BONOKOSKI: You’re not Harper’s brand; your leadership road’s uphill

Peter MacKay is not a Harper Conservative.

His frontrunner position is therefore wishful thinking more than it is a done deal, which may be a good thing for those who want Harper’s brand of Conservatism to continue under new leadership.

Harper looms large, but MacKay, as leader, would be going back to a defeated and discarded brand, with the odds of becoming the next government being somewhere between slim and none.

To add insult to injury, two prominent French-language papers in Quebec — both owned by Quebecor’s mercurial separatist boss — Pierre-Karl Péladeau — ridiculed MacKay’s announcement of seeking the Conservative leadership by mocking his pisse pauvre French.