Steve Tomblin] points to folksy former Reform party leader Preston Manning, who took a hit after he was given a makeover — new hair, new glasses, de-twanged syntax.

CBC News Viewpoint, February 6, 2004:

Preston Manning … underwent a dramatic makeover just as he made his debut on the federal scene. Gone were the big glasses, western wear and the twang. After laser eye surgery, a new wardrobe and a fuller head of hair, the Alberta politician looked like he had been through a “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” makeover, before anybody knew what that meant.

Winnipeg Free Press, March 19th, 2005:

The intellectual architect of the new Canadian right, going nowhere with new ideas, trashed his predictable clothes, ’60s haircut and Coke-bottle glasses. The new look got him a new lease on life with the Canadian media for about 15 minutes.

CBC “Life and Times” website:

“Life and Times of Preston Manning” profiles the man beyond his much criticized ‘eastern Canada makeover.’