ELECTION 2006 ARTICLE  - LOOK CAN BE THE HOOK

Style rivals substance for attracting voter interest

 

By Jeremy Loombe, The Edmonton Sun January 15, 2006

When Rona Ambrose was voted sexiest female MP last year by her party colleagues, the Spruce Grove Conservative laughed it off.  She likes to think her appearance in so many photos with Tory Leader Stephen Harper has more to do with the other award she picked up around the same time.


"Any image of me or image that has been portrayed of me in that respect is because of the media, not because of the party or myself," she says. "My colleagues voted on it, and I appreciated the compliment as a laugh. At the same time they also voted me best up-and-comer on Parliament Hill. They only hand out eight of those, and I was the only woman who received one. Personally, that one meant a lot more to me."

 

Ambrose is nobody’s fool. She understands that sex sells. At the same time, she'd like to think Canadian politicians have largely stayed away from trading on image. "I always want young women to know that what you can accomplish is not about how you look," she says. Still, it's become an accepted practice for parties to retain image consultants to ensure they’re conveying the proper level of warmth and charm - and putting their best face forward.

 

Edmonton consultant Joanne Blake of Style for Success sees it as an exten­sion of the modern obligation to be con­siderate of the view­points of others.  "Image is a statement of substance, not a substitute for it. It needs to be very much who you are, and overall the leaders are doing very well so far." she says.  "What they need is a little fine tuning and auditing here and there."

 

Of the three main party leaders, Blake says Harper has done the most to soften his image. "He had that poker face, and he didn't always appear to be approachable or demonstrative, and he has really worked on that. But he doesn't always get it. I think the smile is a new thing for him, and at times during the TV debate, it seemed contrived. Your eyes should crinkle when you smile and he sometimes looked like he was just stretching his lips."

 

But shouldn't a smile just be natural? "You know, I've seen natural," says Blake, "and this looks unnatural."

 

Political scientist Gurston Dacks says Canadian politicians are much more concerned with projecting an inclusive nature than sex appeal, in order to meet voter expectations. "If you take a look at most staged pictures of party leaders, you'll find a woman close by, which is a way of trying to make amends for how few women are in the party caucuses," says Dacks.

 

But beyond that, a confident and professional image can add to a politician's trust factor, says Dacks. And that can weigh heavily in their favour.  "There's a more fundamental kind of calculation going on.  At the end of the day, many of the policy debates that the leaders engage in and pronouncements that are made leave the average voter at a bit of a loss.

 

"If we're talking about tax relief, is cutting the GST the way to go, or should we look at lowering taxes through some other mechanism?  If you have a BA in public finance, you'd be well-placed to answer that. But most of us don't. What we do have is a lifetime of forming impressions about people. We think we can read other people just by forming impressions about them. That's why personality is so prominent in voters' calculations."

 

Style, however, must still be backed by sub­stance, or politicians risk eliciting the wrath of the media, says Dacks. Blake agrees, and both cited the disastrous decision by former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day to arrive at a 2000 press conference in a wetsuit.

 

"When I was jotting down notes, I was thinking about pictures of Jack Layton in Yellowknife on a dog sled, and it seemed very appropriate," said Blake.  "He had the ski jacket and those big thermal mittens on, but he still looked very down-to-earth and not at all cheesy."

"Then I was trying to remember who the guy with the wetsuit was and for the life of me, I couldn't remember his name – that’s just how contrived the whole thing was."