Get ready for Stephen Harper's attacks on the next Liberal leader

It now appears that Stephane Dion will step down as Liberal leader as soon as tomorrow and possibly by as late as this Wednesday.

Dion suffered a similar fate as former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day. Both were chewed up by a new form of attack politics, which is increasingly the norm in this country.

The Conservatives under Stephen Harper are  on par with  Republican strategist Karl Rove, who  has been referred to as Bush's brain.

Harper is possibly even better than legendary Republican political rottweiler Lee Atwater, who turned a convict named Willie Horton into a household name and helped elect George Herbert Walker Bush as the 41st president.

Harper managed to convince many Canadians that the Bloc Quebecois was part of the Liberal-NDP coalition when it wasn't. Harper also persuaded many Canadians that Dion's revenue-neutral carbon tax was a tax on retail gasoline that would screw the country. It wasn't.

If the Liberals choose Michael Ignatieff as their new leader (as many predict), this is what they can expect from Harper and company:

”¢  heavy attacks on the airwaves and across the Internet on  Ignatieff  that question  his patriotism for not living in Canada for  nearly 30 years  

”¢  using brutal humour to highlight that Ignatieff is a Harvard intellectual who is out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Canadians

”¢  a relentless advertising campaign to remind Canadians that Ignatieff was the first Liberal heavyweight to push a carbon tax

”¢  an underground campaign through the churches highlighting Ignatieff's previous love life, with the implication that Harper is the only serious candidate for prime minister who has the appropriate family  values

”¢  Conservatives combing through every word that Ignatieff has ever written in an effort to prove that he's an extreme leftist, and then blasting anything they find over the Internet and  in television and radio commercials

”¢  identifying wedge issues, such as crime, that will bring ethnic voters in the suburbs over to the Conservative side

The Conservatives could supplement these attacks with some well-timed gifts to the private media to keep them greasing Harper's leadership with visual and editorial support.

One example could be a big cut in the January 27 budget to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which would delight CTVglobemedia, CanWest Global Communications Corp., and other private broadcasters.

The Harper government could also change the rules regarding advertising in newspapers. A business can deduct the cost of advertising in Canadian newspapers in which 80 percent of the non-advertising portion is original editorial content.

A business can deduct 50 percent of advertising costs if the original editorial content is less than 80 percent of the non-advertising portion of the publication.

The Conservatives could also tinker with the foreign-ownership restrictions covering broadcasters.

By doing these things, the Harper government could clear the way for a foreign takeover of Canadian media outlets. At the very least, the Conservatives would make it easier for media companies to attract foreign investment, which could prop up share prices.

Anyone who has read the stock tables in recent months knows that this is probably uppermost in the minds of  media executives, many of whom have seen their bonuses shrivel this year.

The Liberals should also recognize how Harper tries to appeal to less-sophisticated voters by including  images of himself with  the flag, with children, with crowds of visible-minority Canadians or  with people  in uniforms, notably police and military personnel.

It's right out of the Michael Deaver school of political communications, in which the  images on television  trump the words. (Deaver was Ronald Reagan's communications guru.)

So how should the Liberals cut Harper off at the pass? Dredge up Harper's record of opposition to official multiculturalism, turbans in the RCMP, official bilingualism across the country, the Meech Lake accord, minimum-wage laws, medicare, and universal social programs.

In other words, paint him as the extremist that he has been in the past. And do it with pictures.

Most importantly, the Liberals  will  have to undermine  Harper's efforts to corner the market on patriotism by reminding Canadians, ideally with pictures, how the prime minister is out of touch with Canadian values.

Harper can be beaten. But it won't occur if the Liberals keep underestimating how vicious he can be in the political trenches.