EDITORIAL PAGE — The charisma factor

It’s surprising that few, if any, commentators on the Canadian political scene have not opined that perhaps the media itself is at least partially responsible for the woefully low turnout of candidates for the race to replace Tory leader Brian Mulroney.

Since the late 1950s, when John Kennedy began his successful run for the White House in the U.S., it has passed for accepted wisdom that the media, television in particular, hold the key to political victory. Since then, the direct appeal to voters primarily through the medium of television has increased, steadily eroding the power of backroom politicos (whose legitimate authority stemmed from grassroots party members) to push their candidates forward at conventions. In announcing his candidacy, Jean Charest virtually confirmed this view. “A leadership race is the chance for the base to take possession of its party,”he said. More evidence? Hugh Segal bowed out in spite of heavyweight endorsements from current cabinet ministers and even a former premier of Ontario.

Kim Campbell is a born-for-television politician with almost all the right credentials for our politically-correct times — youngish, bright, articulate, trilingual, a westerner, a woman and so on. And that’s virtually the only glimpse most Canadians have been afforded through the lense of the television camera. (Ironically, the media then hires pollsters to gauge public sentiment it largely created and dutifully reports the findings — a closed circle.)

Campbell said it herself once that a political leader with charisma but no substance is a dangerous thing. Without the crucible of a convention with serious contenders to query her policy statements, how can we discover substance, or the lack thereof, before a national election?

With all the problems besetting the mining industry today, we can’t afford a national leader whose only assets are a quick wit, a “saleable”TV image and a fondness for helicopters. Is Kim Campbell the sumof her televised sound bites? The convention should provide the answer.