Busting the top five Harper myths, someone has to

OAKVILLE, ONT.—Stephen Harper has now been Prime Minister of Canada for more than six years.

And during that time a number of myths have emerged regarding his leadership, myths which many in the media and elsewhere have come to accept as reality.

So, in the interest of setting the record straight, I have decided to bust the “Top Five Stephen Harper Myths.”

Here they are in no particular order:

Myth No. 1: Stephen Harper wants to turn Canada into a Christian theocracy

The perpetrators of this myth like to paint Harper as a cross between Rick Santorum and Ayatollah Khomeini.  In fact, in her book, The Armageddon Factor, Marci McDonald suggests Harper is plotting to hand control of Canada over to a cabal of bible-thumping evangelical Christians who want to ban abortions, stop gay marriage and just generally throw society back to the Middle Ages. Is this true? Nope. When it comes to social issues Harper is really a “Don’t Rock the Boat Moderate.” That’s why social conservatives overwhelmingly backed Stockwell Day during the 2002 Canadian Alliance leadership race.

Myth No. 2: Stephen Harper introduced ‘American-style’ attack ads to Canada


The Harper Tories unquestionably run aggressive media campaigns and they routinely pillory their opponents with “attack ads.”  But let’s face it, they were not the first in Canada to employ rough-house tactics. Indeed, the book Kicking Ass in Canadian Politics, describes its author, Warren Kinsella—the one-time strategist for former prime minister Jean Chrétien—as “an enthusiastic advocate of tough, in-your-face politics—politics that infuriates opponents, but wins votes.”And in the 2004 federal election it was the Liberals who aired attack ads designed to make Harper look scarier than a Stephen King film festival. If anything, the Harper Tories just decided to fight fire with fire.

Myth No. 3: ‘Stephen Harper is an arch-conservative’ Prime Minister

In reality, Prime Minister Harper is not so much a conservative as he is a right-wing populist, with a lot of Liberal thrown in for good measure. His stance on a stronger military and his tough “law and order agenda,” for instance, are pure populism. At the same time, however, his fiscal policies of more spending and bigger government can be found in any Liberal Party playbook. It should go without saying that a truly conservative prime minister would have cut spending and made government smaller.

Myth No. 4: Sixty per cent of Canadians are irrevocably opposed to Harper’s agenda

This myth gets trotted out every time somebody wants to delegitimize some aspect of Harper’s agenda. And yes, it’s true on Election Day 2011 about 60 per cent of Canadians didn’t vote for the Conservative Party. Of course, 70 per cent of Canadians didn’t vote for the NDP, 81 per cent didn’t vote for the Liberals and a whopping 96 per cent didn’t vote for the Green Party. So what? The way people vote is an imprecise measure of overall political attitudes or intensity. A voter may cast a ballot against Harper, yet still agree with many of his policies.

Myth No. 5: Harper is anti-democratic

Columnist Lawrence Martin once wrote the “Harper government has shown no hesitation to bully its way through democratic barriers. It has padlocked Parliament, been the first government ever to be found in contempt of Parliament and, more recently, imposed closure and time limits on parliamentary debate at a record-breaking clip.”

Sounds scary. So here’s a less scary way to essentially say the same thing: Like any politician, Harper is using democratic Parliamentary rules to his advantage.

There you have it; the top five Harper myths officially debunked and busted.

That’s five down, 50 to go.

Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: GERRY NICHOLLS