The military term for unplanned distractions - such as the pooping puffin that the Tories were forced to pull from an anti-Stéphane Dion Internet ad - is "friction," and few know more about its impact on the course of conflict, whether on the battlefield or in politics, as Janine Krieber.
The wife of the national Liberal Leader may muse in a party campaign video about the "lonely" winter Saturday nights inflicted on her by her hockey-mad husband. But it's a safe bet she doesn't spend them knitting.
Her recent bedside reading consisted of the Counterinsurgency Field Manual co-authored by General David Petraeus, the commander of the U.S. effort in Iraq. The title alone is daunting.
That was just after she had finished devouring Jonathan Littell's Les Bienveillantes (The Kindly Ones). The dense, 900-page winner of France's 2006 Prix Goncourt is considered one of the most difficult and spine-chilling French novels in decades. It deals with a former SS officer who, using a false identity, escapes persecution and finds middle-class comfort in modern-day France.
Ms. Krieber, 53, had also just polished off Words That Work by Frank Lutz, the Republican adviser who coined some of the Orwellian terms - renaming the U.S. inheritance tax a "death tax," for instance - that have recast political debate south of the border for a decade.
She particularly appreciated that one. After all, "political discourse analysis" has been her specialty since she wrote her doctoral thesis on the propaganda that helped turn ordinary teenagers into left-wing terrorists in 1970s Europe. Her PhD is from the Paris Institute of Political Studies, the same alma mater as her husband. They both won entry into the elite graduate school after studying political science as undergraduates at Laval University in Quebec City.
"Smart lady," chimed Montreal Liberal MP Marlene Jennings, who was the first caucus member to publicly endorse Mr. Dion for the Liberal leadership in 2006. "She blows me away with her expertise. Canadians should be really proud to have a woman who is respected across the world for her expertise in national security."
Just how much does Ms. Krieber - who has taken a leave of absence from her teaching position at the Royal Military College's campus in Saint-Jean, Que. - use her knowledge to influence her husband's decisions? That has been the subject of plenty of discussion in Liberal circles since Mr. Dion became leader.
She clearly takes an active interest in his career. Ms. Krieber seems to combine U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton's toughness and love of policy with the wit and social skills of Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of former presidential candidate John Kerry. The latter traits are a decided advantage on the campaign trail, given her Mr. Dion's warmth deficit.
Yet, like her husband, Ms. Krieber, the daughter of an Austrian immigrant father and a Québécois mother, clings to her opinions and is tough to persuade. Where others in the political spotlight might yield to advisers' concerns about the optics of their tobacco use - Barack Obama sure did - Ms. Krieber remains an impenitent smoker.
Liberal handlers were not making her available for journalists last week while she accompanied her husband on the campaign trail. But in an interview some months ago, she weighed in for more than two hours on everything from the war in Afghanistan to the art at Stornoway. (She quickly turfed the safe choices left behind by previous occupants, filling the Opposition Leader's official residence with the more contemporary, edgier pieces reflective of her own tastes.)
"When I have opinions that are founded in my research and my observations, I'm not afraid to express them," she said in the interview. "Stéphane is not my boss; there is no hierarchical relationship between us. ... And if he doesn't take my opinion into account, that's fine."
