In the course of researching my graduate thesis, I happened to consult Richard Gwyn’s book The Northern Magus: Pierre Trudeau and Canadians, wherein he described the enjoyment Trudeau took in crushing his political enemies.[1] Later on, while reading Preston Manning’s book The New Canada, I noted Manning’s descriptions of how he and his fellow Reformers were accused of everything from racism to wanting to destroy the social safety net.[2] In the modern era, we have Stephen Harper compared to Darth Vader[3] and accused of wanting to militarize our streets with troops, while Michael Ignatieff’s citizenship is impugned and Stéphane Dion accused of “not being a leader” without any actual evidence to back it up.
Conservative candidates’ campaign signs are vandalized,[4] while prominent conservative activist Ezra Levant accuses Greenpeace activist Mike Hudema of being a moral coward.[5] The online comment boards of many Canadian newspapers and magazines have degenerated into mutual flame wars and recriminations as people accuse one another either of hating freedom, kowtowing to corporations, not caring about the poor, wanting to sell Canada out to the United States or generally being un-Canadian overall…
…And the political participation of ordinary Canadians continues to fall year after year.
How did we as a country sink to this level of political dialogue? How did we get to the point where these types of personal attacks have become so vicious? In many respects, the current situation is the latest part of an ugly cycle that began with the accusations the federal Liberal party under Jean Chretien lobbed at the Reform movement under Preston Manning when the latter party was first getting started in the 1990s. The Reform movement was continually attacked as being anti-French, anti-immigrant and anti-Medicare,[6] at a time when Stephen Harper was the Reform Party’s first policy chief.
These attacks continued through the transition to the Canadian Alliance and Stockwell Day’s leadership, with harsh and vindictive attacks by the Chretien Liberals both against both Manning and Day when they took their turns as leaders of the party.[7] With such a background, it’s not that surprising that, as conservative commentators ranging from Harper’s former chief of staff Ian Brodie to National Citizens’ Coalition vice-president Gerry Nicholls to former Conservative MPs Keith Martin and David Emerson to senior Harper adviser Keith Beardsley to Ralph Klein’s former chief of staff Rod Love all described Harper’s loathing of the Liberal party, particularly in the context of Liberal mistreatment of the West from the Trudeau era through to the Chretien years.[8]
Sadly, the Liberal attacks and the Conservative response to it have damaged our political culture as a whole, to the point where mutual recriminations and accusations of hating personal freedom or not caring about the plights of ordinary Canadians have become the order of the day. Perhaps even more than finding the best solutions for all Canadians, and working together for the common good, the main goal of many political actors and commentators on both sides of the spectrum these days is to demonize and crush their opponents.
The poisonous side effects end up perpetuating ridiculous stereotypes about different parts of Canada, such as the notion that Albertans are greedy, arrogant hayseeds who don’t care about the rest of the country, or that Ontarians and Quebecers are lazy socialists who don’t appreciate the value of hard work. Never mind that Alberta makes enormous contributions to the rest of Canada through billions of dollars in transfer payments and gestures such as the Alberta Centennial Scholarships, or that Ontario and Quebec are home to major technological and aerospace industries represented by industrial powerhouses like Research in Motion or Bombardier. After all, if Alberta was really as uncaring as some people make it out to be it wouldn’t do these things, while if Ontario and Quebec were really such backwards socialist havens, they never would have developed such substantial industries in the first place...and what would admitting those facts do to the accusations people throw at each other?
Far more likely is the fact that most people support different political parties and ideologies for different reasons. In my experience, those ‘ordinary’ Canadians who get up early to drive their children to hockey practice and who stop at Tim Horton’s every morning for a double-double on their way to work are just as apt to vote Liberal, Conservative, NDP or Green, depending on their individual views and circumstances. Much has been made of the supposedly liberal or conservative elites who dominate our society-in either case, whether these elites are truly Liberal or Conservative in nature, how could they have ever gotten into power without at least some support from average, hard-working Canadians?
When the time comes to cast your vote, the choice isn’t always clear. I very much support the work the Harper Conservatives have done on a number of issues ranging from fast-tracking skilled immigrants to putting money back into the military to establishing longer sentences for violent criminals to attempting to dismantle the long-gun registry to dealing with identity theft to protecting transit drivers to apologizing to Canada’s aboriginal peoples for the horrors of the residential schools to its initiatives on Arctic sovereignty. However, I also believe that the government is digging Canada into a serious and unsustainable financial hole with pointless, foolish tax cuts at a time when they’re hardly needed and taxes have already been substantially reduced,[9] and the government refuses to release information on the potential costs of the new prisons and fighter jets it proposes to buy.
