The Conservative leader took a hard line on taking Syrian refugees and opposed the wearing of the niqab by Muslims at citizenship ceremonies. While there was sizable support for him in both these issues, the tipping point came soon after the niqab furore when he pledged to set up a police hotline to report "barbaric cultural practices". Bill C51, which strengthened government powers of surveillance after a series of shootings targeting the government in , rallied many against what they felt was an attack on civil liberties.
If the election had happened earlier in the year, Bill C51 might have been an even bigger issue in the campaign. Interestingly, Mr Trudeau voted for the bill and said the Liberals would introduce amendments to ease public concerns. The two neighbours clearly did not have a great warmth for each other.
According to the Globe and Mail in late , Harper was "deeply frustrated with a president who, he believes, is incapable of making a difficult decision". It was in Canada's economic and military interest to get along with the US, says Mr Nimijean, but it never happened, compounding a sense that the country's global image was taking a battering.
Canadians like to see themselves as a middle-power, honest broker in the world, he says, but Mr Harper never figured out the US or China, and his Middle East policy veered from balanced to pro-Israel.
Indeed, have we ever seen a prime minister so bereft of the back-slapping, shoulder-punching, baby-kissing arts of human contact? Even the cerebral Pierre Trudeau enjoyed a pirouette at the palace.
For Harper, it was always an ordeal. The fact that he could steel himself to endure it, though, tells us much about his success as a politician. He never set hearts a-thumping — except among his enemies — but Harper's discipline made up the difference. Take the little matter of elections. It was a gigantic achievement to lead a fractious party to victory three times in a row, even in the teeth of a deep recession.
What's more, Harper did not step to the head of an established political machine; he had to build his own from the wreckage of two defeated parties.
Preston Manning's Reform Party split the right; Harper united it. After that, he piled up wins. The immigrant vote? The Jewish vote? Keeping the social conservatives close while keeping them quiet? Surviving minority government?
Check, even if prorogation wasn't pretty. Running rings round Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff? Check and check. Don't say that Harper didn't know how to pirouette, too. He preached against chasing "the almighty dollar" in China, then led the chase.
He swore to balance the budget, then ran six deficits. He campaigned on a cap-and-trade carbon plan in , then mocked it in There was no rose in his lapel, but he could swivel like Pierre Trudeau and flip-flop with the best.
His defining zig-zag, for many voters, was the recession budget of As the financial winds howled in the fall of , he said, "We're not running a deficit We're not going into deficit. Six weeks later, the first whopper of a deficit was in the works. Sometimes, a flip-flop can be a wonderful thing.
The opposition complained that it hadn't happened sooner. Rather than being a black mark on Harper's record, it's now seen as simply a necessity in the face of an economic hurricane. And the five more deficits that followed? Those enabled Harper to boast that he shoveled taxpayers' money out the door faster than any government in history.
Which, of course, was not what Conservatives thought they were voting for. So Harper could ladle pork like a Liberal. Better, in fact. Not his fault, you say? Add on all the tax cuts for hockey moms and firefighters and parents and, well, Harper even contrived to double the budget for prisons at a time when crime was falling. Even so, a rising debt can still be a smaller slice of the economy if the economy grows. That's the big picture: Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio is on a slow, downward creep, from 30 per cent to 25 per cent, which is better than our G7 partners.
It's a meaningful measure of fiscal health. If Harper wants to be judged by the economy, then it could be a lot worse. As for global politics, let's start with the good news: baby pandas! Face it, Harper-haters, it's an unmitigated success. Let's hope they survive. Otherwise, Harper's conduct of foreign and defence policy has produced a tangled legacy that's long on bombast and short on cash. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox.
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