Swords and shields. They are all the rage these days on Parliament Hill. And you need to understand them to follow Canadian politics.

Among the things Stephen Harper’s Conservative (Tory) government will be remembered for is its unfettered borrowing of tactics from its Republican cousins south of the border. For example, the Tories’ new Fair Elections Act follows the Republican example of making it more difficult for university students, the poor and others without permanent addresses to vote.

Other strategies, such as swords and shields (as in issues), may become a permanent part of Canadian political issues management.

A sword issue is something tangible that can be easily understood and popular enough to be packaged to enable you to smite your opponent. Cutting the goods and services tax was a perfect sword issue for the Tories in the 2006 election campaign. So was the Federal Accountability Act, designed to rein in the lobbying industry, then perceived by the public to be like Dodge City.

A shield issue involves topics more abstract and difficult for the average voter to follow. It is also an issue for which a party doesn’t have easy answers, such as health care, First Nations living conditions, fairness in military procurement, and so on. These are issues to be shored up to prevent the other guy’s sword from reaching your minister.

Whether an issue is a sword or a shield will affect the party’s policy. Expect a political party to act boldly on a sword issue; cautiously on a shield issue. The Harper government had so many sword issues in the 2006 election that it forced the Martin government into a permanent defensive mode.

These tactics contributed to election victories in 2008 and 2011 for the Tories.

Until recently, the federal budget, renamed the Economic Action Plan, was a standard sword issue because the Tories were seen to be good managers of the economy.

Whether because of stubbornly high unemployment or the plan to downplay a range of issues until the crucial pre-election budget of 2015, the Tories don’t feel comfortable relying on the economy as a sword issue anymore.

Hence the minimalist budget.

The Tories had been hoping that voters would wait for the Great Balanced Budget of 2015, which is supposed to unleash a flood of goodies, including income tax splitting.

The 2015 budget, therefore, was supposed to be a huge sword before the next election. But that was before Finance Minister Jim Flaherty questioned the merits of income tax splitting – and before the Liberals took a lead as high as eight points in the polls over the Conservatives.

Unless the Tories decide to go ahead with income splitting (and a new finance minister), next year’s budget may also be a defensive shield.

Instead, the Tories will probably continue to try to yank consumer protection from the New Democratic Party and make that the pre-election sword issue.

But that might not be easy because Justin Trudeau seems to have learned from Stephen Harper rather than his Liberal predecessors. Last summer, Trudeau successfully made legalizing marijuana a sword issue while the Tories were napping. This past autumn, Trudeau kicked Liberal senators out of his caucus, not only making Senate reform his personal sword issue but clobbering the Harper government over the head with it.

Expect Trudeau to come up with a policy initiative on the economy and the middle class soon, forcing the Tories to retreat further into shield mode.

Also expect Trudeau to continue to line up celebrity advisers. Grabbing former U.S. treasury secretary Larry Summers as an economic guru was quite a coup. It will serve to wear down the “policy lite” tag that has been dogging Trudeau.

A problem with sword issues, of course, is that they can haunt you later. The Federal Accountability Act is hurting government operations because the rigorous post-employment code is making it difficult to recruit good staff.

Should Trudeau gain power, he may regret kicking senators out of his caucus as he struggles to get bills through the upper chamber.

But, for now, the party that owns the swords controls the national media narrative. And that is what is important until election day.

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