Politics can be about how you look

I remember a veteran p.r. executive once telling me that he wasn't surprised when the NDP won the 1996 provincial election.

In his opinion, it was because the youthful NDP leader, Glen Clark, looked better on TV than his opponent, Gordon Campbell.

In fact, he said that in the TV age, whoever looks better on the small screen almost always wins.

It's a cynical, dastardly view of politics, but who's to say that he wasn't right?

There have been exceptions, such as the whupping that Jean Chrétien delivered on Stockwell Day in 2000.

But in the race for the big prize in the United States, the more attractive candidate often triumphs, giving credence to this theory.

Stay tuned for the next Canadian federal election to see if this pattern holds true once again.