Karl Rove, former strategist to President Bush, used his first Newsweek column to tell his party how to win the next presidential election. First, introduce the Republican nominee to the public, he advised, do not assume he will already be well known. Next, he said, the candidate must let people know what he stands for.

When, one year ago last weekend, Stéphane Dion won the Liberal leadership, he was well known within the party, but not in the Canadian population outside Quebec. So, through television attack ads, the Conservatives introduced Canadians to Dion, the man who is too weak, and indecisive to be a leader. It worked; and, a few months later, the Tories repeated their campaign.

Dion has yet to introduce himself. The idea is that in the next election Canadians will have enough opportunity to get to know him. Meeting in Montreal with riding presidents on the weekend, Dion called on the Liberal party to ready itself for an election battle with the Conservatives as early as February 2008.

Canadians will be asked to choose between two competing visions Dion told reporters, a narrow selfish one proposed by Stephen Harper, and a generous sincere Liberal future. Continuing with a theme from past campaigns the Liberals paint the Conservatives as ready to re-make Canada in the image of George Bush. In contrast the Liberal way with Dion is prosperity, social justice and a green future.

The subtext is that the Liberals want NDP voters. Jack Layton asked Canadians to lend him their votes, Dion said, and Stephen Harper got elected. The good news for Dion and the Liberals is that polling firms such as Nanos Research have the Liberals and Conservatives at equal strength in the polls, despite a difficult first year for the new leader. As well, to the extent NDP voters are targeted, they are better disposed to Dion than to either of the men he defeated for the job, Michael Ignatieff or Bob Rae.

The bad news for Dion is that his party is poorly prepared to compete with the Conservatives in spending on image making in the run-up to an election. The Liberal party is broke, divided, and poorly organized. As such, it is not ready to fight an election either, despite the bravado coming from Dion.

In a feature interview with Patrice Roy of Radio-Canada, Dion explained that his inspiration during a difficult period was the Russian General Koutouzov, the man who bested Napolean in 1812, after retreating across Europe. Retreat may explain what Dion had in mind when he called for corporate tax cuts, with corporate profits at all time highs; but, he will have to come up with something better than Russian scorched earth policy to prepare the upcoming election battle.

For sure, the Conservatives are on the defensive because of the parliamentary ethics committee investigation into the bribes handed out by Karlheinz Schreiber, but they are not sitting back to await more bad news. With Stéphane Dion flying to Bali to attend the UN Climate Change Conference, the Conservatives named former Quebec premier Pierre-Marc Johnson to be a government advisor on climate change to provide Dion with some competition for the attention of the francophone media on the issue.

Also, Harper yesterday named former Conservative premier Bernard Lord of New Brunswick to conduct a cross-Canada consultation on minority language rights in Canada, a subject on which Dion benefits from considerable good will through his past as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.Stéphane Dion needs no introduction in Quebec. Rather, he faces considerable hostility in his home province. In Quebec, and elsewhere, where Dion wants to take Canada is going to be tied in the public mind to the man himself. Because he has allowed his adversaries to define him, he is going to have trouble getting a hearing when it comes time to deliver his vision.

Perhaps in another column Karl Rove will explain what the Conservatives learned from his work on behalf of George Bush: negative advertising works.

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron

Born in Victoria B.C. in 1944, Duncan now lives in Vancouver. Following graduation from the University of Alberta he joined the Department of Finance (Ottawa) in 1966 and was financial advisor to the...