Here's How Harper Can Fight Back

We know how the Liberals will campaign against Stephen Harper. They will fill the airwaves with ads in which a concerned female voice talks of a "scary secret agenda" while the screen flashes grim, black-and-white photographs of the Conservative leader.

The real question is: How will Harper fight back?

Maybe this time, he should try some negative ads of his own. How about one showing the face of Joe Morselli and some highlights from his career -- over a recording of the voice of former Liberal director-general Daniel Dezainde testifying that Morselli was the "real boss" of the Liberal party in Quebec? Maybe the ad could then fade into a clip of Dezainde testifying that he believed that Morselli had threatened his life.

Or perhaps Stephen Harper could carry with him a manila envelope stuffed as if it contained $120,000 in hundred-dollar bills: the amount of cash Marc-Yvan Cote says he received from former Liberal party official Michel Beliveau.

Perhaps we could see some shots of the lavish behind-the-scenes goings-on at the Montreal Grand Prix, with Liberal politicians and cronies entertaining themselves at taxpayers' expense? Perhaps an ad could recreate one of those legendary "cigar club" evenings at which sponsorship deals were done over Havanas donated by Fidel Castro's ambassador.

Justice John Gomery has concluded that these misdeeds took place over seven years without Paul Martin ever catching on.

That too offers a rich target for Conservative ads. The theme could be: What else has Paul Martin missed? Maybe that's why taxes are so high -- and the hospital waiting lists so long -- because Mr. Martin just didn't notice. Perhaps the ads could feature an alarm clock and a cheerful message to Canadians that it is time to wake the Liberals up.

Another approach: The average Canadian paid a little over $6,300 in federal taxes in 2005. The total cost of the sponsorship program over the period 1994-2003 was $332-million. In other words, this one program devoured the total annual taxes of 53,000 Canadians -- or almost as many as attended this year's Grey Cup game. Maybe the Conservatives could show a skycam shot of the crowds who watched the Eskimos beat the Alouettes, with a voice-over saying something like: "This year, like every year, Canadians from across the country came together to join a national tradition: the Grey Cup. These Quebecers, Albertans, British Columbians had something else in common, too. It would take every dollar of federal tax paid by almost every one of the fans in this bowl to fund the Liberal government's sponsorship program. At the end of the game, the fans will have great memories. After $332-million of sponsorship waste, fraud and theft -- what did Canadians get?"

Many people are urging Stephen Harper and the Conservatives to deliver a positive message in their advertisements. And of course there is much wisdom in that advice. The only way to defeat one government is by choosing an alternative -- and Canadians will want to know what a Conservative government would do in office.

But in the end, it is important for Conservatives to remember that this election is not really about them. Canadians will vote Conservative as the best and surest way to punish a Liberal party that has abused the public trust. The job facing the Conservative party over the coming weeks is to drive home to all Canadians how gross, how unscrupulous and how extreme the abuse has been -- and how very nearly the Liberals got away with it. What do you think would have happened to the Gomery inquiry if Paul Martin had won a half dozen more seats last year?

And maybe that too is a theme for a Conservative campaign message: What If? What if Paul Martin had won a half a dozen more seats last time? What would have happened to the Gomery inquiry then? And what if he wins this time? Will the Liberals ever really repay the taxpayers' funds that found their way to them? Will the Earnscliffe contracts ever be investigated? Will the democratic agenda so humorously assigned to Belinda Stronach ever produce anything more than blah, blah, blah?

The questions answer themselves, don't they?

It's in the Liberal interest to finish and silence the sponsorship story as rapidly as possible. It's in their interest to move on, consigning yesterday's unsolved mysteries to the dust of forgetfulness -- while they proceed to the much more exciting work of generating the scandals of tomorrow.

Real change in Ottawa won't happen by itself. It's up to you. Hey -- maybe there's a campaign slogan.