January 8, 2006: According to today's Toronto Sun editorial, Stephen Harper is "doing way better [in the election campaign] than anyone expected..." And it's true that whereas six months ago the Sun, with most of Canada's newspapers was calling Harper a loser, he's now, apparently the front-runner, with an excellent chance of forming a minority government.

But all that this shows is that when the newspapers are not publishing what in those small-print correction notices they oxymoronically call "incorrect facts" they are generally offering a forceful misinterpretation of the limited quantity of "correct" facts that they deem fit to print. That, after all, is why they employ commentators like Charles Krauthammer, Thomas L. Friedman or our own -- sort of, Margaret Wente.

As we wrote last June, the obfuscating role of the media was well illustrated by the way that Canadian news papers presented what they argued was evidence of Stephen's Harper's failure of leadership. In particular, we wrote:

June 30, 2005: In recent weeks Steven Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, is said to have lost his temper. As a consequence, he threatened to defeat the budget, thereby forcing the governing Liberals into a left-of-centre budget deal with the NDP, which not only opened up more space for the Conservatives at the centre of the political spectrum, but provided a post facto rationalization for his effort to bring down the Government.

As a further consequence of losing his temper, so it is suggested, Stephen Harper lost the lovely Belinda Stronach to the front bench of the sleaze-ridden, governing Liberal party, thereby ridding himself of a leadership rival supported by the unlimited financial resources and relentless ambition of her Swiss-based, non-Canadian-tax-paying father, Frank Stronach.

As a consequence of losing Belinda, Stephen Harper lost the confidence vote that could have precipitated an election, which would have forced the Conservatives into an unpopular de facto alliance with the separatist Bloc, thereby ensuring both the return of the Liberals to power and Harper's inevitable subsequent ouster from the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Having lost the confidence vote, Stephen Harper promptly lost Gurmant Grewal, Conservative MP, illegal immigrant and embarrassment waiting to happen, who has been compelled to take stress leave after admitting to having negotiated with the Prime Minister's chief of staff Tim Murphy and Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh about exchanging his parliamentary vote for a payoff delicately referred to as a welcome mat with "lots of comfy fur on it."

Now all Stephen Harper can do is wait for Mr. Justice Gomery to report on the full extent of Liberal Party corruption as manifest by the waste of tens of millions in tax payers' money via the sponsorship programme with a percentage returning to Liberal pockets. That's when Prime Minister Paul Martin has promised to call an election, an election in the dead of winter when no one wants to go to the polls. It will be interesting to see then whether Stephen Harper still looks like a loser.

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