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Biography a double-edged sword
Adam Daifallah
Weekend Post
July 2, 2005
STEPHEN HARPER AND THE FUTURE OF CANADA
By William Johnson
McClelland & Stewart
420 pp. $34.99
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Conventional wisdom is quickly hardening around the idea that
this is a make-or-break summer for Stephen Harper. For weeks,
the media have been all over the Conservative leader, harping
on his failed attempts to force an election, his various policy
flip-flops and his perceived angry demeanour.
The negative coverage is damaging Harper's chances of winning
an election and his ability to lead. The late Tory Leader
Robert Stanfield once said that if he walked on water, the
next day's headline would read "Stanfield can't swim."
The same phenomenon bedevils Harper.
Much of the criticism is deserved. Harper has made a number
of serious -- some might say inexcusable -- strategic and
tactical gaffes. The latest came just this week when he suggested
that the same-sex marriage law lacks legitimacy because it
wouldn't have passed without the support of the Bloc Quebecois.
This was a major mistake for a man hoping to win any seats
in Quebec, where the Tories remain mired in the single digits
in opinion polls.
What fortuitous timing, then, with Harper's leadership in
the news and the commencement of his image-polishing barbeque
tour, for journalist William Johnson to release the first
biography of the Tory leader, Stephen Harper and the Future
of Canada.
After reading this 400-page volume, you'll know as much as
there is to know about the 46-year-old leader's life -- that
is to say, not very much.
The son of an accountant, he had a white-picket-fence upbringing
in Toronto, in both Leaside and Etobicoke. The top student
in his high school class in his graduating year, Harper was
originally a Trudeau Liberal who wanted to become a diplomat.
He enrolled at the University of Toronto but dropped out.
He then moved to Edmonton, worked for a while in oil, then
went to the University of Calgary and earned a degree in economics.
According to Johnson, Harper was "marked for life"
by the experience of Trudeau's National Energy Program. He
got involved in the Conservative party, eventually heading
up the PC youth club of his local MP, Conservative Jim Hawkes.
Harper went on to work for Hawkes in Ottawa and later ran
against him for Parliament. He defeated his old boss in the
1993 election.
Harper was in his mid-20s when he began his intellectual journey
to ideological conservatism. First, he was frustrated with
the goings-on in Ottawa. The Mulroney government, with its
centrist policies and obsession with Quebec, was turning into
a major disappointment for small-c conservatives.
Second, while studying for his master's degree in Calgary,
he and a close friend, John Weissenberger, devoured serious
political texts that shaped their right-wing outlook. They
read such philosophers as David Hume and Edmund Burke, economists
such as F.A. Hayek and contemporary conservatives like William
F. Buckley. Harper and Weissenberger were fans of Margaret
Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, leaders who were bringing real
conservative change to their societies. Why couldn't the same
thing happen in Canada?
They set out to try to shift the old Progressive Conservative
Party to the right but were lured into the Reform movement.
Harper became the new party's first policy director. And the
rest ... well, you know.
What emerges from Johnson's work, thanks to long excerpts
from old Harper articles and memos, is a portrait of a man
committed to turning Canada as we know it upside down. The
Conservative leader emerges as a brilliant, highly analytical,
uncompromising conservative committed to small government,
tax cuts and a radically decentralized federation.
That was the old Stephen Harper, anyway. He doesn't talk like
that any more. And that is why this book is a double-edged
sword. While it is excessively sympathetic (Johnson calls
Harper "better than any other leader on the federal scene
since Pierre Trudeau"), relying heavily on quotes from
Weissenberger, Hawkes and Harper's ex-fiancee, it also reminds
us of Harper's political past, which he and his advisers seem
to want everyone to forget.
There are problems with this book -- especially its many digressions
into subjects not directly related to Harper. In particular,
too much time is spent on Quebec with as much ink devoted
to the history of Quebec-Canada relations as is spent on Harper
himself.
Given Johnson's background, this is not surprising. He is
probably best known as the former head of the English-rights
group Alliance Quebec. Years ago, Johnson, an ardent anti-nationalist
Quebecer, found in Harper a kindred spirit regarding his pet
issue: that Quebec cannot, under the Canadian Constitution
or international law, declare unilateral secession. Johnson
discusses Harper's thoughts on that issue in detail, surely
to the chagrin of Conservative ground troops in la belle province.
Whether or not this book will help or hurt Harper's image
remains to be seen. But he could not have asked for a more
glowing portrait at such a critical time.
Adam Daifallah, formerly of the National Post's
editorial board, is co-author of the upcoming book Rescuing
Canada's Right.
© National Post 2005
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