Harper's Hidden Agenda, REVEALED!

"You won't recognize Canada when I get through with it."

--Stephen Harper, as quoted in an old Liberal attack ad

Remember, way, way back when dinosaurs roamed the earth with Stockwell Day and Stephen Harper was up for election the first time? Remember the fearmongering employed by first the Chretien, then the Martin Liberals...which worked the first time and would have worked again had the Libs not been engaged in a wee bit of scandal-mongering themselves. We were told over and over and over again that Harper had a "hidden agenda": give him power, and he'd use it to destroy the country.

This line of reasoning really bothered me, at the time. It seemed so...American. Characterize your political adversary as a monster, just because you don't agree on matters of policy? Pathetic.

Pity they were right: Harper really did, and does, mean to destroy the country. As thoroughly as possible. But don't worry, Canadians: what he destroys, he can rebuild.

Michael Valpy, in today's Globe and Mail, quotes Tom Flanagan--the man who largely facilitated our PM's rise to power--as saying

”If you control the government, you choose judges, appoint the senior civil service, fund or de-fund advocacy groups, and do many other things that gradually influence the climate of opinion".

That's Harper's agenda in six words: gradually influence the climate of opinion. Winning elections is only a means to that end.

This is startling...almost revolutionary. Conventional cynical wisdom suggests politicians are only in it to gain and cling to power. In Harper's case, that's not true. His goals are more far-reaching. He means to turn the country Conservative.

Check the polls: he's done a masterful job of doing it. Oh, he's had plenty of help, primarily from one Michael Ignatieff, the Opposition Leader who is neither. But despite--dare I say because of?--all the screaming in the media after every fresh outrage, Harper's managed to maintain his popularity. Do we want to be a Conservative country? Have I misread Canadian values all these years?

I'd laugh, if this were at all funny: Valpy also quotes Preston Manning as saying that conservatives are "against the ideology of 'social engineering'". Really? What else would you call gradually influenc[ing] the climate of opinion"?