Since getting crushed last October 19 by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, there have been more wolverines spotted in Ottawa than confirmed Harper sightings. The odd vote in the House of Commons, a few leisurely afternoons in movie theatres with Ray the Popcorn Holder, and that’s about it for his public profile.
In caucus, he’s a ghost. The guy who used to run everything now can’t even be bothered showing up for work. Life without that security detail and those black SUVs just doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. This is not just the post-defeat tradition of keeping a low profile. This is a vanishing.
But apparently some things still get Steve’s pulse racing. There was a fascinating report over the weekend from the U.S. website Politico placing the elusive ex-PM back in Las Vegas. You will recall that he was sighted there last November 26 at the Shake Shack. Was Steve developing a thing for the roulette wheel? Is he missing Wayne Newton’s rendition of Danke Schoen? No. Harper was the guest of one of the richest Republicans of them all, Sheldon Adelson.
The billionaire casino mogul was hosting his annual, by-invitation-only spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition at his sumptuous Venetian Hotel. There are two requirements for attendance: doting on the 82 year-old host and being filthy rich. There is only one other category of attendee: entertainment. That would be Steve.
It is no small thing to catch Adelson’s eye if you happen to be a Republican politician. In 2012 alone, the gambling tycoon — the world’s 22nd richest man — donated $100 million to the Republican race for president, some of it lavished on former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who belly-flopped despite all the boodle.
This time around, with the GOP about to shoot itself or take poison — depending on whether it selects Donald Trump or Ted Cruz as its presidential nominee — Adelson is not dispensing his largesse. A goodly number of his well-heeled guests are also sitting on their chequebooks.
Harper’s contribution to this Republican glitzerama was to sing for his supper with a speech about how to unite divided parties. You get some idea of how badly split the Republicans really are when they ask a guy like Harper for advice about healing divisions. Steve is a gold medalist in the sport of apple-of-discord throwing. Since entering public life, he has tossed it into any organization he found himself associated with, in an effort to dominate.
But why do it for the Republican Party when he can’t be bothered with Canadian politics now that he’s been reduced to the status of mere mortal? Harper has always had multiple political personalities. It’s just that a lot of people either never knew, or have forgotten.
In his earliest days, Harper succumbed briefly to “Trudeau-mania”. Then there was Harper the Progressive Conservative. Next came Harper the Reformer. After that he was Harper of the Canadian Alliance; finally he morphed into Harper the Conservative Party of Canada member.
Behind it all, like the Wizard of Oz concealed by his curtain, is Harper the Republican. Harper’s trip to Adelson’s mansion was not the first time he’s sung for his supper with the wealthy kingmakers of the GOP.
The year was 1997 and the venue was Montreal. Harper was asked to speak to the Council for National Policy, a secretive group of powerful American conservatives who hold thrice-yearly confidential conferences. The CNP is sniffer-in-chief of prospective GOP presidential candidates hoping to pass the smell test with the American Right.
Harper’s 1997 secret speech was the one where he trashed his own country for the amusement of his American conservative hosts. Here are some of the statements he made that June night:
“Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and proud of it … In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million and a half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about itself themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance … The important point is that Canada is not a bilingual country. It is a country with two languages. And there is a big difference.”
Harper proceeded to trash Canada’s parliamentary system, its Supreme Court and the Senate. He also had a few choice words for the country’s political parties, quipping that the NDP “is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men … The NDP is also explicitly a branch of the Canadian Labour Congress, which is by far our largest labour group, and explicitly radical.”
It is worth noting that this inconvenient speech surfaced in December 2005 in the midst of a hotly contested federal election campaign in Canada. Although journalists were barred from covering Harper’s speech back in 1997, a copy of the address was posted on the website of the Council for National Policy.
It was subsequently picked up by the Canadian Press. Opposition parties tried to use it during that election campaign to make the case that Harper had a “hidden agenda” with Republican overtones. Sadly for Canadians, the RCMP eclipsed Harper’s Montreal speech with the announcement that it was launching a probe into possible budget leaks regarding income trusts. Interestingly, Harper’s speech was subsequently scrubbed from the Council for National Policy website.
Along with rubbing shoulders with the bagmen of the Republican Party in Sheldon Adelson’s mansion, Stephen Harper managed to run into another old friend in Las Vegas, Arthur Finkelstein.
Finkelstein, who helped several conservative candidates to the presidency, had been hired by the right-wing National Citizens Coalition to help turn Canada blue. After leaving the Reform Party, Harper ran the NCC for five years. Finkelstein was instrumental in teaching Canadian conservatives “commando politics” and the art of the attack ad. When Harper wanted to test the waters for a run at political leadership back in 1998, it was Finkelstein, the consummate Republican political consultant, that he commissioned to do a poll.
It appears that Canada’s one and only Tea Party Republican politician has found his natural home in the Nevada desert. I wonder if this was a paid gig.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca/
Author: Michael Harris
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