The cracks in a Government usually don’t become visible until the second term in office. That’s when it becomes clear the government has lost control of its agenda. Its rhetoric is stale; its leadership is blindsided by scandal; policies and pronouncements become confusing and inconsistent. And ministers’ offices become revolving doors as aides seek greener — and more stable — pastures.

The media, by this time, have appointed themselves as Her Majesty’s unofficial opposition and have become obsessed with the spectacle of a government coming up lame in the horse race toward the next election, thus contributing to the downward spiral.

But most important, the fatigued government spends most of its time and energy defending itself and doing damage control as it comes up against one surprise after another, while making people angry with it at the same time.

Sound familiar? Just shy of two years in office, the current federal government is showing all the above signs of strategic and operational fatigue. Indeed, this may be the first government since John Diefenbaker’s to wear out its brand before its second election in office.

Fortunately for Canada’s not-so-new government, the official Opposition is barely off life support, with rookie Liberal leader Stéphane Dion struggling to unite a party still badly divided by the Chrétien-Martin civil war and not accustomed to being deprived of its position as Canada’s natural governing party.

As a result — and despite all the pre-election bravado coming out of Ottawa in recent months — the balance of power probably would not change much if a listless and cranky electorate were to go to the ballot box tomorrow. Indeed, Canada may not have a federal election until the fall of 2009, when it is legally required.

So, while the Harper government is a lot like much of Canada’s civic infrastructure with the cracks apparent for all to see, it would be premature to predict imminent collapse. This government has time to reinvent itself and build a wide constituency of its own. To do that, however, it has to provide the electorate with a clear idea of what it stands for.

To start, the Reform-cum-Alliance-Conservative party should have a policy conference to settle what sort of a critter it is. So far in its term of office, this government has been caught between appeasement of its core supporters and the desire to reassure moderate voters that a Conservative majority government would not be scary.

Indeed, this government has been content to do things almost by stealth rather than clearly spell out its stand on much of anything. In contrast, the Liberals — even before they took office in 1993 — published the famous Red Book of policies. It didn’t matter that the Liberals never lived up to most of the promises in that book. The Red Book established a brand that sustained the Liberals through a decade in power.

Even when Jean Chrétien was photographed choking a demonstrator while wearing mobster-style dark glasses, the Liberals could count on enough emotional capital among the voters to sustain them in the polls. The Conservatives made a start at branding themselves during the first year in office with their five simple priorities and their now-derided buzz phrase, “Canada’s New Government.’’

As successful as that initial strategy may have been, its best-before date came and went without a successor policy, probably because of the general assumption that there would be an election by the spring of 2007. As we move into 2008, the Conservatives have missed two chances to force an election and won’t be able to as long as the Karlheinz Schreiber affair is hanging over their heads.

Until the current government stops playing peekaboo with the voters and brings out a comprehensive policy book with enough details to establish a brand with the voters, it will continue to age prematurely. The prime minister also needs to understand he is the head of a team, not the entire team. IE