Well, the games are over. We've got a record gold medal haul, and the city is slowly drifting off to slumber in the afterglow of more than two weeks of non-stop partying, spectacles and bandwagon patriotism without a care in the world about the inevitable budgetary hangover. Arguably, we've owned the podium, and Canadians all over the nation are just swelling with pride, our country can do no wrong.
Bad time to bring up that whole "we torture people" thing, right? If Stephen Harper had a moustache right now, I can guarantee you that he'd be twirling it and cackling like a silent movie villain at this point. Harper gambled and won on Canada's performance during the games, and will reap the benefits of a strong groundswell of nationalist sentiment in the wake of our (admittedly dramatic) hockey win.
Heading into the Olympics, the Liberals and NDP were making a lot of hay with various Conservative mistakes, calling for inquiries about detainee abuse, hammering the Conservatives over the prorogue and chiding our embarrassing appearance in Copehagen. A Feb. 4th poll showed a virtual dead heat between the Liberals and Conservatives, and with such a contentious situation in the House of Commons, an election could spell some serious damage to the Conservatives' razor-thin minority, and more importantly, to Harper's career as leader.
But a funny thing happened on the road to Olympic gold. Harper's Conservatives found their polling numbers rising as Canadians boarded, skated and skied their way to victory. A Canwest (yes, yes, I know) poll held during the Olympics found Harper's conservatives up 37-29 with the Liberals, EKOS found a smaller margin of 31-29 during a similar period.
It's a well-known phenomena that incumbents tend to get a bump out of major sports wins. The example provided is a small one, I'll admit. But I'll predict that Harper will at the very least maintain the lead, and quite likely improve it. The flurry of fawning patriotic news coverage, flags in the street, and promotion of National Pride over National governance will only serve to keep Canadians' minds off of the contentious issues being debated, and perhaps even squelch some criticisms of Canadian behaviors and policies under Harper's tenure.
Harper stands in the highly enviable position of claiming some credit-by-proxy for Canada's impressive performance in the games, a position that could have easily been sullied had the prorogue bid failed. Within the bubble of our two week wall to wall maple leaf media, he's managed to eke out a minor political victory by taking that chance, and it looks like he'll be living to fight another day.
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