To handlers' relief, Harper hits target

JANE TABER

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

June 23, 2004 at 2:00 AM EDT

Stephen Harper ventured out last night where no other political leader would dare to go. He walked on to one of the country's biggest playing fields.

In politics, where the No. 1 rule is to control everything and where nothing is more uncontrollable than handling a ball, the Conservative leader's handlers sent him to the pitcher's mound at SkyDome in Toronto. Feeling confident in his athletic ability — or maybe just panicky at their political standing — the Conservative campaign team became the only one to accept an invitation from the Toronto Blue Jays to throw out a first pitch.

It was a risky move, with no obvious political payoff. Only 15,000 fans went to the 50,000-seat stadium to see the Jays take on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. And Rogers SportsNet, which carried the game in Ontario, didn't even show the Harper pitch on television.

Fans booed as he took the mound. One group held up a sign that said, "Stop Harper."

Small wonder Paul Martin and Jack Layton declined similar invitations.

What did they know?

They knew that in an election campaign exactly 30 years ago, Conservative leader Robert Stanfield was photographed fumbling a football, an image that may have contributed to his 1974 election loss and one that certainly defined him as a politician for many years.

With six days left in the current campaign, Tory handlers spent much of yesterday agonizing over the threat of a similar fate — until Mr. Harper, dressed in a Blue Jays jacket, took to a special pitcher's mound and wound up.

The temporary mound was only 45 feet from the plate, short of the 60-foot, six-inch distance used by the pros. And he threw a changeup, a pitch that moves more slowly than it appears. It went a bit high; the catcher had to reach for it, but it was across the plate.

Mr. Harper's strategists said their boss had really wanted to do this and that it "sounded like fun."

"He thought it was a great thing to do," said Carolyn Stewart Olsen, his press secretary.

They said he hadn't had time to practise but tossed the ball around a bit with his eight-year-old son, Ben, a hockey and soccer player.

"I don't think anybody expects a professional pitch," said Tory war room strategist Yaroslav Baran. "He's a very cerebral guy. He's a thinker."

Mr. Harper, however, did not fumble, stumble, or bounce the ball.

On April 10, 1990, then prime minister Brian Mulroney and U.S. president George Bush threw out the first pitch on the first opening day of the SkyDome. The Blue Jays were playing the Texas Rangers before a crowd of more than 49,000.

Last year, Prince Andrew threw out a pitch. Former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman and U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci have also thrown ceremonial pitches.

Still, this is in the midst of an election campaign, Mr. Harper's strategists said this was a risk they were willing to take.

"I guess the risk is you go from 132 [seats] to 124 [if he blows it]. I mean, who cares? ..... It's a wonderful thing to be there with ordinary Canadians," one of the strategists said.

Others were more circumspect.

"It was a great topic of discussion" among his strategists, another veteran Tory said.

"You don't want the ball to fall short of the plate ..... that would be a great metaphor that you [journalists] all would love."

With a report from Brian Laghi

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