Fight the Right:A Manual For Surviving The Coming Conservative Apocalypse

Warren Kinsella

Random House

227 pp

Available now

When it comes to the political dark arts, veteran Liberal strategist Warren Kinsella has a formidable reputation.

His take no prisoners approach to politics has made him a feature in Liberal war rooms and won him the nickname the Prince of Darkness.

In his latest book, Fight the Right:A Manual For Surviving The Coming Conservative Apocalypse, Kinsella doesn’t pull any punches. From the very first page where he portrays Conservatives as a rising tide of mean, nasty “angry white men,” Kinsella’s handbook has all the subtlety of a baseball bat as he describes how to beat Conservatives.

In order for “progressive” forces to wrest power from the Conservatives, Kinsella argues two key things have to happen.

First, progressive Canadians have to stop fighting each other and dividing the vote. The Liberals and the New Democrats have skills that complement each other, he argues. Liberals have experience in governing at the federal level that the NDP lacks while the NDP is better at fundraising and has a strong grassroots.

“As long as Canadian progressives remain divided, it is Stephen Harper who will keep on winning,” writes Kinsella.

It is somewhat ironic, however, that at the same time Kinsella urges Liberals and NDP to put the past behind them work together, he perpetuates the internecine warfare that has divided the Liberals by taking several shots at other Liberals such as criticizing a number of Michael Ignatieff’s decisions or blaming Paul Martin’s “juvenile wrecking crew” for the decline of the Liberal brand.

Second, argues Kinsella, progressive forces need to find a narrative or message that will engage voters, particularly young voters, and rival the Conservatives in appealing to the hearts and values of Canadians.

The Conservatives have portrayed themselves as hockey dads who hang out at Tim Horton’s and progressives as latte-sipping elitists. Kinsella argues that progressive forces should tap into the sentiment that fuelled the Occupy Movement, point to the growing gap between the very rich and ordinary Canadians – and position themselves as being on the side of the 99 per cent.

Kinsella writes that his former boss, Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, endorses both of these ideas.

Fight the Right is arguably at its best when it dissects how Conservatives have been so successful in both Canada and the U.S. In order to beat Conservative forces Kinsella says it is important to understand them and the role that people like Republican strategist Frank Luntz have played.

Luntz, who has counseled both Republicans and Canada’s Conservatives, is a master of manipulating language to accomplish political goals. Luntz’s strategy, which Kinsella describes as Orwellian, is to use public opinion research to change how the message is perceived by changing the language. For example, in Frank Luntz’s world tax reform becomes tax simplification, global warming becomes climate change, drilling for oil becomes exploring for energy.

Kinsella also describes how the Conservatives have been accumulating data in their CIMS database which allows them to target messages right down to street level.

In passages that are almost prescient, Kinsella describes how Republicans have used issues like abortion and gun control to drive wedges between voters and set a trap for progressives. When Democrats respond to the abortion debate by opposing any restriction at all on abortion, they fall out of line with the majority of Americans who would be prepared to restrict things like partial birth or late term abortions, he writes.

That same dilemma is now facing Liberals and New Democrats as backbench Conservatives begin to bring forward motions on issues such as the moment life legally begins or to condemn sex selection abortions.

Fight the Right is at its worst when Kinsella indulges in over the top demonization of Conservatives such as describing them as “red-necked knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers who want to take us back to the Dark Ages or worse.”

There are many parallels between U.S. and Canadian politics, but Kinsella tends to lean very heavily on American examples and American experts to make his points. While there are interesting insights from Canadians like Jean Chrétien, Conservative strategist Patrick Muttart and Sun TV’s Kory Teneycke they are outnumbered by Americans.

Those hoping for lots of juicy insider details of life behind the scenes in the Liberal Party may also be disappointed. Kinsella does provide some insight such as how the Conservatives were able to define Ignatieff because the Liberal leader rejected Kinsella’s advice to hit the Conservatives first with negative ads. On the whole, however, Kinsella tells very few tales out of school.

In the end though, Fight the Right accomplishes what it sets out to do – provide readers with a glimpse into the kinds of strategies that have made Conservatives successful and lay out a credible roadmap for progressive forces to regain power.

Whether they follow that roadmap could determine who forms the next government.

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