My, If Something Does Not Work, Try It Again...

...Or at least that's the vibe I'm getting from Rae, Dion, and Kennedy's addresses put on by the Canadian and Empire Clubs. It has been said that those candidates foreshadowed the Liberal rhetoric for the next election. Well, let's see what they said (emphasis mine).

Rae:

Mr. Rae, the former Ontario NDP premier, called Mr. Harper's Conservatives the most intensely ideological administration in Canada's history.

Dion:

Mr. Dion, a Quebec MP and former federal Liberal minister, said Canadians are seeing hints of the Conservatives' agenda in the reopening of the same-sex marriage debate and the termination of public intervenor funding under the federal Court Challenges Program.

But what the Conservatives are doing now as a minority government, he said, is nothing like what they would do with a majority.

Kennedy:

Mr. Kennedy, the former Ontario education minister, described Mr. Harper's government as full of political mischief that Canadians must resist.

So the core message here is that "the Conservatives are scary, follow some sort of scary ideology, and have a hidden agenda. If the Conservatives get a majority, scary things will happen so Canadians must resist by voting Liberal".

I seem to remember a certain election where the Liberals tried this exactly same strategy and got great results.

Well, I know that the Liberals are not going to submit an alternate vision to Canadians. I guess that's why I support the party that does.

Well, at least Ignatieff is trying something new - keeping quiet so that he does not make another gaff and endanger his lead. Because that strategy is going to get the Liberals elected at election time.