It’s one of the biggest advantages a party seeking re-election possesses: the team. An incumbent prime minister should be able to go into a campaign surrounded by experienced people — ministers who have been handling the nation’s business for years.

They can jump in and take the pressure off the leader to answer for everything their government has done. They can talk policy with a degree of knowledge and detail that their opponents — even their regular sparring partners in Parliament — simply can’t match. In doing so, they can highlight the inexperience of the people running to replace them.

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It’s an edge Stephen Harper and the Conservatives dearly need working for them in this campaign — and they’ve been watching it slip away from them for many months.

Some of the slippage occurred before the campaign began, with the surprise departures of veteran ministers John Baird, Peter MacKay and James Moore in the months leading up to the vote.

Their absence only throws the shortcomings of what remains of Harper’s team into sharper relief. The party has chosen to keep Finance Minister Joe Oliver in hiding just as Canada’s economic health has emerged as the key topic of the campaign. Most parties seeking re-election put the finance minister out in front when voters are asking questions about the government’s economic strategy. But Oliver’s grave weaknesses as a communicator (remember his unfortunate comment about leaving the problems with income-splitting to the PM’s grandkids to solve?) means he’ll likely remain invisible and mute until October 19.

That’s a major weakness for any party running on its economic record, hoping to match its management acumen against opposition inexperience.

Then there are the unexpected events that can change the shape of campaign — events that tend to catch the more callow politicians off-guard.

Canada’s refusal to grant refuge status to a Syrian family which lost most of its members — including two children — to drowning during an attempt to reach Greece by boat has effectively obliterated Immigration Minister Chris Alexander’s ability to defend the Harper government’s refugee policies.

NDP MP Fin Donnelly said he hand-delivered to Alexander a letter from a Vancouver-based relative of the family offering to sponsor them to come to Canada. He says he never heard back from the minister. Now the Conservatives are going to find it very difficult to put Alexander forward to explain how the Conservative government has changed Canada’s immigration system during its decade in power.

It leaves Mr. Harper — and Jason Kenney, his designated spokesman on just about everything — increasingly exposed … an unexpected advantage the New Democrats and Liberals are bound to exploit in the coming days and weeks.

Christopher Waddell is an associate professor and director of Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication in Ottawa. He also holds the school’s Carty Chair in Business and Financial Journalism. He is a veteran of the CBC and Globe and Mail newsrooms and now works with iPolitics as an associate editor.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.