Stephen Harper, loner and former prairie malcontent, just became the longest surviving minority government Prime Minister in Canadian history. He beat out Lester B. Pearson, an insider and a Nobel Peace Prize diplomat. Harper’s accomplishment has aroused comment:
“The new conservative way is seen in the manner in which politics is now played in Canada. The permanent campaign mode, the politics of aggression and intimidation employed by Mr. Harper, a Prime Minister who doesn’t know what the high road looks like, has been a staple of the hard right of the Republican Party. We had seen elements of this in Canada, but not to the degree employed by today’s Conservatives. So far, the PM has gotten away with his anti-democratic impulses, the emphasis being on “so far.”
--Lawrence Martin, The Globe and Mail, January 25, 2011
Mr. Martin thinks he knows what’s in Harper’s heart and sees dark impulses where others settle for results. For surviving on parole for five years, can’t we agree at least that Harper knows how to listen?
Lawrence Martin is, no doubt, correct in his assessment of Stephen Harper's dark heart.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he offers no evidence that Harper actually has a heart.
You, no doubt, are correct in asking us to agree that "at least Harper knows how to listen."
Yet you offer no evidence that Harper actually hears when he listens.