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At this rate, Prime Minister Stephen Harper might soon be able to hold cabinet meetings in the back of a van.

Last week, Industry Minister James Moore announced that he will not be running again, citing the need to care for his son Spencer, who has special needs. He joins an exclusive club that’s getting less exclusive all the time; along with Christian Paradis, Shelly Glover, Peter MacKay and John Baird, he’s a Conservative at the top of the caucus pyramid who is calling it quits before the fall.

It’s never a good thing for an incumbent party to lose some of its strongest players, but for the Conservatives the problem isn’t just who’s leaving — it’s who’s not coming in through the door. Despite the fact that over thirty MPs are heading for the exit, the Conservatives aren’t proposing to fill their seats with nationally-known, high-profile candidates.

In some provinces, most electoral districts still don’t have Conservative candidates; as I was writing this, only 26 people were listed on the Quebec candidates’ page of the party website. The impression one is left with is of a Conservative party that isn’t attracting top talent — that has become, in Michael Harris’s words, a ‘Party of One’, its membership and candidates having tied their faces and fortunes completely to those of their leader.

The Liberals have taken the opposite approach. Despite the fact that leader Justin Trudeau has one of the most recognizable last names in Canadian politics, the Liberals have been busy collecting other big names from a variety of disciplines: author Chrystia Freeland; municipal politician Adam Vaughan; retired General Andrew Leslie; former Canada AM host Seamus O’Regan, among others. The Liberal candidates’ page features a former paralympian swimmer, a doctor who trained physicians in the Third World, the first Sikh to command a Canadian regiment, and eleven aboriginal candidates.

It all adds up to two competing narratives: Solo Steve vs. Team Trudeau. The Conservative party’s own ads show Harper working alone, late into the night — presumably to drive home the idea that the PM is the one man alive who can keep Canadians safe from terrorism and economic chaos. It all adds up to two competing narratives: Solo Steve vs. Team Trudeau. The Conservative party’s own ads show Harper working alone, late into the night — presumably to drive home the idea that the PM is the one man alive who can keep Canadians safe from terrorism and economic chaos.

Of course, it’s a lot easier to attract talent when your party is riding high in the polls — which helps explains the collection of wanna-be politicians the Liberals have put together over the past two years. But even with their recent slide in the polls they managed to snag former Toronto police chief Bill Blair last month as their candidate for Scarborough Southwest.

All of which adds up to two competing narratives: Solo Steve vs. Team Trudeau. Ironically, the Conservative party’s own ads buttress this storyline by showing Harper working alone, late into the night — presumably to drive home the idea that the PM is the one man alive who can keep Canadians safe from terrorism and economic chaos.

Unfortunately, this also reinforces the idea that he’s a one-man band. In the news, the only “team” voters keep hearing from are Harper’s Senate appointments, who continue to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile, it’s easy to forget that over the past two years, it has actually been NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair who proved himself to be the real team leader. When the NDP swept into Official Opposition with a crowd of newbie MPs, most of whom never expected to be elected, many observers predicted an inevitable outbreak of discipline problems. Those problems failed to materialize.

Sure, there were a few hiccups — such as MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau’s initial lack of French skills — but overall the caucus has been remarkably scandal-free. The party’s only ethical cloud going into the election looms at the top, due to the party’s decision to finance satellite offices with House of Commons budgets.

While it’s true that a leader is the face of the party, voters also look at the team — particularly when it’s a tight race, as the current election is shaping up to be. That team represents the party’s health, not just its available cabinet material — a pool of possible future leaders. Strong leaders leave a legacy for their parties. That means recruiting talent, nurturing it and planning for succession.

Elections aren’t just about the next four years — they’re about the future. In the Conservatives’ case, the future seems to be eroding.

Tasha Kheiriddin is a political writer and broadcaster who frequently comments in both English and French. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. Tasha moved back to Montreal in 2006 and served as vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute, and later director for Quebec of the Fraser Institute, while also lecturing on conservative politics at McGill University. Tasha now lives in Whitby, Ontario with her daughter Zara, born in 2009.

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