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Of course, Trudeau has a more practised graciousness than Harper, who would never have been caught grasping Laureen’s hand as they strolled through a perfect winter scene on International Women’s Day, gazing mesmerized into one another’s eyes as Laureen pleaded with the world’s women to “celebrate the boys and men in our lives who encourage us to be who we truly are, who treat girls & women with respect.” Sophie Gregoire took a bit of flak for her remarks, but anyone want to bet she didn’t nail down untold female votes for hubby in the process?

Today’s Conservatives are too cynical: they’d never believe Canadians were sappy enough to fall for anything so blatantly manipulative. Liberals know that voters are more than happy to be pandered too, and will swallow the same guff time and again. The few times Harper tried to show a human side, playing his piano and croaking out Beatles hits, he was ridiculed for it, because people didn’t believe he really acted like that at home. But they seem to accept that Trudeau is honestly as oleaginous as he puts on.

People like to be stroked. Provincial leaders enjoy having Ottawa put on a show of respect, even while working feverishly to outflank them. It’s probably far too late in the game for Tories to start presenting themselves as boy scouts ever on the lookout for kittens to rescue. They’d probably never be able to maintain the sincere visage needed to put across the ruse in any case. The Liberals got there long before them, and are so skilled in the performance that most of them probably believe they really mean it. That’s the sort of deception that’s really hard to beat.

National Post