Joh For Canberra - The Campaign Falters

The Campaign Falters

For all its fanfare, the "Joh for Canberra" campaign ended with a whimper rather than a bang. In May 1987, the expectations of Bjelke-Petersen's campaign were revised downwards to promoting Senate candidates like John Stone, who ran under the New Nationals banner, and the name "Joh for PM" was scrapped in favour of "Joh for Canberra", When prime minister Bob Hawke called a double dissolution election on May 27, 1987, Bjelke-Petersen was in the United States, visiting Disneyland, and had not yet nominated for a federal seat. His supporters at home rushed to find candidates for a pro Bjelke-Petersen party, but were largely unsuccessful. Despite the media furore created by the campaign, Bjelke-Petersen's bid for federal government lacked a "solid organisational basis and significant nationwide support". The bid collapsed and Bjelke-Petersen withdrew from his attempt to win a seat in federal parliament. Nonetheless, the effects of Bjelke-Petersen's grab for power were felt nationwide. With the National Party fractured, different campaigns, including "the Joh campaign, the Sinclair campaign independent Joh campaigns" all ran simultaneously, leading to confusion and consternation among voters. In the federal election, Labor performed exceptionally well in Queensland, gaining four seats. Although Bjelke-Petersen had withdrawn from the nationwide contest, the National Party still ran against the Liberals in many seats, and ran independent Senate tickets in every state except New South Wales. The federal National Party suffered a net loss of two seats, failing to expand upon its traditional rural base and hampered by disunity within its ranks. Queensland ALP secretary Peter Beattie remarked that "we couldn't have done it without Joh". However, Bjelke-Petersen remained unrepentant. In an interview recorded in the aftermath of the election loss, Bjelke-Petersen insisted that he did not bear any of the blame for the result, and that the only thing he had to apologise for was withdrawing from the contest. He would later try to shift the blame towards Robert Sparkes' attitude towards the campaign, saying that "if Sparkes hadn't gummed it up, then it would've worked". Nonetheless, Sparkes' profile continued to grow in Queensland, and he was comfortably re-elected as head of the Queensland National Party in late 1987. Bjelke-Petersen went on to state that his internal polling suggested that, had he remained in the race, he would have been very competitive. Bjelke-Petersen always remained unapologetic about his bid for federal leadership, repeatedly characterising it in his memoir as the "Joh Crusade," and insisting that he "did not want to be prime minister...I only wanted to go to Canberra to clean up a mess and put government there back on the right path".