There is a long-standing truism in politics, and history seems to attest to its veracity. It states: “You can be a prophet or a politician, but you can’t be both.”

Opposition leader Stéphane Dion appears to be just learning this — as Stephen Harper did in 2004. Others also have before them, most notably Pierre Trudeau. In the words of veteran CBC journalist and political commentator Larry Zolf, Trudeau went from “Philosopher King to Mackenzie King’’ after almost losing the 1972 election.

Our current prime minister allowed ideology — his own and that of others — to scare away voters in 2004. In 2006, he was back with carefully framed messages that people wanted to hear and, as a result, was able to defeat Paul Martin, who had been too busy running against Jean Chrétien to notice shifting public mood.

Since winning the Liberal leadership last December, Dion has been missing opportunities that an experienced politician would have been able to exploit. Cases in point include the Conservatives’ early (and now forgotten) support for an invasion of Iran and their initial indifference to the plight of Maher Arar until the polls began to show rising public support for the Syrian-Canadian.

An experienced politician would have known how to exploit Harper’s inability to connect with female voters as well. Indeed, October’s throne speech, with its dearth of women’s issues, would have been a dandy place to start.

As for the way Dion was forced to publicly back down from an election by ordering his party to stay seated during the House of Commons vote on the throne speech, it was a humiliation the Liberal leader could have avoided in several ways.

For example, Dion could have simply stated the truth — that no government in Canadian history has been defeated on its throne speech because it would be foolish for any party to foster such instability.

He could also have simply said there was so little substance in the throne speech, Canadians need to a better idea of what the Conservatives really have in mind before deciding to throw them out.

Dion has something else in common with Harper — and even Chrétien. All three men had trouble soon after moving into the Opposition leader’s office (OLO).

Most Canadians might think being Opposition leader is an easy job. In actuality, the OLO is a huge bureaucracy that rivals the Prime Minister’s Office in size and management difficulty. The Opposition leader has the tough job of ruthlessly opposing, while looking like a government-in-waiting at the same time.

In August 2005, prevailing wisdom had pegged Harper as a perennial loser after his staff stupidly allowed the Conservative leader to be photographed at the Calgary Stampede looking like a gay cavallaro in drag.

After Chrétien took over his party’s leadership in 1990, there were so many operational problems at the OLO, that he had to demote his loyal confidante, Eddie Goldenberg, from the job of principal secretary.

It has been forgotten by most people that Kim Campbell had a decent shot at winning the 1993 election before setting off on what likely will remain the worst campaign in Canadian history. It is also forgotten that Conservatives, and even some Liberals, dismissed Chrétien as “Yesterday’s Man’’ before the 1993 campaign began.

So, can Dion be saved? Yes, very possibly. After all if Al Gore and even Harper can undergo a successful makeover, just about anyone in politics can.

In the meantime, the following are several issues of which Dion is in a position to take ownership:

> The Economy. A few weeks ago, Dion made a good start by impressing a Bay Street audience with a promise of deep corporate tax cuts to replace the competitive advantage Canada once had with a cheap currency. The government responded quickly with deep corporate tax cuts of its own in its mini budget. That quick response is a strong clue how vulnerable the government feels on the economy. So far, the Tories have no comprehensive dollar strategy.

> Cities. The country — especially Tory country — may hate Toronto; but now that Canada’s largest city has issued a financial distress call, this issue will move to the front of the line of priorities despite the Conservatives’ best efforts to bury it after the last election. Since his predecessor owned the issue, it won’t be difficult for Dion to exploit it.

@page_break@> Family Issues. All Dion has to do here is pledge to reinstate the daycare policy that the Tories trashed in favour of a revived baby bonus. Middle-class income has not kept pace with the economic expansion of the past 14 years and the Conservative minority government hasn’t done much for young families. This is the major reason why the Tories are so unpopular with female voters.

> The Growing Surplus. No one would have believed a few short years ago that such a thing would become a political liability. But now it has. And unless the Tories quickly change scripts — and eat some crow — with massive tax cuts, Dion will be able to exploit it. IE