Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Turning Cheek Strategy a Mistake

According to a story in today’s Globe and Mail, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper has adopted a “turn the other cheek” approach to Liberal smear attacks.

“For the time being at least,” says the article “the Conservative strategy of ignoring harsh personal attacks and refraining from making them in return while instead peppering the country with ideas, looks to be set in stone.”

In my view it’s a dubious strategy.

One of the reasons the Tories fell short in the last election was that they failed to effectively respond to Liberal attacks ads.

Politics is a blood sport, and sometimes you got to fight fire with fire. Otherwise you will get burned.

I pontificate further on this in a column I wrote for the Vancouver Sun last spring.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Speaking of dirty politics, how is it that this article on the CBC web site is no longer linked to on the main page, not even on the appropriate dates?