Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa

Posted by padams under Election 2008, Election 2008 Campaign strategy

Paul Adams

Harper, like Jean Chrétien before him, used to be firmly in the apology-means-weakness school of politics.

Remember the  Conservative press release in 2004 that was headlined “Paul Martin Supports Child Pornography”? He pulled the release but wouldn’t apologize. “I’m not going to, in any way, give the Liberal Party any break in its record on child pornography,” he told reporters when he was asked whether he would apologize. “It is disgraceful, they have had multiple opportunities to do something about it [child pornography], and they have refused.”

Since his election in 2006, though, his government has issued a series of apologies to historically aggrieved groups, and this apologetic spirit has survived into the campaign.

After the puffin poop outrage, Harper said: “My apologies for it having been up.” (Odd choice of words, but the thought is there).

And today, a campaign aide who took a swipe at the father of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, was both suspended and ordered to apologize by Harper. (I guess it must have been in the reverse order, come to think of it).

It must be that sweater vest.

Paul Adams was a political reporter with CBC and the Globe and Mail. He is now a member of Carleton’s journalism faculty and executive director of EKOS Research Associates.