Move Along. Nothing To See Here.

Newton's third law states: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

But that should only apply to physics.

We see the headlines on an almost daily basis; Liberal skewed print media reeling in the catch of the day from Conservative waters of folly and discontent. And, while they toss back some of the smaller fish from time to time, there can be no mistake, they're no fans of "catch and release" and they're all too quick to have us for shore lunch and mount the trophies. Just witness these recent trumpetings:

Tories split over Harper
Foursome wants Harper gone
Television ads show Harper's losing the plot
Dissident Tories want Harper out
Big shakeup in Stephen Harper's office
Harper Well Done, Martin Over Easy
Harper loses another Quebec staff member

They should come as no surprise and, while they're met with predictable chagrin, I'm never short on amazement to the degree of kneejerk and panic displayed in the Conservative membership.

And for what? A little media bias? It's nothing new and it's not going away. Robert Lorne Stanfield, the "best prime minister Canada never had" once joked that he could walk on water and the next day's headlines would read: Bob Stanfield Can't Swim.

Agreed, today's Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition could use some tweaking in the communications department. But isn't that what just transpired? The fact that Harper recognized an area for improvement and acted on it could only speak to his executive strengths. Instead, we're hearing about the sour grapes; and old, rotten ones at that. The four signatories on the "Quebec Letter", as it turns out, were Stronach loyalists in the 2004 leadership race. They are a) not representative of even a significant minority in Quebec and b) flogging a now irrelevant matter: Belinda's gone and she ain't comin' back.

But does that even require a response from Stephen Harper? Not in my books. Nor do the shakeups, layoffs, or departures themselves. In fact, we should all follow his example and shut up about it. Perhaps then, Conservative fortunes will improve in the polls. What Canadian is going to choose a party rife with disharmony and embroiled in controversy over internal minutia? They're looking for leadership. And not just from Harper. They want it from all of us. If there's anything I can tip my hat to the Liberal party for it's that they know how to keep their internal matters internal. And that, alone, speaks to leadership and discipline.

During his leadership victory speech in 2004, Harper said "The tired, old, corrupt Liberal party is cornered like an angry rat. They are going to attack us like never before." And they did just that. And we let 'em escape the clutches of electoral defeat. It doesn't matter who did or didn't do what during the campaign to let that happen, either at the riding or the national level. What does matter is that we don't repeat the process. Maintaining our internal civility while promoting the policy positions adopted in March, 2005 is a major key to us convincing the electorate that we are for real, platform releases or no platform.

Stephen Harper's stewardship of the Conservative Party has been just fine, thank you. 99 seats without a policy convention? Just imagine. This year we left Montreal with a solid, workable policy document and an 84% leadership approval and since the last election, the Conservatives have out fundraised the Liberals by millions of dollars through a margin of tens of thousands more donors - something we continue to excel at. So, I'd be careful about reacting to recent polls.

Polls can be pushed. Numbers can be crunched. News can be spun. And headlines.. misleading.

The Conservative Party of Canada has come a long way in a short time and impatience will only prove stultifying. It's time we stopped explaining ourselves and got back to promoting the road to a better Canada.