'Family is everything"?
Did Stephen Harper's campaign actually say that at the start of the federal election? If so, I can only imagine that an interview with him describing how he juggles work and family as both a working dad and wannabe Conservative majority Prime Minister is not far behind.
After the media whirlwind that accompanied Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, I intended to write about how we won't see the same family circus - with all its messy high-wire acts - here. Canadian politicians don't do family and politics in the same way. They don't exploit their kids, they don't burnish their image as a "hockey mom" or "family man." They don't audition to be "the first family."
But in the arena of family and politics, it looks like we're going down a different road this time, at least with the Conservative leader. And it may not be a good thing
When it comes to manipulating a "perfect" family image, a politician can't win. He will end up splayed across the front pages with his peccadilloes hanging out because families are actually the one thing we're all experts at. There's nothing mysterious and everything messy about family life, and every one of us has dressed our family to the hilt and taken a picture that would melt the heart of a nation. That's why holiday cards were invented (although I oohed and aahed more over Stephane Dion's dog, Kyoto, when I saw his holiday card last year than I did over his wife and daughter, who looked just fine to me.)
The fact is, these wonderful personal roles don't have any bearing on how a person would govern the country. It's an American model. And we're different because, as Mr. Dion emphatically put it yesterday when told that Mr. Harper wondered aloud whether Mr. Dion was "a family man," we have this wonderful thing called "privacy" here.
The only famous political kids we've all been aware of are Justin and Alexandre Trudeau, sons of the late prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and Ben Mulroney, former Tory PM Brian Mulroney's son - and only because these three young men chose to be in the spotlight, in politics, journalism and television entertainment, well after their fathers relinquished it .
I know the names of Barack Obama's two adorable daughters, I have opened a separate file on 17-year-old Bristol Palin, but I would lose a bet if I was asked to name either Mr. Harper's children or Mr. Dion's daughter.
But if Mr. Harper hopes to "humanize" himself by trotting out his still young family, he should remember what happened last year when he tried to walk his young son - whatshisname - to school and shook his hand at the school gates. Shook his hand? What kind of dad doesn't give his son a huge hug on the first day of school? Well, you get the picture.
As for the media madness that was Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's story last week (US Weekly's cover story screams "Babies, Lies & Scandal"), whatever I think of her policies (and it's not much), if she had shown up at the convention without her pregnant teenage daughter - or in fact, without her baby with Down syndrome - she would have been accused of hiding them because they weren't perfect, because they didn't fit the mould.
So the Republicans - let's be clear - made political hay with Ms. Palin's challenged family, with Ms. Palin promising to be an advocate in the White House for special-needs children as her little boy was handed around that night like a football.
And the Democrats are not beyond exploiting, just a little bit, a family tableau as gorgeous as Barack Obama's (although imagine the Republican commentary had Mr. Obama's daughter been older, unwed, and pregnant).
Political leaders, if you want to sell yourself as a "family man" or a "hockey mom" instead of a man or woman who happens to have a family, be prepared for an onslaught of attention - and judgment - you may not be able to control.
And what about those leaders with no children or even - gasp - spouse? Has the United States ever elected in modern times a bachelor president, or is this first family stuff really a code for exclusion?
The Americans, with their "first family" model, have accepted they are selling a political package. Though once in the White House, almost all presidential families have insisted a curtain be drawn and their kids be entitled to private lives.
However, with Internet rumours that go viral in a hot second, that curtain may be irrevocably torn, and very worthy political leaders will have to ponder even more whether they can put their families through the process. They may still decide it's a price they want to pay, but if you're living in a country and in a political system that leaves family alone, why rock that boat?
Stephen Harper, "family man," are you ready for your interview?
