Canada: A Duel of Images

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Neither of the two front runners has held public office during most of the past decade. Turner, once a rising star of the Liberals, resigned abruptly as Finance Minister in 1975 in a dispute with Trudeau. In the intervening years he built a lucrative career as a corporate lawyer on Toronto's Bay Street, the Wall Street of Canada, which he left in June to become the ruling Liberal Party's standard bearer (and thus, automatically, Prime Minister). Mulroney was president of the Iron Ore Co. of Canada and had never run for political office until he was named leader of the Progressive Conservative Party in June 1983 and ten weeks later picked up a parliamentary seat in a Nova Scotia by-election. This political inexperience actually proved an asset in the campaign. Mulroney sounded his dominant, if repetitive, theme when he called for a "new beginning," "new leadership," a "new philosophy of government" and a "new spirit."

Issues that preoccupied Canadians in the '70s like economic nationalism and regional separatism have largely given way to the economic anxieties of the '80s. Canada is suffering the aftereffects of a 21-month recession, the worst since World War II. After dropping 6% in 1981-82, real G.N.P. finally climbed by 3.3% last year, but the unemployment rate has stubbornly remained above 11%. The Canadian dollar was worth a mere 76 U.S. cents last week.

Whether Canadians choose Turner or

Mulroney may ultimately depend more on image than substance, and Mulroney has gained a decided edge in this contest.

Indeed, Turner's campaign got off to such a shaky start that many Canadians wonder if he did not lose his political touch during almost nine years as the Liberals' "prince in exile."

In his first public appearances, the new Prime Minister seemed tongue-tied and ill at ease. During one campaign rally he tried to encourage a beauty queen, Miss Prince Edward Island, to vote Liberal by saying that he wanted her to "go all the way." Women were particularly upset when television cameras caught Turner patting the backside of Liberal Party President lona Campagnolo. The candidate was subjected to more razzing after a waiter in Trois-Rivieres, Que., accidentally spilled coffee in his lap.

Turner was forced to retreat to the men's room while his wife Geills washed out his pants.

Trudeau did little to help Turner's chances when he pressured his successor to promote 17 Liberal stalwarts in the House of Commons to sinecures in the Senate, the largely symbolic upper house of the Canadian Parliament, or to cozy judicial and diplomatic posts. Turner said that he "had no option" in making the appointments, and he would have risked losing a parliamentary vote of confidence by blocking them.

But Mulroney used the incident to advantage in the second televised debate. "You had an option, sir,"said a finger-wagging Mulroney to a nonplused Turner. "You could have said, 'I am not going to do it.