Politics is all about the effective use of symbols. Ask Jean Chretien or Brian Mulroney, they’ll tell you. Or they’ll show you.

Case study one: Summer 1993. Conservatives have just picked ex-justice minister Kim Campbell to be their leader. Campbell’s brainy, but she also doesn’t take herself too seriously. Earlier, someone circulated a photo in which a coiffed Campbell — bare shouldered — holds her Queen’s Counsel robes in front of her. The photo was republished around the world. One gushing account in Britain’s The Independent carried this headline: “A provocative picture may help Kim Campbell become leader of her country.”

Or will he choose to sell oil first?

It couldn’t have been a very good political fundraiser: None of us can now recall who was speaking. Most likely, it was a Conservative — because we were exiled to the furthest corner in the room, with some of the other Liberals in attendance.

While the speaker wasn’t at all memorable, the pleasant woman at our table was. She was employed by a mortgage broker association. Asked what was new in her field of work, she said: “Subprime mortgages. We’re quite worried about them. If things unfold the way we think they might, it could be very, very bad.”

How bad? she was asked.