From: brewnoser2@gmail.com   
      
   Just as I thought . . .  those who try to paint Mulcair as 'more right wing   
   than you knew' are actually helping to solidify the votes for him.  His   
   opponents, who were trying to paint him as a 'socialist, a marxist, a leftie   
   loony, or even a commie' are    
   now going to find another tune to sing.  And pretty damned quickly  (^ﺪ͟͠^)   
   _____________________________________________   
   Globe and Mail - By ADAM RADWANSKI - August 21, 2015   
      
   Thomas Mulcair proves a tricky target for attack ads   
      
      
   The NDP's ambitious ideas are being delivered by a pragmatic leader unlikely   
   to be mistaken for a wild-eyed leftist   
      
   Briefly this week, Liberals got excited about the surfacing of an old video in   
   which Thomas Mulcair sings the praises of Margaret Thatcher.   What could   
   better undermine the NDP Leader's progressive credentials than footage of him   
   enthusing about the    
   wonders of the free market and the horrors of interventionism?   
      
   Within a couple of days, even some members of Justin Trudeau's party were   
   quietly conceding it was not exactly a major blow to Mr. Mulcair's election   
   prospects. Among Canadians considering voting NDP for the first time, but   
   still worried it's too    
   dogmatically left-wing, the clip might actually help him.   
      
   The small episode spoke to a broader challenge for Mr. Mulcair's opponents,   
   which could become one of the race's defining story lines if the NDP stays   
   strong in the polls.   Although he is hardly without his flaws, the   
   combination of who he is and what    
   party he leads makes Mr. Mulcair a tricky target.   
      
   Successful political attacks have a couple of things going for them: They have   
   the ring of truth, and they play to concerns about what will happen if whoever   
   is on the receiving end is elected.   
      
   With Mr. Trudeau, whom Stephen Harper's Conservatives have spent great sums of   
   money branding "not ready," these things have synced up fairly neatly.   With   
   Mr. Mulcair, they have not.   
      
   The negative line against the NDP Leader that adds up best, based on his   
   record, is that he is an opportunist faking it as a happy warrior for the   
   left.  Those who were around him during his days at Quebec's National   
   Assembly, when the Thatcher clip was    
   filmed, tend to describe him as being on the relative right of the provincial   
   Liberals (other than on environmental issues).   
      
   His detractors from then also snicker at his recent efforts to present himself   
   as warm and fuzzy, recalling him as someone who didn't play well with others   
   – a reputation he also had through much of his time in Ottawa.   
      
   Being seen as insufficiently idealistic, though, has never been the federal   
   NDP's vulnerability.  On the contrary, it has suffered from being seen as too   
   rigidly tied to left-wing ideology and too risky, particularly on economic   
   matters.   
      
   Far from not seeming like a change agent, it has usually been far enough from   
   the mainstream to seem a big leap. Angles that his opponents might think would   
   work against Mr. Mulcair could instead highlight characteristics, such as   
   pragmatism and    
   government experience, that allay voters' fears.   
      
   The federal NDP seems to have struck a balance, including in its agenda   
   ambitious ideas such as a national child-care program, while having those   
   promises delivered by a leader unlikely to be mistaken for a wild-eyed leftist.   
      
   It is not just the Liberals struggling with this situation.  This month,   
   Innovative Research Group showed survey participants a pair of Conservative   
   ads that use the same job-interview format that has worked against Mr. Trudeau   
   to label Mr. Mulcair a "   
   career politician."   Neither did much to soften the NDP's support – one of   
   them appearing to have a modest effect, relative to the anti-Liberal ads, and   
   the other having no significant impact .   
      
   The caveat here is that Mr. Mulcair has not yet had to withstand the scale of   
   attacks other party leaders have faced.  It's unclear whether the Liberals,   
   wary of alienating left-of-centre swing voters who want to see the focus on   
   replacing Mr. Harper,    
   will ever go full-bore at him.  But if the NDP remains a real threat, the   
   Tories eventually will.   
      
   Asked this week how that's likely to play out, Conservatives who have worked   
   on their party's campaigns raised a variety of options.   One is to try to tie   
   him to Quebec nationalism, less politely than the Liberals have so far, which   
   could be aimed    
   particularly at Western Canadians.   
      
   With their primary aim to present themselves as the only reliable economic   
   choice, though, the Tories may need to buck recent messaging trends by   
   focusing more on the party than its leader.   
      
   They might warn against the records of various provincial NDP governments, and   
   highlight allegedly radical views of Mr. Mulcair's candidates, and generally   
   try to drive home the idea it's the same old NDP.   
      
   It's worth remembering, though, that the Tories required a couple of years to   
   land on a message that worked against Mr. Trudeau after he took his party's   
   helm.   
      
   There are two months to find the right angle against Mr. Mulcair's version of   
   the NDP.   The incongruities won't make it easy.   
      
   https://vintagedirect.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/thomas-mulcair   
   and-bill-c-311.jpg   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)