Stephen Harper – the Great Divider
Prime Minister Harper has chosen a dangerous and destructive course in his desperate attempt to hang on to power in a Parliament that no longer has confidence in him.
His attempt to label the Liberal-NDP coalition as a “socialist-separatist driven attack on Canada’s democracy” may help firm up his own core support. But it comes with potentially awful consequences.
- First, it denigrates and derides the right of Quebec voters to have their representatives heard in Ottawa. The consequences for the Conservative party will be incalculable. The Prime Minister is destroying for a generation the last faint hope of the Conservative party for ever winning over Quebec voters.
- Second, Mr. Harper’s strident attack can only stir up animosity toward Quebec across Canada. Far from the Coalition being a threat to national unity, it’s the Prime Minister’s distortions and misrepresentations that are the real menace.
None of this should surprise us. Mr. Harper’s reputation as a bully is well earned. In the words of Bill Casey, the Nova Scotia Tory who was kicked out of caucus, “he doesn’t understand or accept that the Opposition should even exist.”
There are signs that the Harper onslaught may not be working. An overnight poll from Angus Reid Strategies, reported on CTV, has 40 per cent of Canadians wanting a change of government, with 35 per cent saying the Conservatives should stay on.
The Harper pr offensive against the Coalition goes so far as to call it “an attack on Canada itself.” The Tory web site asserts that “no responsible national leader would ever give power to a group that wants to destroy” the country. Ridiculous nonsense!
It is laughable to suggest that Mr. Dion, whose Clarity Act has put an end to separatist designs to take Quebec out of Canada through another phony referendum, would be party to any such strategy.
It got so ridiculous that the PM told the House the Coalition leaders didn’t dare show the Canadian flag at their media briefing. The picture above proves otherwise.
There’s mounting pressure on Mr. Harper to resign, although it’s hard to imagine him ever doing this. On CBC this morning, Bill Casey called Canada “a country in crisis.” The solution, he said, is for Mr, Harper to step down.
Perrin Beatty, the former Joe Clark cabinet minister who now heads up the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, has taken a roundhouse swipe at the “political opportunism” going on in Ottawa. He says business wants “an economic stimulus program as quickly as possible.” Clearly, that won’t come from the Harper government.
Canadians need to remember we did not elect a government on October 14th. We elected a Parliament, and MPs have the duty of defeating a government when they no longer have confidence in it. If the Coalition can assure the Governor General that they have the confidence of the House, she has the duty to give them the opportunity of governing.
Mr. Harper has lost the confidence of Parliament. Now he’s rapidly losing the confidence of the country. It’s time for the Great Divider, and his entire government, to bow out.
