Is Harper Blowing It?

The trouble with that is that it might be jumping the gun a little. Harper had plenty of time left in his term. In fact by calling the election, he violated a campaign promises and some legislation that he himself pushed through, specifically aimed at preventing this sort of 'surprise attack' tactic. Now Harper can explain. He claims that the legislation in question never applied to minority governments. That distinction was never made clear when said legislation was passed. He also claims that the present parliament is unworkable, and that he needs a stronger mandate to get the job done. However he's a little vague as to exactly how parliament has become unworkable, or in which ways the opposition have frustrated him. As for the public, hot line callers are complaining about the sheer number of elections that we've had in the past 5 years.

The plot thickens. A number of Tory party higher ups have been called over the carpet recently, for tactless public statements. There was the unfortunate listeriosis joke, that cost one cabinet minister his post. A few others have recently joined him in disgrace. It seems that ever time Dion and the Liberals can catch some Tory front bencher making an ass of themselves (not the hardest thing in the world to do), they merely have to make a public stink for the offender's removal. Harper is happy to oblige. He's not gonna let any of these jokers blow it for him.

There are a couple of problems with this, besides the fact that it amounts to letting the opposition choose your cabinet: 1. it shows an astonishing lack of leadership. The minute he's pressed, Harper folds. Had he made a public announcement to the effect that said offenders would be internally disciplined, even required to make public apologies, but would not be fired, then he might have shown something in the way of backbone. Cabinet minsters may be fired for gross incompetence or abuse of power - not for off the cuff remarks. If that were grounds for dismissal, than Pierre Trudeau would've had to let his entire cabinet go, beginning with himself.

Now if some blogger thought of this, then why not our fearless leader? Well that brings us to point 2. Gross ambition. Harper wants a majority so bad that he can taste it. Furthermore he's not gonna let anyone or anything stand in his way; not friendship, not party loyality, nothing. If you look like a liabilty, then he's happy enough to sacrifice you, Pontius Pilate style, to the mob. "Sorry kid, but this is a rough game" He'll offer up anyone, as long as it's not him.

Now while you can arguably say that it takes ambition to become PM, we don't like our leaders to come off as power happy maniacs. It's just such poor form. While we know full well that none of them have anything resembling a principle in any fiber of their bodies (and probably for the best, lest some mad man try to impose their version of a good idea on us), we at least like them to know how to behave in public. That is with some semblance of humanity, common decency, and those other virtues that we pay lip service to.

Harper has let his ambition show. Now wearing your heart on your sleeve that way is conduct unbecoming a politician. Then again that's been obvious for some time, like the way Harper played eager lackey to George W - ("Yo Harper, get your ass over here!").

Apart from that, the recent wave of ax swinging in the upper echelons of the Tory party can't be doing moral any good. It's become plainly clear that if you're on Harper's team and you get into a little trouble, then you're on your own. Having a leader whom you know won't stick up for you doesn't inspire commitment from the troops. In fact it must be positively detrimental to moral. If the Liberals goaded him into this, then more shame on him.

Put this together and you've got a Tory party that is troubled inside and out. Harper is still riding high, and the election is only 3 weeks away, but it wouldn't be the first time that a leader met his Waterloo by playing the percentages instead of covering the angles. Most Ontarians remember a certain premier who called a snap election when he was 80% in the opinion poles. When the dust cleared, Bob Rae was premier (it seemed like a good idea at the time). Besides, Stephan Dion is suddenly sounding a lot more articulate lately. This election is beginning to seem full of surprises. It's not too late for a fumble, and if Harper keeps 'reacting', then he might find himself back in opposition. Considering his recent party moral building, I imagine that there are a few Tories who wouldn't cry to see him go altogether. If worst comes to worst, he can always ring up Belinda Stronach for some post political career advice. They suddenly seem to have so much in common lately.

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