Government is like a big ship, Harper told his MPs.
“If you form government, you just want to change the direction a little bit, because the longer you’re on that changed direction, you’re obviously much further from where you’d be and people haven’t noticed that much.”
Edmonton-Leduc MP James Rajotte told Postmedia’s Mark Kennedy about the line in one of the interviews Kennedy conducted for his revealing Rebel to Realist portrait of the prime minister.
Let us imagine Captain Harper on the bridge, steering HMCS Canada through the turbulent global waters. He would like to take us hard to starboard, but if he yanks the wheel, the passengers will be alarmed.
But if he takes his time, nobody will be alarmed and over time he will get to where he wants to go.
Back then, the Liberals were regularly accusing Harper of having a hidden agenda. Paul Martin’s desperate government warned that Harper would ban abortion, close Canada’s doors to immigrants, privatize health care, get rid of bilingualism.
None of that has come to pass. It’s more steady as she goes.
On the environment, the prime minister has moved the dial, making it easier for companies to drill oil or build pipelines, but otherwise, it is hard to think of Harper as a radical.
He has restricted access to Employment Insurance, but so did Jean Chretien.
He is cutting the size of government, but only after increasing it.
In 1998, after Paul Martin’s cuts, there were 204,000 federal public servants, down from more than 250,000 in the early 1990s. In 2013, there are 262,817.
It’s the same with federal transfers to the provinces. The Chretien-Martin cuts really did put the provinces in a bind. Harper and Jim Flaherty, in contrast, increased transfers and then flat-lined them.
Harper has largely disengaged with the provinces, failing to hold the big meetings that give premiers an opportunity to pick fights with Ottawa.
There have been no bruising confrontations with premiers since Danny Williams left the stage. Ottawa’s recent response to Quebec’s proposed values charter has been restrained and mature.
Harper has increased military spending, but Chretien had starved the Canadian Forces, so it’s hard to see the increase as radical.
In response to the economic crisis, Harper put billions into infrastructure, piling up federal debt. After cutting two points from the GST, and offering a bunch of silly tax credits, Harper and Flaherty have emptied the federal treasury. They’ve promised to balance the books before the next election. That seems unlikely, but we’re still better off than most countries.
Overall, at this point, the prime minister looks more like a manager than a maverick, which is surprising, given all the fuss about his hidden agenda back in the day.
In opposition, Harper seemed permanently furious about Liberal misdeeds. He couldn’t believe the way the Grits appointed their cronies to the Senate, and sent cabinet ministers around doling out regional development money of dubious value.
In government, he has not only appointed a record number of his cronies to the Senate, in some cases he has done so after they were defeated in elections. And he created new regional development agencies, overseen by ambitious and obedient backbenchers puffed up as parliamentary secretaries.
It turns out that Harper wasn’t against partisan hackery. Far from it. He was against Liberal partisan hackery.
In Kennedy’s profile, the prime minister’s old friend and ally, Tom Flanagan, describes the prime minister as “suspicious, secretive, ruthless, sometimes very temperamental, arbitrary.”
Harper’s remorseless approach to politics is likely so far his biggest legacy.
Harper has harnessed the state to the governing party in an unprecedented way. Nobody in his domain — not fish scientists, Mounties or census takers — is free to speak except as it serves his interests.
The government spends millions on advertising designed to help the party, and it has changed election financing laws in ways that help the Tories.
Harper is at the point in his career when prime ministers think about their legacies. So far, his has been more political than substantive. There have been no significant trade deals. No big pipelines have been built. There are more federal public servants than when he started.
If he does have a plan, now is the time to put it in action. On Oct. 16, Harper will unveil his agenda for the next year in the throne speech. A bit more than two years from that day, on Oct. 19, 2015, we will go to the polls.
In his office, Harper has surrounded himself with old loyalists. In his front bench, he has three ministers — Flaherty, John Baird and Jason Kenney — who are capable of tackling tough jobs.
If this prime minister has an agenda, it shouldn’t be hidden for long.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Stephen Maher
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