The Bruce Report

It’s not clear what Prime Minister Stephen Harper would have done had two Tupolev TU-95 bombers not skirted the perimeter of Canadian airspace on Tuesday. Perhaps he might have laid in a call to his Russian counterpart.

“Vlad, baby, come on! Work with me here. All I’m asking for is an innocent, little fly-by. Nothing major. I’ve got an image to maintain.”

As it was, Mr. Putin – no stranger to publicity stunts, himself – had already obliged our fearless leader (unwittingly, to be sure), by providing him with the perfect scenery for a hammy bit of political theatre. “Thanks to the rapid response of the Canadian Forces,” Mr. Harper told a throng of troops stationed at Resolute Bay in the High Arctic, “at no time did the Russian aircraft enter Canadian sovereign space. The first responsibility of government is to take care of our security. Nothing comes before that.”

He then climbed aboard a military-issue Zodiac to spend a little quality time with Leading Seaman Deirdre Dorian (of Prince Edward Island, no less), via communications link, as she frolicked about the sea bed below. One can only surmise the tenor of their conversation. Perhaps, something along the lines of: “Check us out, rest-of-the-world: Ownership is nine tenths of the law and we have at least two of our 32 million feet firmly planted on the ocean floor.”

Of course, most experts agree, there is virtually no chance of Russian territorial aggression against Canada by air, land or sea. In fact, these days, they’re supposed to be our geopolitical friends or, at worst, “frenemies”. But this isn’t the point.

As global warming melts the increasingly less frozen north, all eyes are turning to the shipping, trade and natural resources opportunities once locked below the ice. And Harper is absolutely correct to stake a strong claim there in the interests of national progress and well-being. What’s more, I’ll take stagecraft to sabre-rattling any day of the week.

Still, there are times when a photo opportunity is not a politician’s best buddy.

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama’s recent widely publicised and assiduously documented jaunts around the world have caused no end of consternation to her husband’s handlers. The pictures and video clips of her, her little girl, and her entourage gambolling about Europe and various points south have besmirched her once squeaky-clean reputation. Or so says an ANI newswire report:

“Mrs. Obama’s approval rating plummeted after her highly criticized, luxurious Mediterranean vacation with her nine-year-old daughter. According to the poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal/NBC, only 50 per cent people have a positive impression of her, as compared to 64 per cent people who felt positive about her in a similar April 2009 poll. The 46-year-old wife of US President Barack Obama has been labeled negative by critics for staying in the luxurious Costa del Sol in a hotel that has rooms costing up to $2,500 per night. Even though White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs [clarified] that the Obamas paid for their personal expenses, Michelle has been described as a ‘modern-day Marie Antoinette’ for going on such an expensive vacation while thousands of Americans are penniless, reports The New York Daily News. In fact, the Washington Examiner reports that Mrs. Obama’s popularity is now lower than her predecessor Laura Bush’s was at its lowest.”

All of which proves that photo-ops should be deployed only when one has something important to say or do. Shopping for exotic curios doesn’t qualify unless, in the effort, one manages to bump into a cure for cancer or a sure-fire method for putting people back to work.  Which brings us to New Brunswick in the here and now, or something I like to call, “Election 2010: The Road to Ruin.”

May I humbly suggest that Messrs. Graham and Alward each limit their public appearances to, perhaps, one a week – at least until they’re able to offer policy planks more substantial than absurd notions about NB Power’s heretofore hidden financial strength or vague balms about the multiplier effects of obscure economic development initiatives.

Until then, they’re simply not ready for their close-ups.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.