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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."

One Liberal insider in Quebec insisted Ms. Krieber has been far more present at party strategy sessions than wives of previous leaders, though it would not take much to top Sheila Martin or Aline Chrétien in that regard. "She is often with [Mr. Dion] and she's always got something to say. Whether or not that translates into influence, I don't know," the Liberal said.

Ms. Jennings countered, however: "Janine does not attend any of the policy meetings that we have. I'm deputy [Opposition] House leader, I should know."

For months, rumours swirled that Mr. Dion was reserving a safe Montreal-area riding where his wife would be a candidate for MP. But Ms. Krieber denied she has ever been interested in elected office.

"I don't have the temperament. It takes a lot of abnegation to throw yourself heart and soul into an election campaign and risk losing. I prefer standing back, watching." Her husband, a former university professor, "made the switch from observation to action. I don't want to do that."

She rejected the idea of taking on a special mandate if her husband becomes prime minister, similar to the White House task force on health care Ms. Clinton led during Bill Clinton's first term as president. "That does not square with our [parliamentary] traditions," Ms. Krieber said.

Though she has put her teaching career on hold, she remains an associate researcher at Laval's Quebec Institute for Advanced International Studies. In Quebec, she has been a much sought-after commentator on the issues surrounding terrorism, from the security certificates used to deport terrorism suspects from Canada, to the threat posed by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

She is extremely comfortable in male-dominated military circles - after all, her students have been almost exclusively officers in the Canadian army - and her views tend to be supportive of the gamut of restrictive measures taken to ramp up security since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

She has been a staunch defender of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, which she has visited, though she has often stressed the war on terrorism cannot be won with tanks. "What we're into in Afghanistan is a territorial war. But the war on terrorism is a war of minds," she said in the interview. "To win, you have to win over people's minds. Terrorism depends much more on propaganda than violence; violence is unpredictable and kept to a minimum."

When she isn't reading military manuals, walking Kyoto, the family dog, or catching up with daughter Jeanne, 20, Ms. Krieber paints. In recent months, she has been working on a series of nudes.

She has put down her brush until election day Oct. 14. Until then, she has a full-time job helping her husband make sure "friction" does not overtake the Liberal campaign.