Ronald Reagan’s crucial career phase came neither in Hollywood nor in politics. It was the time between: his life as corporate spokesman for General Electric. Each Sunday night in the 1950s he went on TV to introduce, but not act in, GE Theatre. “Progress is our most important product,” he intoned, co-opting — as leftists say — a pet category of the left.

Back then, corporate spokesman did not mean just making a sales pitch; it was about defending capitalism itself.

The Depression of the 1930s had given capitalism a bad name, and the role of the West’s Soviet ally in the Second World War gave socialism a positive push. By the late 1940s, firms like GE felt threatened less by Soviet might than by an alternate economic model. They sought voices to rebut that model. So, from 1952 to 1962, Ronald Reagan gave what was known as The Speech innumerable times. In an era when public ownership was taken seriously, he insisted, “outside its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector.”

Sound familiar? And, “Today there is an increasing number who can’t see a fat man standing beside a thin one without automatically coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one.”

For him, it was resuscitation. Like a former star forced to tour the boonies in a single play for decades, he honed the role, till he had it down perfectly and could milk each moment. (Fat men, for instance, are not corporations, nor vice versa; it is misleading rhetoric, but the image “works” beautifully.) At a certain point, he rode the role into the next phase: politics, then president. Whether he was still acting the part in some sense is irrelevant, though fascinating.

Many Americans interviewed on TV about the Reagan funeral have said two things; both involve feeling: We want to feel part of history; he made us feel good about being American. It’s as if a strange thing happens when a leader’s main message is to “get government off the backs of the people.” The political impulse continues to exist, so it seeks expression in feelings or in being part of a larger reality (“history”). Citizens will accept and even vote for something other than concrete improvement in areas like health or jobs, if there is a return in intangible form: pride, self-esteem, moral superiority . . .

What has this to do with our current election? Well, Canadians have not given up on government, but they have grown dubious and suspicious. To that extent, the Reagan message has come North. Canadians are reluctant to trust promises of action and seem open to the politics of feeling, even if the feelings are more like anger and revenge than fuzzy warm ones. But the politics of feeling works best when a leader can embody those feelings. So far, no contender has.

Paul Martin has gone from seeming earnest and intense to bumbling and pathetic. Stephen Harper seems unable (or unwilling) to distance himself from the rather unpopular views voiced by party members. Jack Layton’s numbers have been stuck since the campaign began and voters started getting a good look at him.

Another element concerns Canada-U.S. relations. During the Reagan years, prime minister Brian Mulroney was able to pull off closer ties than had ever existed. Canadians may not have embraced Reaganite policies, but they did not dislike them the way they, and much of the world, seem to dislike George W. Bush’s policies. Jean Chrétien’s most popular act as leader was deciding to stay out of the Iraq war. Even Paul Martin can get cheers for mentioning that. We have not seen such antipathy toward the U.S. in a long time, maybe never.

What happens if Stephen Harper becomes prime minister? The unifying theme of his politics appears to be admiration for the views of the American right — on Kyoto, abortion, the death penalty, Iraq, same sex-marriage. Can you think of a serious U.S. position he differs with? Or a Canadian counterposition he respects? If he wins the job, where in the prime minister’s residence will he put that attitude toward the U.S.? Inside a closet? It will be an interesting situation.

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.