Harper’s legacy is a Trudeau dynasty

While Stephen Harper’s intended legacy might largely be swept away over the next four years, his unintended legacy might haunt him in the years to come.

First, the Harper Conservatives’ pathway to power relied upon a strategy of splitting the centre/left vote and adding five to 10 per cent of wedge-issue swing voters to the core “base” of 30 per cent. Harper’s abuse of power under our first-past-the-post system resulted in commitments by the Liberals and NDP to reform the electoral system in favour of proportional representation. Since the election, Justin Trudeau has reaffirmed that commitment — progressive voters will hold his feet to the fire.

Since the Harper Conservative “base” has no natural allies with whom to form a workable coalition in a proportional-representation system, Harper’s abuse has guaranteed that the “base” will never again achieve the level of power and influence that it wielded over the past 10 years. He has poisoned the well.

Second, without Harper and his Republican-style attack machine chewing through previous party leaders, the Liberal party would not have dragged a somewhat reluctant Trudeau into politics as the saviour of the Liberal brand.

Harper detests the Liberals and even despises the Trudeau legacy that is such a large part of the Liberal brand. Not only was he unable to dismantle that legacy during his tenure (most particularly the supremacy of the Charter), he managed, as his legacy, to create a whole new Trudeau Liberal dynasty.

Well done, Mr. Harper! Duncan McDonald Saanich