Want An Interview? Sure, Just As Soon As I Finish Baking These Cookies.

And so falls another government, ravaged by partisan fighting in the House. This one, however, is struck down not by the dogs are expected to nip at the heels of the PMO. Rather, in these last few weeks we have seen a House of Commons dismantled by the very hands that strived to create it, using much the same tools.

Harper’s Tories have been dropping election hints like autumn leaves, always looking ominously forward to a coming confrontation with the Armies of Evil [read: Liberals], and every once in a while they would grace us with a tidy little TV commercial showing us the Prime Minister’s soft and fuzzy side, and I imagine I am neither the first nor the last Canadian to have a frightening and overpowering urge to give his Prime Minister a bear hug.

Lately, the slow and erratic trickle of advertisements has become a rushing tidal wave, dousing us with a series of short clips featuring Mr. Harper on an overstuffed couch, wearing a comfortable sweater vest, and reclining by the fireplace. We are told by a multicultural coven of “average voters” why Harper is the right man for the job, and why he can make government work.

That’s all well and good, but I fail to see the point. Harper is, at best, a calm, collected and decisive leader. At worst he is a cold, unfeeling policy wonk. Nobody is going to be fooled into thinking he is Ralph Klein reincarnate, and I think we would all be equally shocked to see him stumbling out of a bar on a Saturday night as we would be to see him hugging a small child on the street. Simply put, he is not a touchy-feely person, at least in public.

However, when it comes to this election, I don’t think he has much to worry about. He could have all the personality of an electric eel, and he’d still be miles ahead of Mr. Dion in that category. Dion may not seem as much like the Captain of the school math team as Harper, but none of us are going to mistake him for the star quarterback, either.

So please, Stephen, let’s not kid each other. You aren’t a teddy bear, and you never will be. On the other hand, you can speak both languages passibly, are not lost in the area of intellect, and you’ve been around the block politically. You’re better than this, Stephen, and you’re better than Dion.