Sunday, October 19, 2014

Updated: Michael Harris' New Book



Veteran journalist and current national affairs columnist for iPolitics, Michael Harris, has just had his new book on Stephen Harper published. While the 500-page tome, entitled Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover, may offer nothing startlingly new to those of us who follow national politics closely, it serves as both a useful reminder of the democratic depredations Harper is responsible for, as well as an alert to those who are so disengaged as to regard him as a benign presence on the political landscape. While few of the latter will likely read the book, I suggest it would be a useful exercise to email the link to this Star article about the book to friends and associates who might fall into that category.

Some pretty impressive people offer solid testimony against the kind of 'regime change' that has been instituted under the Harper cabal. One of them is Farley Mowat who, in the last months of his life, said this to Harris:
“Stephen Harper is probably the most dangerous human being ever elevated to power in Canada”.

“We took Parliament for granted, but, like the environment, it turns out that it is an incredibly delicate and fragile structure. Harper has smothered MPs and is destroying Parliament.”
Jim Coyle, the article's writer, points out that Michael Harris has always been drawn to stories of injustice and abuse of power. It is precisely what he found in researching Harper's reign:
“A lot of the things that (Harper) was doing struck me as not only unjust but unjustifiable.

“In doing the research I found I was not the only person who thought so, and people a lot smarter and more involved in the system understood the nature of the threat that he presents.”
Says former Commons Speaker Peter Milliken:
“Parliament can hardly be weakened any more than it already is. Harper can’t go much further without making the institution dysfunctional. He is trying to control every aspect of House business. In fact, it will have to be returned to its former state by someone if we are to have a democracy.”
Powerful and damning words from a respected parliamentarian.

Another devastating indictment comes from veteran diplomat Paul Heinbecker, a former ambassador to Germany:
“Canada’s diplomacy is hugely different under Harper”. “It is a reversal of our history.

“We have become outliers. We are seen as more American than the Americans, more Israeli than Likud. Given what our foreign policy has become, I would not have joined the service today if I were a young man.”
Former information commissioner Robert Marleau joins in on the condemnation of Harper's contempt for anyone or anything that disagrees with him:
[W]hen his government was found in contempt (of Parliament), Harper treated it like a minor, partisan irritation. Parliament is now a minor process obstacle.

“Canadians are sleepwalking through dramatic social, economic and political changes surreptitiously being implemented by a government abusing omnibus bills and stifling public and parliamentary debate”.

“Mr. Harper has not played within the rules. Having attained absolute power, he has absolutely abused that power to the maximum.”

All and all, Harris' insights appear to be ones that we have an obligation to share with less-informed and less-engaged Canadians.

UPDATE: Lawrence Martin weighs in on how he thinks the Harris book will cause some indigestion for Harper.

6 comments:

  1. Nothing seems to stop King Harper, Lorne. He continues on his merry path. Only hope is 2015 when hopefully he will be sent back to Calgary and banned from Ottawa.

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    1. How about going for broke and see if we can get him banned from Canada, LD? ;)

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  2. Lorne, when a dictator shows up in our country we owe it to ourselves and to all Canadians to identify him for the tyrant that he is. Most of the MSM has not done this. Bloggers like yourself have. Michael Harris's book will be a study of Harpers authoritarian reign and the destruction it has done to our country, including our freedom. What is it about so many people that when a dictator does evolve before their very eyes, they are not aware that he/she is in fact a dictator until the knock comes to their door. Thank goodness for writers like Michael Harris and bloggers like yourself.

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    1. Thank you, Pamela. I think that the key to Harper's 'success' as a disassembler of democracy resides in the fact that he has done it incrementally over time, and a significant segment of Canadians (probably more since his tenure) are disengaged and alienated from the political process. While people have slept, the thief has stolen our democracy.

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  3. Banned from Canada? Lorne,that will be the best solution and sent to Timbuktu.

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