Canada's 22nd Prime Minister

"Length of time in office is a serious measure of effectiveness -- I don't think there's any doubt of that. You have to keep winning elections. You have to keep your party quiet, happy and satisfied And you have to manage the affairs of the country and its dealings abroad. Anyone who can do that for almost nine years is somebody who is very effective."
"It doesn't mean you're popular -- God knows the dislike of [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper is extreme and widespread -- but he is effective. He keeps winning elections, and that's the test."
Jack Granatstein, Canadian historian

"Success in politics hinges on three things: political skill, strategic thinking and luck. [Prime Minister] Harper has had all three."
"Liberals and NDP have been going at it [in a battle for centre-left supporters]. In politics survival is the measure of success. It's that simple."
Donald Savoie, Canada Research Chair, public administration and governance

"The longer I'm prime minister ... the longer I'm prime minister." Stephen Harper heads up the longevity chart. He's pictured here winning in 2008. Photo: Leah Hennel/Calgary Herald

Former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney is grudging and discomfited. He won a majority government in 1984 and served until 1993. From a majority his popularity level plummeted among the electorate that found his greasy-smoothie personality just as unpalatable as his hypocrisy in stabbing his Liberal rival John Turner with the now-infamous line: "Sir, you had a choice" speaking of pork-barreling appointments. And then he turned around and did the very same.

Prime Minister Harper put a respectable distance between himself and Mr. Mulroney, his distaste for Mr. Mulroney's style and personal greed with the revelations that he had availed himself of hundreds of thousands of dollars from the shadowy German arms-pusher Karl-Heinz Schreiber, finally discrediting Mr. Mulroney through evidence that could not be ignored, supporting the public's general distaste for the man's sleaziness.

He cannot be too enthused that a man of high principle and governing ability will now eclipse his own longevity record for remaining in office, which the prime minister will do  in several months' time, and this a prime minister who was elected with a minority government which he ably transformed into a second election, and finally a third that garnered him a majority government.

"We're in the big leagues ... so we have to conduct ourselves in that way. We can't be out-riders" complained Mr. Mulroney in an interview. "The government's foreign policy", he said, "has to be enveloped in a broader and more generous sweep that takes in Canadian traditions and Canadian history in a much more viable manner. If you can't do that [maintain solid relations with the U.S.] you don't have much clout internationally.

"The relationship with the United States is something the prime minister alone has to nurture the same way he would tend to the most delicate flowers in a garden. It's that important. You don't get into a slagging contest with the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, even if you thought that he or she was wrong. You don't do that", Mr. Mulroney insisted. Of course, when he was in office, Mr. Mulroney was pleased to sing "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" with Ronald Reagan, a Republican president appreciating a Conservative prime minister, both with a love of blarney.

(Mr. Harper even trumps him there with his recognition-winning performances from time to time, tickling the ivories and his own dulcet tones belting out Beetles' songs of his era and that of plenty of voters'.) As a Republican think-alike, Mr. Mulroney became President Reagan's Canadian lapdog. Prime Minister Harper is not interested in being anyone's aide de camp. And with that knowledge and the chagrin he feels, Mr. Mulroney likes to dig his dagger as deep as possible, warning Mr. Harper to beware of the 'talents' of his most immediate opponent for the position of prime minister.

"He's [Justin Trudeau] a good-looking kid. He's smart. He's been elected. He's flawlessly bilingual. He has a lovely wife and three beautiful kids. You know, what's not to like with this picture?"  Pretty dismissive of the rest of a picture of a future prime ministers; intelligent capability and governing skills. It's a picture he fancies is a shadow of his own, minus one kid, minus the political ideology. Perhaps where he was vulpine the other is naive.

What's not to like with the Liberals? Let's try on a few issues for size.

That apart from Justin Trudeau's love affair with Cuba's Fidel Castro whom he still regards as an avuncular figure, his tolerance for China's rigid totalitarian government, his laissez-faire attitude about Quebec separation, his propensity to wise-crack about serious international matters, and his empathy for jihadi extremists who may have been 'provoked', it is also the bright lights with whom he surrounds himself who will be given prominent positions should he take the reins of government.

As, for example, John McKay's unwillingness to follow Mr. Trudeau's unforgiving direction on honouring abortion decisions with no demarcation respecting length of gestation speaking of the leader's edict as a "bozo eruption", leading one to believe that even his own have no belief in their leader's intelligent judgement. And then there's retired General Andrew Leslie who remarked that Israel's reaction to Hamas's attacks had it "firing indiscriminately onto Palestinian women and children"; a true Bozo eruption.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, right, chats with Lt. General (ret'd) Andrew Leslie following Leslie's speech on day two of the Liberal Party of Canada's biennial convention in Montreal. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

Canadians truly need to do some deep thinking; at least those among the electorate capable of indulging in it. To recognize when they are fortunate enough to have a government that works well, and whose decisions and choices are well considered for the most part, as opposed to one that will come to office flying by the seat of its liberal pants with a new leader whose undigested understanding of both internal and external affairs of governance are crude and uninformed.