Harper’s deliberate reduction of federal revenues[10] and the suggestion of simply transferring tax credits to the provinces for social services[11] both give me extremely uncomfortable reminders of the prime minister’s “firewall” letter, wherein he advocated building a firewall around Alberta.[12] Hence I’m left wondering how far we can go down this road while still remaining a country rather than a loose collection of provincial fiefdoms, particularly since the provinces themselves are also increasingly encroaching on federal jurisdiction in the areas of foreign affairs, relations with Aboriginal peoples, interprovincial trade and international relations. I’m also very uncertain about whether the federal government taking on a “night watchman” role is even desired by most Canadians, since historical trends suggest that it’s not particularly desired even in Western Canada.[13]
Does that mean, however, that I think the Conservatives are automatically acting in bad faith? Not at all-for all my criticisms of Stephen Harper’s long-term goals and some of his actions, that does not prevent my appreciating the hard work and commitment shown by Conservative MPs like Mike Lake, James Rajotte or Brent Rathgeber. Nor does it prevent my disagreeing with local activists who participate in the Liberal, NDP or Green movements, either. Indeed, I’m proud to be able to count both the likes of the right-wing Patrick Ross and the left-wing Mel Hurtig among my personal friends. I’ve had my debates with both of them and many other people on both the left and the right, but that doesn’t prevent my agreeing with them on other matters and establishing closer personal friendships with them all.
Listening to the rhetoric in much of the blogosphere and the comment sections of many of our major media outlets, however, one could easily come to the view that such disagreements and friendships are more along the lines of treason or collusion with the enemy. All that matters nowadays seems to be the need to crush your political enemies, or to demonize them and their ideas as somehow treasonous, destructive, anti-freedom or un-Canadian.
It goes without saying that election campaigns and politics in general are competitive and participants need a hard edge to be able to win. However, in recent years political attacks have become so personal and so vindictive that I think the reason more and more Canadians are tuning out of the political process because they’re simply fed up and disgusted with the level of dialogue we’ve sunk to. At this point, too, I suspect many of the people who still vote will end up marking their ballots with one hand while holding their noses with the other.
So, is there a solution? At the present time, it’s hard to say-the problem is arguably so entrenched and perpetuated by both the political left and the political right that things likely won’t change anytime soon. It’s worth remembering how all this started, though-namely by the desire on both sides to crush their ideological opponents and demonize them well beyond their actual policies or goals might have been. It’s as much a Liberal as a Conservative problem, with the actions taken by Stephen Harper being fashioned in reply to the attacks the Reform movement endured in the 1990s.
There’s no magic solution that can fix the problem, sadly enough. What there is worth remembering, though, is that there’s also a more positive side to Canadian politics, one that frequently gets overlooked in the toxic political culture we have now. The different parties in Ottawa have proven capable of working together for the greater good when they want to, and a great deal of hard work has been done by backbenchers and parliamentary committees that operate outside the media spotlight. Many bills and actions have passed without the vitriol one would otherwise expect.
Perhaps that’s the key-remembering that, despite whatever disagreements we might have with someone, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re acting in bad faith. For all that people might differ on how Canada should work or even what it should be like, that doesn’t mean they deserve to be condemned and demonized-and I say this acknowledging the times when I haven’t lived up to my own rhetoric and realizing that I have to improve in that regard. It’s fair to criticize other peoples’ ideas and even their behaviour when in your view it’s unethical or harmful to the country, but there’s a distinct line between criticizing a person’s ideas and political behaviour and demonizing them as a matter of course.
The latter action has proven to be just as harmful to Canada over the last few decades as any public policy pursued in that time.
[1] Richard Gwyn, The Northern Magus: Pierre Trudeau and Canadians. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1980.
[2] Preston Manning, The New Canada. Toronto: Macmillan Canada, 1990.
[3] Kate Heartfield, “Harper as Darth Vader! What Next?” Edmonton Journal, April 12, 2011.
[4] Patrick Ross, “Is This Rising Up, Mr. Ignatieff?” Edmonton Conservative Examiner, April 18, 2011. http://www.examiner.com/edmonton-conservative-in-calgary/is-this-rising-up-mr-ignatieff
[5] Patrick Ross, “Mike Hudema Not A Coward, but Not Being Honest.” Edmonton Conservative Examiner, September 20, 2010. http://www.examiner.com/edmonton-conservative-in-calgary/mike-hudema-not-a-coward-but-not-being-honest
[6] Manning, pages 258 and 354.
