Aren’t Conservatives supposed to be good with money?

The narrative from the Harper Conservatives, for at least the last decade, has been that they are the party who would be the best stewards of our economy.

That image — that brand — has taken some significant hits over the past several weeks.

The Auditor General's report released last week slammed the government for losing track of $3.1 billion that was supposed to be earmarked for national security. While no one has suggested any misconduct, no one in government can explain exactly where the money went.

On Tuesday, as explained by the Canadian Press, Prime Minister Harper embarrassed his government in the House by citing pride in defending the $113 million for those darn economic action plan commercials that seem to do nothing but tout the government's economic record.

[ Related: How much did the Harper government spend on their Super Bowl ads? ]

And on Wednesday, the Toronto Star reported that "90 per cent of the $2.4 billion paid out for management consulting in the past decade comes with no description of the work done on the government’s public disclosure sites." In other words, the public has no way of knowing what government departments spent $2.1 billion dollars on over the past 10 years.

And finally, the party continues to be maligned for mismanagement of military procurement projects.

This doesn't sound like a fiscally conservative, Conservative government.

[ Related: Justin Trudeau’s “honeymoon with Canadians” could last a long time ]

Right-leaning political consultant Gerry Nicholls says he isn't too worried about the long-term effects on the Tories.

"It just goes to show that regardless of the ideological stripe, all governments tend to be wasteful and incompetent when it comes to dealing with tax dollars," he said.

"As far as the politics goes, yes all these stories may tarnish the Tory brand somewhat, but they likely won’t be too damaging."

Nicholls says that those outside the so-called 'Ottawa bubble' — the rank and file Canadian voters — don't pay attention to these missteps. He says that by the time the next election rolls around, Canadians will put to the Conservative money messes in perspective.

"Rightly or wrongly, the default position for a lot of voters is that Conservatives are better economic managers than New Democrats or Liberals. That’s a perception that will be difficult to change or challenge, even with the [recent] stories," he said.

"All Prime Minister Harper has to do is convince voters that he is a better fiscal manager than either the socialist NDP leader Thomas Mulcair or untried Liberal leader Justin Trudeau – that’s not a tough job."

Conservatives across the country are hoping that Nicholls is right.

(Photo is a screen grab from actionplan.gc.ca)

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