Harper has been pilloried for his lack of empathy (by Bob Rae of all people, who both feels and causes voters' pain). But on the numbers and the facts, much of what Harper has suggested – Canadian banks remain relatively solvent, there are bargains to be had in the stock market, etc. – is probably correct. So what if he lacks the ashes and sackcloth his rivals prefer? Leadership, however, is not solely quantifiable. A leader must know how to seem.
A remark can be truthful without being helpful. This is a rudiment of politics. Harper is a trained economist and, as a politician, he is a very fine economist. With all the bedside manner of a gout-ridden Scottish surgeon, he has told the country the facts in clinical terms. But what Canadians are looking for is heart. The country wants a leader who cares and, as polls shift away from Harper, voters are less in search of sober assessments than a hug.
As to that, Harper has famously packaged himself in casual, cozy vestments by the fireplace and, in the heat of this crisis, NDP Leader Jack Layton has said, "Now we'll finally see what's under the sweater." Indeed, on October 14, we will discover if a sweater-vest is to Stephen Harper as a wetsuit was to Stockwell Day. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, meanwhile, has criticized Harper as "out of touch." But Dion is out where the buses don't run – and hybrid buses, at that. Carbon taxes and green shifts and environmental hocus-pocus are off the agenda for the moment. Canada is entering a difficult economic period. The country needs a leader with a serious, comprehensive approach. Stephen Harper is that fellow. Who cares if he can't cry?
Voting involves making imperfect choices. So, in order to assess Harper’s ability to address economic concerns, we must contrast his philosophy and track record with those of the other leaders on offer.
Displaying the scattershot indignation that has been a hallmark of the socialist movement since its inception, Layton is eager to be angry. He is like a heat-seeking missile with a moustache, screeching across the sky in search of a target, from bank regulations, to tax cuts, to corporations, to George Bush. But his economic policy merits the same criticism that physicist Wolfgang Pauli gave a muddled paper: “It isn’t even wrong.” Layton has blamed the market meltdown in the United States on Bush-style tax cuts – as though decades of bad mortgages bundled into shaky securities, which caused this mess, had the first thing to do with lower taxes.
As for Dion, until recently, the worst that could be said about him was that he is friendly and misguided. But his outbursts at opponents and reporters during the campaign have surrendered his ivory tower high ground as the befuddled professor. This is unhelpful, as the world has no shortage of angry environmentalists.
Incumbency can be both a blessing and a burden. For this reason, despite his opponents’ shortcomings, it is the Prime Minister’s lack of empathy that is driving the polls.
But practical prescriptions should matter more than personalities. As just one example of what a prime minister might do to alleviate the current crisis, he could reduce or eliminate the capital gains tax. 14 of 30 OECD countries have eliminated capital gains taxes altogether, and capital gains cuts have been shown to be self-financing. They increase tax revenue, as the money spent on preparing and paying taxes is instead invested into the economy. Despite Harper’s foot-dragging toward meaningful tax cuts, he is far more likely than Layton or Dion to take such a positive step. Such free-market thinking is what we need now.
Stephen Harper is not warm and cuddly, and his attempts to appear so may be unsettling, but he is the right leader for this difficult time.
theo@theocaldwell.com
Theo Caldwell, President of Caldwell Asset Management, Inc., is an investment advisor in the United States and Canada.
