On the time to speak

Scott Piatkowski offers some help to Harper, pointing out the glaring problems with trying to carry the Cons' strategy of silence from the campaign into their tenure in government:

While politicians can't forget the lessons they learned on the campaign trail, they need to move on to a new strategy once they are elected. Any political strategist — except perhaps the ones working for Stephen Harper — will tell you that what works during an election campaign doesn't always work once you're in government. Once they get off the media campaign bus and get back to Parliament Hill, reporters are not as patient with anything that smacks of manipulation. And, with all of your MPs conveniently in one location, it's far less feasible to hide any of them in imaginary meetings in the kitchen or to have them be unavailable for comment...

The “shush up” campaign strategy worked because Harper was out there every day delivering an alternative message. If he's going to avoid the media entirely, and instruct everyone in his Cabinet and his backbench to do the same, the media will find something to cover — and the coverage is not likely to be too favourable to the Conservatives. And, if the ammunition that Harper handed to them with his Cabinet choices is any indication of the acumen that he'll bring to government, they'll have plenty of topics to choose from.

It may be this same realization that's caused a few of the Cons to start announcing their plans this week. But that too has run into a problem, as the announcements have ranged from the unpopular for good reason to the utterly vague.

It's looking more and more like the Cons had only a campaign's worth of material worth presenting to the public. And if they don't come up with both a lot more material and a lot more openness in the very near future, there may be no prospect of turning around the current tide of negative press.