Early in a career as a political advisor, we were on the way to a meeting about a new candidate when we bumped into another, much more experienced apparatchik, on his way to the same meeting. “Good news,” he said, “I interviewed my cab driver about the new guy. He hadn’t heard of him. That means we can make him anything we want him to be.”
Luckily our guy had some positive things going for him and we were able to emphasise them to make him a success as a politician.
But what do you do with a nebbish like MPP Patrick Brown who stole the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership from far better prospects in last year’s leadership race. It took almost a year before his Tory handlers would turn him loose on the news media and public in Ontario.
This guy is a challenge. In eight years as a Member of Parliament, he did nothing, said nothing and in two free votes voted against women’s rights. He is a mouth breather with a whiny voice and dressed like a small town undertaker. He lacks social skills and has no small talk. Women listen to him for about two minutes and then shut him out. They generally do not like him.
But he is a hard worker. He is a marathon runner. And he has some wealthy supporters, if not friends.
These supporters have obviously paid for a total makeover of Patrick Brown. He now has a Toronto salon hairstyle. He has been taking speaking lessons and has dropped his voice an octave for radio and television interviews. He has been provided with an entirely new wardrobe from head to foot. He has been given simplistic speaking notes that pander to popular misconceptions.
Even an experienced political reporter such as Tom Clark of Global Television did a double take when he was asked to interview the Ontario leader and met a very different person than the callow backbencher that everyone had ignored in Ottawa.
Mind you Brown’s speaking notes will catch up to him if he does not get better ideas than Huxley’s Brave New World. He was complaining to the local media here in Barrie that some students were taking training for jobs that do not exist. He did not say whether the students should be forced to change their training.
What has the media agog is that there are some pollsters who are saying that Brown is more popular that Premier Wynne. The polls will correct in time as more voters get to know the real Patrick Brown.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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