Time for a change - but not of leaders

Babble on.

I'm leery of letting snapshot polls drive my mood, but it's hard not to with the latest Decima offering:

The Liberals vaulted to a 14-point lead over the Conservatives in popular support, suggests a new poll released to The Canadian Press.

A Decima survey last week suggests support for the federal Tories crumbled, putting them in a virtual dead heat with the NDP.

The Liberals were at 37 per cent support, the Tories had 23 per cent and the NDP were trailing them closely at 21 per cent.

Most surprising were the numbers in the critical battleground of Ontario, where the Conservatives were running neck-and-neck with the Grits barely a month ago.

Decima said the Tories had fallen 26 points behind the Liberals and were in third place behind the NDP. The Liberals had 48 per cent in that province, the NDP was at 24 and the Conservatives held 22 per cent.

Of course, the Canadian political blogosphere, left, right, and mushy middle, has been abuzz with the news.

Mike Brock calls for Harper to resign for the good of the party, as does Steve at Angry In The Great White North.

The Hack is willing to give Harper some time at least partly because - let's be honest here - who can replace him at this point? "...I'm of the belief that there are no viable leadership candidates waiting in the wings right now that can win both the party leadership and the federal election. Many people can do one or the either. I'm not an "Anybody But..." supporter. Should Harper does step down - if he's pushed it'll create war within the party - we need to have someone suitable to pick up the torch. There are plenty of worst options than Stephen Harper."

Andrew at Bound By Gravity is hosting a most interesting discussion around the issue of "should he stay or should he go?" for Conservatives.

Alan at Occam's Carbuncle has given up entirely. I've been reading him for almost a year now, at his own blog and in comments at other blogs, and I doubt this change of heart is nihilistic in nature. But Alan, unless you spell out your alternative, it sure looks that way to the casual reader.

The funniest post on this - albeit from an unapologetically leftist perspective - comes from Skippy The Mangy Cur:

It is a bitter pill to swallow that a party run by a gang of slavering, half-rabid fools and employing a communications staff composed chiefly of baboons, a party which has embarrassed itself at every turn with its manifest incompetence, and a party which has snatched ignominious and final defeat from the jaws of victory with a few badly edited tapes is somehow neck and neck in the polls with the only party in Parliament that counts adult Homo sapiens among its MPs.

His advice to the NDP on how next to proceed is well worth reading. Let's all hope Jack! is still too enraptured by his own image in the mirror to listen to Skippy's barking. Besides, his advice is much easier said than done.

I think, in all of this, my namesake Mr. Penny comes closest to my own feelings on the matter:

The simple fact is, Canadians have grown numb to the Adscam revelations, and while the Tories have concentrated 100% on bringing down the this corrupt government, they have not shown what they would actually do if they won an election. And when we Conservatives aren't openly talking about our policies, people assume the worst about us. It might not be fair, but that's just the way politics works in this country.

It's also obvious by now that the Grewal mess has done untold damage to the Conservative Party of Canada. The Tories now look paranoid, incompetent and dishonest - and that's the worst thing that could possibly happen if we're savaging the Liberals for their corruption and arrogance.
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I've been a Harper supporter ever since he won the leadership in 2004. But as the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, he must be held accountable for the complete, utter mess the party has made out of what should have been a tremendous opportunity. I'm not calling for his head yet - but I'm a lot closer to doing so than I ever expected I would be.

I voted for Harper in the leadership race over a year ago. Simply put, he was the best option in a thin field. The problem Conservatives face, as The Hack so ably pointed out, is that he still is.

Over the course of the past year and a half, we've watched the Liberal brand lose all credibility, seen Martin and his gang in Parliament melt down on just about every issue imaginable, and in the midst of this we the Conservatives have made absolutely no headway at all with the electorate.

It's absolutely indefensible.

Harper can't be replaced at this point. But his advisors should be. The brain-trust running the CPC puzzle palace should be thanked politely for their past service, and asked to quietly step aside so the party can try another approach. I think a year and a half in these circumstances is long enough to determine the current strategy isn't working.

For the good of the party - hell, for the good of Canadian democracy - Harper should start putting faces other than his own in front of the cameras. We need to show Canadians our bench strength, and we need to see who's capable of taking the reins should Stephen Harper lose the next election. Succession planning is a difficult but necessary task for any organization that seeks long-term viability. Besides, this isn't the Harper Party of Canada, it's the Conservative Party of Canada, and there are a lot more Conservatives out there than Mr. Harper.

It's high time we started seeing more of them.

Babble off.