On paper, Stephen Harper has it all over Paul Martin. The Conservative leader is more principled. He's more thoughtful. He's more youthful. He leads a party untouched by scandal, and comes off squeaky-clean himself.

But yesterday, we were reminded why none of that may matter.

The main focus, of course, was on the mind-boggling opportunism of Belinda Stronach. At least when Scott Brison crossed the floor to the Liberals, he could claim genuine discomfort with the newly merged Conservative party; having played a central role in building that new party, running for the leadership and then functioning as one of its most prominent members, Stronach can make no such claim.

But the story behind the story is the one thing that Martin has over Harper: his ability to win people over.

If there's one thing the Prime Minister has always been good at, it's recruitment. After all, it's how he got where he is today.

Whether it's playing on insecurities, dishing out flattery, offering up postings and patronage appointments, or telling a wavering pol what he or she wants to hear on policy, Martin and his handlers always know exactly what buttons to press.

That's how they got the vast majority of Liberals - left and right, old and young, urban and rural - to rise up against a prime minister who'd led them to three straight election wins. And it's how they've kept them onside even in their party's darkest hour.

Then there's Harper.

That the Conservative leader has a less than sunny disposition is obvious. But not enough has been said about his utter failure to connect even with those who want to be connected with.

On several occasions, he's met with this newspaper's editorial board - on the whole as friendly a group of journalists as he's likely to encounter. And each time, he's looked like he'd rather be anywhere else - coming off as cranky, condescending and uninterested in any opinions that weren't his own.

That, by all accounts, is how he treats everyone outside his inner circle. And that's mostly why the road between the Liberals and Conservatives only has traffic in one direction.

Nothing excuses the way Stronach stabbed so many Conservatives - especially those who worked tirelessly to advance her career - in the back. But when she showed signs of drifting away from the party, Harper should have done everything he could to keep her onside. Instead, he was almost openly hostile - and yesterday, he seemed genuinely relieved that he would no longer have to deal with her.

Maybe that was the natural reaction, given Stronach's increasingly brazen attempts to upstage him. But it's not one that the leader of a supposed big-tent party can afford to have.

More to the point, it's just the sort of spiteful response that Paul Martin would have scrupulously avoided. Which, more than anything, explains why the PM may live to fight another day.