He’s a bad man; a very, very, very bad man.” Seinfeld aficionados will surely recognize those famous words uttered on Jerry Seinfeld’s TV comedy show by Babu, a Pakistani Restaurateur who believed he had been misguided by Seinfeld’s advice. And don’t forget his classic wagging finger.
Well, Babu’s description of Seinfeld pretty well sums up my opinion of Stephen Harper, his deceptive and insidious reasons for calling a snap election and his not so hidden agenda — perfectly clear if you bother to follow news stories.
In January 2006, Harper came to power on a moral, holier-than-thou, anti-corruption, open and transparent political platform. He would be totally accountable to the electorate, he promised. He would cleanse parliament of that terrible odor left by the previously shady Liberal government, he pledged. That has not happened, and we can briefly assess what has occurred since Mr. Harper became Prime Minister.
First and foremost, the Conservative Party is a one-man band; it is an autocracy with Harper as its titular head as well as the pinch hitter for all his cabinet members. Nobody in his party speaks publicly without either his authorization, or that of his backroom strategists; and even then they must follow the script.
We did witness the muzzling of Conservative candidates in the last election, but no one seemed to take much notice. Harper’s goal then was to silence those candidates who might reveal their extremist Reform views, as they had in an earlier election. I can’t imagine it will be any different this time around, especially since his MPs have remained gagged. Reports from their caucus meetings reveal that Harper and/or his henchmen speak and the MPs do their bidding. There is no debate or sharing of views. Without a voice, MPs are unable to truly represent their constituents. Bona fide Progressive Conservatives must feel utterly hijacked.
Seeming to stay the course, the current election is all about Harper: his alleged success as a leader; Harper the fuzzy warm family man wearing soft, cozy sweaters; just Harper, all the time, every day. Like a chameleon, he can transform himself when it suits him. Watch him put on the charm for the cameras during the election. He’ll joke with the media when he usually dismisses them summarily, and he’ll be ever so charming during the televised debates — nauseating. No matter what performance he chooses, beneath the façade he will still be the bullying, hard-nosed, cynical individual we have seen from day one.
When Harper first became PM he passed a law — with great fanfare and much crowing — setting fixed election dates that would fall every four years. He did this to “prevent governments from calling snap elections for short-term political advantage,” and to “stop leaders from trying to manipulate the calendar.” OK, well so much for that law. He has utterly ignored it claiming that the current parliament has become so “dysfunctional” that he can no longer govern. In his attempt to prove just how dysfunctional parliament had become, he summoned the opposition party leaders, one by one — like pupils to a headmaster’s study — asking each to pledge full conformity to his next mandate. Excuse me, but this is a minority government, and it is up to the opposition parties to keep the governing party in check, not to say: “yes master, no master” without question. That is why Canadians voted as they did in 2006, deciding that no party was worthy of a majority at the time.
And talking of dysfunctional, it was Harper and his strategists who created a 200-page manual detailing how their MPs could disrupt and render impotent the various parliamentary committees. Again, little has been written about that either in the mainstream media. Harper has turned dysfunction into an art form.
Even through this ugly, clashing, hideously partisan parliament, the Conservatives have managed to pass an inordinate number of laws and it has lasted longer than any other minority government in history. It has to be said that this is mostly a result of the disarray in which the Liberals found themselves after the last election. The first year they were without a leader, and when Stéphane Dion was finally elected, the party was in no shape to prompt an election. To the chagrin of most Liberal MPs, they were forced to abstain from the majority of votes on parliamentary bills, just to avoid going to the polls. It was by no means a situation they relished and the result was a constant onslaught of insults against Dion from his opponents, calling him weak and indecisive. It has been reported that no other political leader has been under such a prolonged attack as Dion has suffered since becoming Liberal leader.
The hidden agenda I referred to earlier? Well, it isn’t a ploy concocted by Liberal hacks; Tom Flanagan, Harper’s mentor and biographer and former chief of staff, touted this rather sinister plan. He is currently a University of Calgary political scientist. According to Flanagan, Harper hopes to throw the Liberals into a state of chaos by calling this snap election and ultimately to destroy it as Canada’s so-called natural governing party. He added that Harper isn’t so much concerned about winning a majority this time around, but rather waging a prolonged war of attrition. He said “another Tory minority would be enough to throw the Liberals into turmoil and give Harper … a virtually free hand in Parliament for quite a while and really handicap his main opponent.” (Source: Globe & Mail, Aug. 27, 2008) If that doesn’t chill you to the bone …
Stephen Harper detests the media and thus tries to control it. A prolonged war was waged between Harper and the Ottawa press gallery. Now the Conservatives have a 17,000 square foot war room that has been described as both a bunker and a lair. At 6:00 am each day they summon the media for a press briefing, hoping to set the news agenda for the day. On the first Monday after the election was called, few reporters showed up.
Those who lived under Mike Harris’s rule in Ontario may remember a general feeling of angst among Ontarians. The Harris government was always in a brawl with some group or other. Well, that same feeling is here today — across the country — under the Harper Party. I feel anguish and uncertainty — and I’m by no means alone in my fear. Canada is going completely in the wrong direction. Harper may be a strong leader; there have been many, many strong but very bad leaders in history. What we need is a party that governs as a team: parliamentarians who share their thoughts, dreams, ideas and plans and don’t simply tell you to shut up. Can we have our country back, please?