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Back in the 1980s, the world was riveted by the sad case of David Vetter — the “Bubble Boy”. Vetter suffered from severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare immune disorder which made him lethally sensitive to pathogens. He lived his entire life inside a perfectly sterile environment, never feeling the touch of another person, except through rubber gloves. (Tragically, Vetter died at the age of twelve, after contracting a virus through a bone marrow transplant.)

Since then, the term “Bubble Boy” has become synonymous with anyone who isolates him or herself to avoid contamination by the outside world. It has figured prominently in pop culture, serving as the title of two movies and an episode of TV’s “Seinfeld”. But it has rarely been applied to politicians, especially Canadian ones — until now.

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And that’s because voters have never seen a campaign as closed and isolationist as the one being conducted by the Conservative party this year. Events are by invitation only; attendees are screened by the party and issued tickets. According to party spokesperson Kory Teneycke, this is perfectly logical: “If we are having an event at a factory, for instance, the way you get into that event is to work at that factory. If we’re having an event for campaign volunteers at a given riding association, you would have to be a campaign volunteer to go to that. If it’s a rally for party supporters, you have to be a supporter of the party … If it was a general public event for anyone in the public, they would be invited.”

Except … they haven’t been invited, and likely won’t be, because the Tories feel they’re under no obligation to hold public events. In other words, if you’re just Joe or Jane Q. Undecided and you want to check out the Conservatives to see whether you can vote for them — forget about it.

You can watch them on on your smartphone or TV. That’s where they want you to see them, after all — surrounded by cheering (handpicked) supporters, without any risk of a heckle, an interruption or a misstep.

This is sad, to put it mildly. Transforming Harper into the Bubble Boy renders his campaign as sterile as a hospital isolation ward. It also fails to fulfil one of the important goals of a political campaign: engaging the electorate beyond the confines of party boundaries.

Unless Prime Minister Harper is under a fatwa that CSIS refuses to divulge in the name of national security, there is no excuse for this kind of behaviour. It is graceless, classless and thuggish. Unless Prime Minister Harper is under a fatwa that CSIS refuses to divulge in the name of national security, there is no excuse for this kind of behaviour. It is graceless, classless and thuggish.

Back in the Paleolithic eighties and nineties, when I was a young Progressive Conservative activist, I remember Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s big campaign rallies, open to all — including the hecklers who mocked his Gucci shoes. I also remember attending big public Reform Party events, not as a member, but as a kind of amateur spy (no one kicked me out, even though many people there knew I was Not One of Them).

In fact, I remember attending many different party events in my previous partisan life — and a sense that even if I was out “among the enemy”, we were all there for a common and noble purpose: serving the public through politics.

Sadly, this is no longer the case. The Tories are now giving the public a taste of what they’ve given the media for years: increasingly limited access to people and information. And even with the press, the Tories have managed to up the ante: Campaign 2015 has gone beyond the we-won’t-answer-journalists’-questions shtick (which has unfortunately contaminated Opposition campaigns as well) and has moved on to a policy of we-won’t-let-you-anywhere-near-us.

Last week, reporter Susanna Kelly was denied entry to a Conservative party rally, despite having full credentials and arriving twenty minutes ahead of the start, because there were no RCMP sniffer dogs to check her out. She was told she should have been there forty minutes prior, when the dogs were available. No exceptions.

But it’s the Tories, not the journalists, who deserve to be sent to the doghouse. Unless Prime Minister Harper is under a fatwa that CSIS refuses to divulge in the name of national security, there is no excuse for this kind of behaviour. It is graceless, classless and thuggish. It betrays not only the Conservatives’ contempt for the media, but their disdain for the very principles on which conservatism is based.

Conservatives traditionally champion freedom — and that includes freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association. Curbing those freedoms to “protect” themselves from criticism weakens the Tories’ ability to recognize their own failings — and to correct for them. It causes them to forget what they stand for, and to make the kind of mistakes that can accumulate during a campaign and prove fatal.

Enacting overreaching terror legislation, ramming omnibus bills through the House, neutering the census and circumscribing the voters’ lists — these are all symptoms of this greater sickness, which, taken together, are fueling the current desire for change of government.

The Tories would be wise to remember the word of Thomas Paine: “The greatest tyrannies are those perpetrated in the name of the noblest causes.” In other words, get out of the bubble, Mr. Harper. It’s no place for a politician.

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.

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.