Notebook: On the road with the Harpers and their ‘Griswold family’ vacation

Laureen Harper characterizes these first few weeks of the federal election campaign as “our vacation,” jokingly comparing the road trip she is on with her husband, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, and their two teenaged children, to the “Griswold family.”

“We play Holiday Road in the morning to get in the mood,” she told The Globe and Mail. The reference is to National Lampoon’s “vacation” movies – the American comedies starring Chevy Chase, who plays Clark Griswold, the misfortune-prone dad who insists on family vacations.

Holiday Road is the title of the catchy, lyrically-repetitive single by Lindsey Buckingham, the Fleetwood Mac guitarist. His song was featured on the vacation movies’ soundtrack – “I found out a long time ago it’s a long way down Holiday Road,” sings Mr. Buckingham.

This is the first campaign the Harper children, Ben, 19, and Rachel, 16, have been so publicly involved in. There are reports that they even have fans waiting to see them at campaign stops.

“My kids are older and they can make the decision themselves to come with us,” Mrs. Harper said. “It will be sad when they go back to school.”

In her recent blog post, CTV’s Laurie Graham, who is on the campaign bus, noted that Ben “is in the back rooms helping his dad.”

“He was there for debate prep and those close to Harper say he offers advice and also helps keep things light,” she wrote. Mrs. Harper says: “like all parents, we are proud of our kids.

“But, I don’t want to overstate Ben’s political advising abilities,” she says, adding that an Xbox has been installed on the campaign bus.

This is Mrs. Harper’s fifth campaign and she says she’s having fun – “I love campaigning and have always enjoyed being part of history.”

So far, however, this campaign – the longest in recent memory – is proving to be difficult for her husband. The revelations from former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s testimony at the Mike Duffy trial has thrown the usually-disciplined Conservative message machine off track this week. But there are eight more weeks to go and a lot more road to travel before Oct. 19: “Holiday Road, oh, oh, oh; Holiday Road, oh, oh, oh,” sings Mr. Buckingham.

It’s still very much a male-dominated ballot for the upcoming election. Only 32 per cent of the candidates in the 338 federal ridings are women, according to Equal Voice, the non-partisan organization advocating for more elected women.

In 2011, 31 per cent of candidates were women. As of this week, there are 83 ridings with no women running for the four or five major parties – 31 of these have completed nominations. The deadline to nominate candidates is September 28. There are 111 ridings, of which 84 have completed nominations, with no women running for the three major parties, according to the EV research. It also found that 102 ridings have two or more female candidates running for all four or five major parties, and there are 61 ridings with two or more women running for the three major parties.

And there is some good news: There are five ridings where the candidates for all three major parties are women, including two where all four of the candidates are female, says EV. The two ridings are Brampton West and Vancouver Centre.

Breaking the numbers down by party, EV found a huge variance. So far, 19 per cent of the Conservative Party’s candidates are women, compared to 32 per cent for the Liberals, 30 per cent for the Green Party and 28 per cent for the Bloc Quebecois.

The NDP, however, is on track to make history with 45 per cent of its candidates female. “What we would like to see overall is a minimum of 40 per cent women on the ballot because representation in the House is very much contingent upon who wins the election,” says Nancy Peckford, executive director of Equal Voice.

She notes that the “significant variability suggests that we will only have significantly more women in the House under certain conditions.”

So, for example, if the NDP forms government it is likely that there will be more women MPs in its caucus. “Our goal is to ensure that regardless of party there is a very strong slate numerically running,” says Ms. Peckford.

In 2011, EV noted that 76 women were elected to the House of Commons, representing 25 per cent of the 308 seats. This was a historic high.

John Milloy, the former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister and former Jean Chretien aide, wants Canada to emulate the British system by banning political ads on television and radio.

“The fact that a political party has lots of money doesn’t make its platform better,” writes Mr. Milloy, in his article that appeared on the National Newswatch website. He is now the co-director of the Centre for Public Ethics at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. Mr. Milloy argues a ban would reduce “the constant need to raise large amounts of money.”

“For too long, Canadians seem to have accepted the inevitability that we are heading to American-style campaigns with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on attack ads. Why do we need to look south for the future?”