So, Who is the Average Canadian?

For years pundits characterized Stephen Harper as a shrewd, crude and successful  political strategist.

• We all claim we hate his vicious political attack ads but like a train wreck, we all slow down and take a look. As much as we say we don't want that Republican style campaigning here in Canada, they seem to work.
• We gagged on the image of Stephen Harper as the caring cardigan wearing family man sitting in front of the fireplace when it contrasted to much with his cold, calculating agenda but, it got him re-elected.
• We have to admire his ability to turn a motion finding the "Harper Government" in contempt of Parliament into a partisan attempt to destroy his hard work, bringing the country back from an economic meltdown.

All this stuff works. Or does it?

Harper is gambling this election, that Canadians will be as outraged as he claims to be, about the possibility of a coalition government being formed, if he wins another minority. I don't think Canadians are half as dumb as Stephen Harper thinks they are.

When I was a young turk, and on some rant or other, an older but wiser colleague told me "Be careful Gord, you're starting to believe your own propaganda."  I think that is what is happening to Harper right now. It is a deep trap.

• As Stephen Harper goes on and on and on about coalitions as if they were evil personified. He thinks that Canadians forget that  he proposed collaborating with the Bloc to bring down the Liberal Martin Government.
• He forgets that there is television archive footage still available and now on You Tube where he suggests that a coalition of the right is needed to bring down the Liberals.
• He thinks Canadians are too dumb to research enough to discover that almost 70 countries around the world currently have coalition governments, including Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

I have a friend who claims that Canadians are so disengaged from Canadian politics that they can't see the forest for the trees. That they spend their evenings perched in front of their television sets watching Fox news, Housewives of Orange County or Cops and don't give a fiddlers fart about what is happening here in Canada.  He might be right, but I don't think so.

I don't think;

• that Canadians are stupid. 
• Canadians are afraid of coalitions. 
• we are as disengaged as our Prime Minister things we are.

What I do think is that most Canadians;

• believe this election is necessary
• reject the law and order agenda
• are afraid of a Harper majority
• are not comfortable with the Conservative Party's vision for Canada
• are frustrated with Parliament now seems to be working
• want a cooperative and functional House of Commons

Then again I might be falling into another one of those traps. Not unlike Harper, I usually think of myself as the average Canadian. We are both probably wrong on that front.

We'll see in May.