Ramblings on Harper and Government

Over that past couple of weeks, Stephen Harper has been on a spree of spending announcements. Now this isn't unusual for federal politicians anticipating an election after all nothing garners votes faster than bribing voters with their own money. What make this spending spree notable is that Harper was elected on a platform of fiscal responsibility. At the rate he's going with handing out cash and tax cuts, the federal government will head back into deficit territory. Again, this is not unusual for federal politicians. It does however show Harper's glaring hypocrisy or at the very least his ability to flip-flop on a dime if he thinks it will keep him in power. Harper has become a pendulum. When he first came into power he was charging through on his "principles" unbending to any sign of common sense or public pressure. Harper has now swung completely the other way, bending with the slightest poll initiated breeze in an attempt to maintain power. There seems to be no middle ground with this man, it's all or nothing.

This goes to show that Harper, though intelligent, is not necessarily wise. Wisdom implies the ability to see the nuances in the world, that things are shades of gray. Stephen Harper's actions as Prime Minister seem to indicate that he's stuck in an all or nothing world of black and white thinking. Either he's principled and unmoved by what anyone around him says or he's chasing the polls, bending however he thinks he can get a quick vote. He doesn't seem to have the ability to see the middle ground, where principles temper the wild swings of public opinion and seeing public opinion mutes the absolutes of principle. Harper goes from his way or the highway to giving away the store which is no way to govern a country.

Stephen Harper has to learn moderation and learn it quickly. He tried being "principled" and unmoving and discovered that the people of Canada didn't like that so he's rapidly changing into Paul Martin. The problem Harper has is that by becoming Paul Martin and taking on the "Mr. Dithers" persona, Harper is likely to suffer the same fate at the polls as Paul Martin. Without finding the middle ground where Harper can look Prime Ministerial, he will begin, over time to turn off more and more Canadians. As it is, he is unlikely to get his much cherished majority government as Canadians didn't like the principled Harper and aren't likely to like a flip-flopping Harper.

Now I'm not so naive to believe that if Harper were to get a majority government that he wouldn't suddenly become "principled" again. Without the check of opposition, I suspect Harper would become so arrogant as to make the arrogance he's shown so far look like humility. The swing back to "principled" would be quick. The swing back to flip-flop would also be quick and be timed with the following election. What it all boils down to is that Stephen Harper will do anything for power. He's especially shown this since the beginning of the year. Flip-flopping on the environment and government spending, lying through his teeth in the house are all signs that he's all about having power and not about governing effectively.
When a political leader starts to lust for power as Harper is now, it's time for them to retire. Democracy is not forwarded by politicians who seek power for power's sake as Harper seems to be doing now. There is no entitlement to rule, despite what the leaders of the major parties seem to think and any party or leader that starts to show that needs to be sent packing by the electorate. The key here is vigilance on the part of the electorate. Failure to vote out parties after a time gives the party in power a sense of entitlement and you end up with the arrogance of the Chretien Liberals federally and the Alberta PC's provincially. The part of this that worries me about Stephen Harper is that he's reached that level of entitlement and arrogance in less than a year and with a minority government. Giving him a majority would be like throwing gasoline on a fire as I suspect that he'd start acting like George W. Bush in the states.

If that were to happen our civil liberties would disappear in the guise of "security" but in reality because Harper would want to stomp out or at the very least silence his opposition. He's shown a tendency to that in his time in power, shutting out reporters that don't paint him as the Saviour of the Universe and putting a muzzle on his MPs so tight they probably have problems breathing. The subversion of the government web sites into a thinly veiled propaganda machine for the Conservative Party is a further sign that a Harper majority would be dangerous to democracy. Only by continually speaking out and not blindly voting for one party or another can we maintain our democracy and allow it to flourish. Supporting politicians who lust after power like Stephen Harper is a sure way to the eventual destruction of democracy. We all have to guard against that.