Kinservative?

First day back from the Tory leadership convention, and already the Liberals are at work. The usual shadowy Martin adviser, through a spokesperson, tells us: "Stephen Harper is the most right-wing, most socially conservative and most extreme leader that has ever been elected to headline anything purporting to call itself the Conservative party in our nation's history." The rest of the pack take up the howl. "He's trying to run from his history as an extreme politician." (Liberal party president Mike Eizenga) An "erudite extremist" and "Stockwell Day with a library card." (Scott Brison) "If Mike Harris believes that Stephen Harper is too extreme for the country, then can you imagine what middle-of-the-road Ontarians will believe?" (Brison, again) "I feel sorry for some moderates from the Progressive Conservative tradition, who were clinging to Belinda Stronach like a piece of moderate driftwood, hoping she could take them to an island of centrism. Instead, they've been taken over by the far-right-wing, extremist pirates." (Brison, again) (That's enough Brisons - ed.) Why, if you close your eyes, you could almost believe it was Warren Kinsella talking. Except, Kinsella's singing rather a different tune these days:

Stephen Harper's one of those politicians - like Chretien - who the pundits and politicos always underestimate (me included). He put the Progressive Conservative party out of existence. He scared off Bernard Lord, Peter McKay and no less than Mike Harris. And he has won a huge victory without making a single mistake - and without breaking into a sweat. In an environment where voters are hungry for change - as long as that change isn't radical or extreme - Harper's bland, Wonder Bread style works to his advantage. So too his smarts, which he has in abundance. Look, for example, how he has quietly expunged many of the extremists from his party's caucus - and how he's now got the most ethnically diverse (and youthful) caucus in the House of Commons. Could he be the next Prime Minister in a minority Parliament? You're damned right he could. Next month I'm giving a speech in Toronto to one of those public affairs institutes - and I plan to detail how the Tories could win, and why... In the meantime, congratulations to Stephen Harper - he's done what everyone (and I mean everyone) said he couldn't. He's become a contender.

What's going on? First he hints at leaving the party ("Honest to God: I'm feeling like I don't really have a political home, anymore.") Then he goes so far as to erase some of his previous trashings of Harper ("After a bit of reflection on a sun-drenched beach ... I have yanked a couple of columns on this web site that were critical of Stephen Harper. I recently noted some of the columns showing up in unusual places, something about which I wasn't enthusiastic. And I figured, quite frankly, that some of the stuff I had to say - in columns many years old - no longer applied. Interpret that as you will.") Now this. What's up? Is he looking for work?