Harper's Political Demise Starts At G20 Fiasco

By Bob Hepburn

When political leaders start to lose power, it’s often because voters have come to believe they have grown too arrogant, too uncaring and too obsessed with their own image.

It’s what happened to Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Jean Chrétien, all of whom left office when their support was near all-time lows and their reputations were tarnished.

It’s now happening to Stephen Harper.

The catalyst for this is the G20 summit June 26-27 in Toronto, which has become a political nightmare for Harper and his Tory party.

Indeed, the G20 summit and the accompanying G8 summit a day earlier in Huntsville, which Harper had once hoped would be so successful that he could tout them during his campaign for re-election, may well signal the beginning of the end of Harper’s reign.

The reasons are obvious.

First, the costs of the two summits will top $1.1 billion, a ridiculous sum for which Harper is unapologetic. He’s even defending a $57,000 “fake lake” to be built at the press centre in Toronto to give foreign journalists a Muskoka-like experience.

full article http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/821416--hepburn-harper-s-political-demise-starts-at-g20-fiasco.