Advice from Alberta

For those who missed it, Don Martin offered up some advice to Stephane Dion in a column earlier this week. Truth be told, his pointers were mostly spot on. Among the highlights:

- Smile occasionally.

- Get better at pretending you actually enjoy meeting people. Mr. Harper learned to fake it, so you can too. They have consultants who can help.

- Keep on avoiding a script during Question Period.

- Stop giving deputy leader Michael Ignatieff the best questions. You pick first.

- Find and stake your claim on any defining issue except the environment to freshen up the leadership image.

- Never EVER go to Kelekis in Winnipeg and eat one of the restaurant's world-famous hot dogs using a KNIFE and a FORK like you did last month.

- Get a cat to play with your dog called Kyoto and name it Charisma.

- Reach back to the highly successful Jean Chretien era for staff recruitment. They were, after all, the architects of three consecutive majorities. Instead your office is dominated by Paul Martin leftovers, those big brains who delivered a single minority win and thought up the constitutional amendment on the notwithstanding clause.

- Being decent, cerebral and cautious, you should hire staff who are ruthless, fearless and take no prisoner partisan. See Chretien aides above.

- Take Justin Trudeau on the road to boost the heart-throb factor, but skip over Alberta because his daddy's name is still an obscenity there. Let Trudeau be seen. Letting junior be heard before he's received a history lesson or two has proven to be risky.

- Consider doing what the political textbooks call a "Preston" after former Reform leader Manning or a "Peterson" after former Ontario premier David. We're talking the full meal deal - glasses gone, hair style changed, upgraded suits and perhaps a voice coach to amp up those low-projection chords a bit