Posted on 02/22/2004 1:18:49 PM PST by MegaSilver
OTTAWA (CP) - Stephen Harper and Tony Clement played the political experience card Sunday, saying this is no time for Conservatives to take a chance on a neophyte leader if they want to turf out Paul Martin's Liberals and take power.
Their words were obviously aimed at autoi parts heiress Belinda Stronach, as the three contenders for the Conservative crown squared off in debate before a crowd of party faithful.
"It's not just about who will make the best leader of the opposition," said Harper. "It is about who is ready to become the prime minister of this country.,"
Clement took a similar tack, explicitly targeting Stronach for a recent interview in which she waffled on whether she might be willing to consider two-tier health care, in which those who could afford it would be able to opt out of the public medicare system.
That's the kind of indecision the party can't afford, said Clement. "We will not have a second chance to make a first impression on Canadian voters."
Stronach fought back, arguing the country is fed up with the rule of professional politicians and is hungry for change.
"Canadians are sick and tired of politics as usual," she said.
She also sought to play up her performance in the business world.
"I do have a track record. I'm not going from zero to 100 km an hour, I'm going from 90 to 100 km an hour. I ran a company - a global company."
All the leadership hopefuls obviously took heart from the recent Liberal slide in opinion polls, following the latest report of the federal auditor general on the sponsorship scandal that began under Martin's predecessor Jean Chretien.
Sunday's debate marked the first head-to-head meeting of the three Conservative candidates since their race began less than a month ago.
In fact, given the disparate backgrounds of Harper, Stronach and Clement, it was the first real occasion to assess them on any kind of level playing field.
Harper, 44, has led the Canadian Alliance in the Commons for two years but has not had an opportunity to contest a federal election as party leader. He helped create the new Conservative party in a merger with the Progressive Conservatives and has been considered the front-runner to lead the new entity since the merger was ratified Dec. 6.
Stronach, 37, comes to politics completely untested from the front office of Magna International, her father's Toronto-based auto parts empire, where she rose to CEO despite only a single year of university education.
Clement, 43, lost his provincial legislature seat in Brampton, Ont., last fall when the Tory government of Ernie Eves was swept from power by the provincial Liberals.
The debate, which was not carried on network television but rather by the parliamentary channel CPAC, was the only all-candidates meeting to be held before party membership sales are cut off at the end of February.
A second debate is scheduled for March 6 in Montreal. The vote to choose a leader takes place March 20.
Belinda (or BS as I call her) was an empty headed twit who kept re-using the same lines over and over.
Harper was above the fray and focused his attacks on the Liberals, not on the other two who were trying to paint him as divisive.
Harper clearly won, and BS nearly broke into tears in front of the media afterwards, but covered it quickly and ran off.
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