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_THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE

The question that im-
mediately arises is what took ..

Canada so long?

While © our civilized

neighbours to the south have

‘been eens : twisting the

ext ‘government,
, will be chosen.
- primarily : ‘onthe ~ basis: of
whether clasped hands and a

_balding ‘pate irritate “TV |

viewers. more. or’ less_ than
waving hands and a ‘receding
chin. toe

What contestants say —
and, more importantly,
represent — apparently
matters little any more. The
brain hands over the
. selection job.'to the eyes.
More specifically, to the
single, unblinking eye of the

camera, surmointed by
its baleful little red light.

. Images. of |

‘course,’ ‘are ' built and
destroyed by various means,
including radio tapes of their
voices, face-to-face en-
counters, observation of
them at public meetings and
the slings and arrows of

newspaper Columnists, But
particularly during a mid-
winter election campaign —
where the majority of voters
prefer the comfort of their
TV den to fighting their way
to the hustings through a
blizzard — the tube remains
the supreme image-maker of
all,

TAKING THEIR LUMPS

Professionals like Merv
Griffin, Fred Davis and
Premier Bill Bennett have
learned how to cash in on
the unblinking eye in Studio
Two and reap a bonanza

‘Broadbent ‘is also: becoming *
. quite. a. polished: Performer
. when he remembe: ‘to smile
-ogcasionally..

litical ‘can-.
" didates: and party. leaders,.of |

any: particular- grasp of::the: issues
because. of their almost ‘complete: 01 trol of “the~

“Unfortunately, ihe leaders
of the two major parties in
the February 18-election —
one of which will provide

Canada’s next government
‘are both. taking their

lumps when it comes to
those vital TV images.

Mr. Trudeau suffers from

the fact that he is being
deliberately muzzled this
time by his party strategists
— even to the extent of
being. refused thé chance to
take part in a TV debate
with by } opponents.

This is'a pity from the
entertainment viewpoint.

‘Left to his own devices in

front of the cameras, Mr.
Trudeau ranting at farmers
for always. grumbling and
advising unemployed
hecklers to get off their asses
is the stuff of which good TV
is made. But the Liberal
backroom boys have con-
cluded that it isn’t the stuff of
which votes are made in the
winter of 1980. Mr. Trudeau
has been ordered to keep a
strictly low profile on TV
and everywhere else.

NO MORE CHARISMA

For this and various other
reasons the famous charisma
of 1968 is now wearing
decidedly thin. It bas been
made even more threadbare
by the indication that Mr.
Trudeau, cven if he wins,

Noel Wright

may not be interested in
serving a further full term as
prime minister.

Mr. Clark's “image”
dilemma is quite different.
Having no charisma to lose
in the first place, he‘has had
to depend . solely upon’ a
jerky walk, jerky gestures
and a boyish scoutmaster’s
features to turn off a sizable
number of TV viewers who
have never met him face to
face.

Like Diefenbaker, who
also failed to master the
tube, Mr. Clark comes
across much more im-
pressively in the flesh. But
with only a fraction of one
per cent of the electorate
likely to see him in the flesh
during the next three and a
half weeks, that’s not much
immediate consolation.

Meanwhile, the audio
accompanying TV's visual
portraits of leadership

concentrates instinctively on
mud-slinging one-liners
alleging broken promises
and disastrous records,

combination:

‘spells en-
tertainmeént, ©

‘which | is the

basic; ‘reason for TV’s

existence. At hardly. any
point, however, does all ‘the
electronic imagery. tackle
the two simple, gut quéstions
that need to: be decided by
February 18.

’ On the one hand theré are
the comforting assurances of
the Liberal “team” and their
quasi-allies, the NDP, that
they can continue to fill our

‘ candy bag with tempting

goodies delivered by a costly
top-heavy bureaucracy
without worrying about the
annual $12 billion debt
which, after 11 years running
the candy store, they left the
Tories to cope with last May.
Have the Grits suddenly
learned how to perform this
miracle in. the fast eight
months?’ ~

Mr. Clark and _ his
colleagues, on the other
hand, bring us the = un- -

welcome message that the
candy. store is rapidly
heading toward bankruptcy
— and that the only way
we'll enjoy any further
goodies is by tightening our
belts for a year or two while
we pay off our bills. Are they
simply ower-hungry
alarmists? br the only sane
voices around?

Both questions are ob-
viously far too boring for the
TV image-makers to dwell
on. Come to think of it,
however, an c¢ven more
interesting exercise in
election imago-making
might be to turn their
cameras on the audience,