It could be the departure of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, or a spectacular policy pivot, or even an election from space. Some people think there is still a chance it could be a Harper resignation.
Prime Minister Harper, like senators Duffy and Wallin, is beginning the most painful journey of all — from key political asset to major party liability.
It is a slow process, but can reach runaway elevator speed if the cable snaps. Harper is at the stage where it is beginning to fray.
Knowingly or unknowingly, the prime minister has presided over two major scandals which are both far from over — Robocalls and the Wright/Duffy Affair — and one in which the party was caught cheating, the In-and-Out scandal. His Conservative values are now purely rhetorical.
The PM has also tightened the choke chain around his own people, dictating not so benevolently from the PMO what he wants done. Some people have had enough, tired of taking orders from an office whose stealthy activities have brought the police and with no Nigel to right the ship.
Last June, Brent Rathgeber broke his leash to sit as an independent. The caucus has had ants in its pants ever since — particularly the theo-cons who have been completely betrayed on their agenda by the prime minister.
Harper’s judgment in personal appointments — from the two senators now under RCMP investigation to shady characters like Arthur Porter and Bruce Carson — has been deplorable.
The PM’s political vulnerability has now reached the point where, as Andrew Coyne wrote, the party is beginning to imagine a post-Harper universe. The scary part for the CPC is that the post-Harper universe may be run by a new father who is not a Conservative and doesn’t mind the odd toke.
But even more telling, prominent figures in the party used the Manning Networking Conference to speak out against the PM’s political judgement, issue management, and style — ever so gently, but ever so clearly. Even a year ago, that would have been unthinkable.
Take Preston Manning. The man who laid the foundations for Stephen Harper’s political career in 1987 has urged the prime minister to restore democracy. Yikes! The only place you need to restore democracy is somewhere that it doesn’t exist. Was it possibly the gentlest way of telling someone they were a dictator?
If it was, some people were less delicate. Kelsey Johnson reported in iPolitics that former Conservative MP Inky Mark picked up on Manning’s comment, using Twitter to say that Harper “was dictator since day one.”
Harper himself used the “D” word in 1998 when as president of the National Citizens Coalition, he described his organization as a “dictatorship for democracy.”
To inject a little 3D into my prose, Ken Lewenza, former union leader, used the word to describe the PM in an interview with me: “Harper is the worst fucking dictator I’ve ever seen.”
Jerry Nichols — whose book, Loyal to the Core, has never gotten the attention it deserves — worked for 22 years at the NCC, including under Harper’s presidency. His ultimate conclusion: Stephen Harper was a cult figure, which is really just another way of saying dictator.
So it’s not inconsequential that Manning advised the PM to amend the Fair Elections Act. It is epical.
The elder statesman of Reform/Conservative politics in Canada said out loud what a lot of Canadians have been thinking for some time: Time to restore democracy, Mr. Prime Minister, not subvert it.
Give Elections Canada the power it asked for, rather than diminishing the power the CPC wished EC didn’t have in the Robocalls investigation. How do you improve elections by reducing the powers of EC? How do help an investigation by informing the target of the scrutiny, unless you’re in favour of evidence disappearing?
Without amendment, the “Unfair Elections Act” as Thomas Mulcair calls it, is corrupt.
Why should political fundraising, which is an election expense, be exempt from expense limits?
Why should there be any restrictions on EC’s freedom to encourage people to vote or comment on any other election matter?
Why should the Commissioner of EC report to government rather than Parliament?
Why no power for EC to compel testimony, unless you don’t want to get at criminal violations of the Act?
And what on earth does a Fair Elections Act have to do with giving political parties, especially the Conservatives, more money?
Tellingly, when the government handed out documents to reporters to explain the bill’s proposed changes, the exemption of fundraising from elections expenses wasn’t mentioned — as the CBC’s ever-vigilant Laura Payton reported.
Conservatives across Canada are getting sick of a party that has become a cult of one — which is why one of the other things Manning advised Harper to do was to stop working the bit in the mouth of caucus, loosen the reins, and go easy on the spurs.
Manning wasn’t the only person advising basic changes to the Harper approach. There was also Jim Prentice and Michael Chong.
There is no bigger fish cruising just under the surface of the CPC than Jim Prentice. The banker and former Harper environment minister laid it on the line about Northern Gateway and other matters at the Manning conference. There would be no pipelines to the West Coast and no LNG terminals without a full economic partnership with First Nations.
What Prentice didn’t say was that Harper’s legacy on the most important issue to this government may be sending resource development on a 10-year detour into the courts. Utter failure, given the explosive increase in far cheaper energy sources.
What the native bands want are loans guaranteed by Ottawa — like the one given to Newfoundland and Labrador to develop the Lower Churchill. That way they can use debt to buy equity in the various projects that affect their land, and not just draw a cheque for cleaning up oil spills. This time beads and baloney won’t do the trick and Prentice, who has credibility with First Nations people, knows it.
With any luck, the decision to mend or end his ways will not be left totally up to the PM. The very best Conservative MP in Ottawa, and the most ludicrously underused, is Michael Chong. His private members bill is going to second reading and it has a lot of CPC backbenchers excited. Why? If it ever passes, it will restore some dignity to ordinary MPs and reduce the power of all party leaders — including Harper.
Michael Chong was not given the portfolio for democratic reform. Instead, the job went to Pierre Poilievre. By the time you stop laughing about that, you will know why Harper is in so much trouble.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca/
Author: Michael Harris
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