The Second Term Of Stephen Harper : A Quagmire In Sight

Stephen Harper is often blamed for behaving like George W. Bush: ideological blinders, suspicious surroundings, undue influence of powerful special interest groups, privatisation mindset, evangelical hypocrisy, information control and media gagging, contempt for a “cultural” sector, as well as this orwellian bias toward investing in army, police and security. The « hidden » agenda label describes accurately the resulting anxiety. The theme kept recurring during the last federal election campaign but only produced tangible results in Québec, an electorate particularly sensitive to «vigilance» matters with turncoat leaders over the course of its history.

Voters in the Rest of Canada (ROC) may however quickly regret entrusting the Conservatives with such large numbers (i.e. a majority!), just as the Americans did after putting back George W. into office. Yes, we do all agree that Harper is far more astute. But let’s consider some early signs of an upcoming Waterloo. Fault lines have after all this tendency to act up in times of great turmoil, such as those currently experienced globally. 

Stephen Harper was courting the québécois vote during the last days of the campaign. Nothing is new here. He however got caugth saying that albertans were not all tied up with the oil&gas industry … just as himself. Therefore he was worth trusting. He went as far as putting forward the strange comparison of the maple syrup industry in Quebec??? We can certainly forgive him for being tired to account for such an outrageous lack of judgment after a long campaign, just as in Dion’s case disastrous fumbling on “clarity” matters facing this Global question i.e. “what would you have done?” Let’s note incidentally that the Canadian press totally ignored the outrageous conservative leader doubletalk babble…

The day after the vote, Stephen Harper was musing to the press over the disappointing results in Quebec. He pointed out that Duceppe was able to spend more time there but he could not. He went as far as declaring that according to “des enquêtes internes”, the conservative polled vote was progressing when he was there but receding when he was not. <-- Right there is the big bobo of Stephen Harper: a narcissism personality disorder to a level rarely observed in Canada! One can most likely imagine a similar level of delirium when George W. received its first ever report of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. It is worth noting that the Canadian news press did not further comment on their sick leader, similarly to the American press way back. 

Kurt Vonnegut denounced in “Custodians of chaos” these psychotic personnalities (PPs) capable of reaching the highest levels of power in governments and corporations because they have absolutely no sense of empathy for what others feel. The PPs simply do not care and can therefore do the craziest things for the well heeled people they cater to. And our sick society keeps promoting such individuals…

The “grand malade” is therefore continuing presiding over Canada and remains to this day incapable of surrounding himself with the best in breed Québécois, i.e. self-confident, capable of reaching people, with the knowledge of the terrain and without the burden of a military-like command&control structure. Josée Verner and Maxime Bernier are remarkable examples of incapable individuals on which Harper must rely on. The remaining conservative MPs in Quebec are not of any better caliber (with perhaps the exception of Lawrence Cannon). 

In spite of his ideological opposition to public funds spending, Harper will most likely carry on the practice of wasting money in Quebec on “les petits amis”, still hoping for the ultimate  “victory”. “Déjà-vu”, they say down there. In spite of all of this talk of decentralization of the Canadian State, the prime minister is incapable of walking the talk, afraid of the consequences.

Under such conditions, one can realistically expect a quagmire similar to Iraq in Québec. That is corruption, “l’aliénation”, the risk of civil warfare/terrorism by some lunatics and, generally speaking, a toxic land. Meanwhile real domestic issues are rising such as needs for electoral&media reforms, cancer growth of special interest groups, overdependance on our neighbors south, delays on the green shift, etc. And not any lesser, the national schism grows : the canadian State dream once envisioned by Pierre Elliott Trudeau has been shattered for good, only to be replaced by … vacuum!  

For the common good of everyone, Québécois or Canadians, we can only hope that the occupying forces of Stephen Harper will withdraw from Quebec before it is too late, unlike Napoléon that did not pull out from Russia prior to a rough winter to subsequently experience Waterloo. Some québécois sovereignist elements keen on “vote stratégique” have in fact argued a Conservative vote in order to further engage the incompetents on the ground and fast-track the final battle.

The great irony is that the so called “Rest of Canada” is becoming grateful to Québécois for sparing them from a majority conservative government, therefore uniting Canada on a more credible basis during these incertain times that require “la vigilance” extreme on turncoats and PPs.

Will Harper inadvertently trigger le “grand réveil” similarly to what Bush did for the Americans? Thank you kindly dear Stephen. But please have yourself looked after. I still live in Canada after all and diligently maintain good relations in Québec for which I still deeply care for, many years later…