[7] Preston Manning, Think Big: My Adventures in Life and Democracy. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2002. See pages 88 and 360-361 for particular examples.
[8] As cited in Lawrence Martin, Harperland: The Politics of Control. Toronto: The Penguin Group, 2010. Pages 3-6.
[9] Mel Hurtig, The Truth About Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2008. See pages 79-89 and 114-135 for particular examples.
[10] Paul Wells, “What Harper Has Planned For Ottawa: The PM Plans to Continue Shrinking Government-Health Care Transfers Will Help”. Maclean’s Magazine, April 20, 2011.
[11] Maxime Bernier, “Ottawa Should Quit Interfering in Provincial Jurisdiction”. The National Post, October 13, 2010.
[12] Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan, Ted Morton, Rainier Knopff, Andrew Crooks and Ken Boessenkool. “Separation, Alberta-Style: It’s Time For a New Relationship With Canada.” The National Post, December 8, 2000. Page A18.
[13] Roger Gibbins and Loleen Berdahl, Western Visions, Western Futures: Perspectives on the West in Canada. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2003. Page 106.
Stumble It!
The fact that you can maintain a personal friendship with a man who has a habit of calling anyone who disagrees with him a sellout or "comprador" says volumes about your patience and tolerance.
I like that you appreciate the cause/effect relationship between the condescension and contempt shown to Westerners and populist conservatives by Central Canadian Liberals and the anger and resentment felt towards the Liberals by Harper and his Western supporters. Marc Lalonde as much as admitted that the NEP was designed largely to keep Western Canada from becoming powerful. The kind of "hatred" that authors like Lawrence Martin ascribe to Harper comes from somewhere. Calling your opponents stupid, racist and un-Canadian simply because they don't share your values isn't a way to establish constructive dialogue.
If Stephen Harper is a "monster", then he's one that was created by smug urban Liberals (and Red Tories) in Ontario and Quebec.
People blame the nastiness that has crept into federal politics on Harper and the Reform/Alliance movement in general, but it truly began (as you've noted) with Trudeau and Chretien. When someone starts fighting back against a bully, that's going to naturally escalate the level of violence. And when it's an evenly matched fight (bully vs. bully), it can become quite bloody indeed.
As I've said in an article I published here back in January, I'm close friends with Mel and I agree with a lot (but not all) of what he says, although I'm extremely frustrated by those same tendencies you describe. It's not a new thing, either-along with the contempt Trudeau showed, I was especially galled by what I've read about Eugene Forsey.
And the less said about Robin Mathews, the better.
In many respects my own beliefs are those of a Progressive Conservative/Red Tory. Despite all the bread-and-butter things the Harper Conservatives have done that I like, I'm still extremely reluctant to vote for them because of past comments like Harper's "firewall" letter (which in my mind would be just as bad for my home province of Alberta as it would be for Canada) or Maxime Bernier's comments about Ottawa intervening in provincial jurisdiction, never mind that the provinces are stepping on Ottawa's toes now too. We obviously need to clear up the areas of federal and provincial jurisdiction, but in my mind the investments that the federal government has made in the social safety net has both strengthened our unity as a country and improved the well-being of all Canadians, and if we follow Harper's and Bernier's goals as outlined in the sources I cited above I feel that both our unity and our welfare would suffer.
Not that I don't think there some areas where Ottawa is better off butting out, of course-Alberta obviously has to take the lead on addressing the oilsands, and if we really do try to create some sort of national energy strategy, that's another area where my province would have to take the lead. If Alberta's not onside, in my mind a national energy strategy is a non-starter.
I was born in 1982, and when I got the opportunity to cast my first ballot in a federal election I voted Canadian Alliance. Although Stockwell Day was leader at the time, I was in fact voting for Preston Manning, in part because I liked a lot of what he had to say and in part because the crap directed towards him-and by extension the West-by the Liberals was what drove me away from them. Now, unfortunately, I think that Harper has taken up many of the same tactics the Liberals used to use, and it's weakened both our level of democracy and the unity of our country as a whole.
The only difference is that the shoe's on the other foot now, and having a Western conservative be the one doing the shoving doesn't make me feel any better about the situation. If anything, my own view is that many parts of the country actually have more common ground than we realize...but the likes of Kate McMillan (of SmallDeadAnimals) and Robert Peter John Day (alias CanadianCynic) have made everyone on their side look bad by association.