Harper's Dark Opportunity

Mr. Harper is not a man who readily changes his views and it has long been his conviction that he has a duty to reshape Canada regardless of what its citizens want. When he joined the Reform Party in the late 1980s he demonstrated his scorn for the so-called "grass roots" of the party, telling a reporter that policies coming from the "bottom-up" were "simple and low quality." And the main source of his admiration for Preston Manning was the leader's uncanny ability to get Reform members to abandon some of their passionately-held beliefs: "It's amazing what you can persuade them (party members) to do once you convince them it's the leader who is telling them." Proud of shredded programs Virtually all of the policies of the Reform Party were written by Preston Manning and Stephen Harper. They included the elimination of the Canada Health Act, draconian immigration policies, massive decentralization to eliminate universality in social programs, and huge cuts to federal funding for such programs. While they were never the government, the party provided both pressure and support for Paul Martin's radical restructuring of the country's finances and social legislation. Harper was well aware of the party's role in taking the country backwards. In a speech to the National Citizens Coalition while still MP for Calgary West, Harper assessed Reform's influence, boasting "the Liberal government in Ottawa has announced... no new major social spending programs. Universality has been severely reduced: It is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy. The family allowance program has been eliminated and unemployment insurance has been seriously cut back." Harper left the Reform Party in 1997 over strategic differences with Manning. It is very revealing of the man's politics that he took the position of president of the National Citizens' Coalition (NCC) - the most ferociously right-wing lobby group in the country. Founded originally to fight public medicare, the NCC was Reform's soul-mate. Harper praised the organization because it "criticizes, attacks and gives alternatives to such things as official multiculturalism, enforced national bilingualism, a pro-criminal justice system, anti-family social policies, open door immigration..." Opposed election finance reforms It is ironic, given Harper's outrage over a political scandal involving corporate money, that he spent much of his time at the NCC in a successful court challenge of federal election finance reform. The reform (now in place) would have prevented corporations from contributing to political parties. While no law can guarantee corruption will end, the law Harper fought so hard against - he dismissed it as a "gag law" - would arguably have reduced the opportunities and changed the political culture. But it was an article in the National Post a few days after the 2000 election that exposed the real Stephen Harper. In the article, Harper revealed his admiration for free-enterprise Alberta and his contempt for the rest of Canada: "Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its ...social services to mask its second-rate status." There is nothing on the public record to suggest Stephen Harper has changed his radical views. He just has been much more careful about expressing them. The Conservative leader is a man totally enamored with the US - who supported the Iraq war and ballistic missile defence (despite his coyness), admires George Bush, detests social programs and the equality principle which drives them, and is a proud believer in America's culture of possessive individualism. As such he is more at odds with Canadians' values than any national party leader in sixty years. Handing over the reigns of government to a man who has contempt for his own country would be a catastrophic mistake. Scandal or no scandal, Canadians need to keep their eye on the prize: the future of their country. Murray Dobbin's 'State of the Nation' column appears twice monthly on The Tyee. http://www.thetyee.ca/Views/2005/04/21/HarpersDarkOpportunity/