Ideas win elections: glamour doesn't

Been following the Canadian election campaign? Whoa, come back, no need to stampede for the exits screaming in terror. The Canuck angle is just an opening sentence: if I'm still yakking on about swing voters in Yellowknife and turnout in Moose Jaw at the foot of the page, feel free to turn over to our exclusive excerpt from The Boris Johnson Illustrated Guide to Lesbian Movies.

But here's my point: right now the polls in Her Majesty's snowbound dominion show the Conservatives are ahead and poised to topple the incumbent Liberals on January 23. And what's the name of the glamorous metrosexual matinee idol who has brought the Canadian Tories to the brink of electoral triumph?

Well, he's a guy called Stephen Harper and he's widely agreed by all the experts to have "negative charisma". Think how you felt about my opening sentence and then multiply it a thousandfold. Mr Harper is unexciting even by Canadian standards! He's unflashy, unflamboyant, unshowy, unspectacular, unmodish, uncool - except in the sense that the Yukon in January is cool. He is, in other words, the anti-Cameron. And he's on course to win.

Mark Steyn