Richard Gwyn's Harper

By: Bill Lee

In early January Richard Gwyn, one of the more respected members of our Canadian pundit class wrote a strange little article, "Why We Should Re-elect Harper". His position briefly was that though Harper is a malevolent bit of business he is just the kind nasty "son-of-a-bitch" to "to get the nasty but necessary reforms and belt-tightening done". One can only agree with Gwyn as to the personality of the man, he is deceitful (the Senate scandal kerfuffle), mean spirited (his attitude toward refugees, immigrants and the poor) and seems to care only for power (the robo-call business that is slowly making its way through the investigation phase). It is not clear however that those qualities are particularly useful for dealing with the issues that confront us. The article does point out that his personal management of government has hurt him deeply in the poles, but this for Gwyn is a mere bagatelle, in the face of the need for belt tightening.

There are important flaws in Gwyn's piece. First of course is that far from belt-tightening what this country (as do others, see for example Paul Krugman's columns in the New York Times) needs is some form of strategy that would increase the potential for jobs, not reduce them. At the moment Harper has his Minister of Finance traipsing about the country trumpeting the likelihood of a Federal surplus by 2015; all the better, of course, to offer tax breaks as election goodies my dear. But how will the Harperites have actually fashioned a surplus? For the most part by having reduced services that serve the public good. Here are just a few examples: cuts to the civil service in general and in particular to vital areas such as regulatory personal in like food safety; they have cut infrastructure which supports important scientific investigation into and monitoring of environmental issues; they has cut medical services for refugee claimants

The second flaw in Gwyne's position is suggestion that the Harper government has actually been an effective steward of the public purse. The facts show the reverse. Alex Roberts in the Ottawa Citizen (Jan 26/14) pointed out a number examples of what can only be seen as gross mismanagement Just a few will suffice: since 2009 there has been an estimated $113 million spent on the economic action plan and touting the Haperite's economic record; an increase of 236,200 in unemployment since 2006; at present Canada ranks as the third highest unemployment rate in the G7; under the Conservative government our country has posted the lowest economic growth record since 1935; Canada presently ranks 20th among OECD nations in economic growth; Canada has had a 23 month string of trade deficit numbers. We could go on, but the point is simply that the Conservatives claim of economic expertise is a fraud and Gwyne's acceptance of the claim is, at best naive.

A third flaw, a very important one, in Gwyn's plea for Harper is that he seems unaware of the leadership role he and his government have played in creating a model of government that is opaque and ruthlessly antidemocratic. It is not only his blustery obfuscating performance as he attempts to wiggle away from his responsibility in the Duffy-Nigel Wright affair, though his performance was indeed cringe making. It also includes his use of omnibus bills where significant legislation is buried in a morass of confusion within a wide range of elements many of which are unrelated to each other. The omnibus bill was of course not pioneered by Harper but under his watch it appears to have become the go-to strategy for avoiding any significant public discussion of important public issues. Harper and his gang of yes people almost never engage the notion of a public dialogue, substituting the use mealy mouth "talking points which they

repeat ad nauseam. Harper appears to have a strong belief in a black and white, for or against us, model of the world. He may sincerely believe that to have his vision of the country prevail. In other words he is a "true believer" and therefore is permitted to engage in every form of dirty political maneuvering.

What all Harper's efforts, social, political and economic, have so far accomplished is a more divided and less secure citizenry as the country becomes increasing right wing in its polices. Admittedly, we have not much of a Left operating in Canadian politics these days (perhaps more on this topic another time). Nevertheless the story that Harper is the politician most fit to lead the country is alive and well. It may be, indeed it is a fraud and/or naive but it has so often been repeated by not only the Richard Gwyn's of the world that it carries weight. Thus, we need to counter each exaggeration and untruth as quickly and forcefully as we can. People seem to be gradually waking up to this kind of necessity in Toronto where the bogus claims of our crack smoking - he's a hard worker, has saved the city a billion dollars for example - are finally being challenged in the media - he is neither hard working or an efficient steward of the city purse. Similarly, pointing out the like kinds of truth about Harper is a strategy that the Left must bring to bear on this quite odious Prime Minister.