Harper the strategist goes missing
Failure to address issues dogging the government is extremely puzzling
OTTAWA — It may be that Stephen Harper is a strategic genius — a chess grandmaster, as he has been described, who plays five or six moves ahead of everyone else. He had that gift earlier in his career. Why would he keep his light under a bushel now, with just two years to go in his majority and with months of scandal weighing on his party’s hopes of re-election?
Why, indeed. Yet that is just what the prime minister has done in offering up Wednesday’s pale, Potemkin village of a throne speech, followed by a dash to Brussels early Thursday, ostensibly to unveil free trade with Europe. The CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) is a long-sought objective and will be a major economic win for Canada, dairy producers’ bleating aside, should it be ratified. But honestly, prime minister, this is your roadmap?
Consider: In the Commons on Thursday, Harper sustained, in absentia, a full-on assault from the New Democrats, who alleged on a point of privilege that he misled the House last spring when he said no one else in the Prime Minister’s Office knew of former chief of staff Nigel Wright’s infamous $90,000 payment to former Conservative Sen. Mike Duffy. We now know that, according to affidavits filed by the RCMP, at least three other PMO staffers knew of the payment.
It seems those affidavits are wrong; or Harper was mistaken; or he did, indeed, mislead the House. Those are the only plausible explanations. Duffy himself has yet to be heard from; Thursday, he took medical leave. But it is unlikely that his story, once he finally tells it publicly, will be edifying for his former party. Also Thursday, Conservatives in the Senate served notice that Duffy, and former Conservative senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau, would be suspended without pay. However this shakes out, in other words, the scandal will remain in the headlines, and a blemish on the party’s record.
So, what does the prime minister offer by way of restitution? What safeguards does he propose to put in place to reassure Canadians that hard lessons have been learned?
In a 24-page speech padded everywhere with sophistry (“Consider this: we are smart. We deplore self-satisfaction ...”), he devotes just two paragraphs to democracy, tacked on at the very end. “The Government continues to believe the status quo in the Senate of Canada is unacceptable. The Senate must be reformed or, as with its provincial counterparts, vanish. The Government will proceed upon receiving the advice of the Supreme Court.” Well that settles that.
Then comes paragraph two — the robocalls “fix”: “And, the Government will propose changes to Canada’s elections law to uphold the integrity of our voting system. Legislation will be introduced in time for implementation prior to the next federal election.”
These two scandals together have rocked the Tory brand like nothing since they first won power in 2006. They face a tougher opposition than ever before. They bear the burdens of any government on the downslope of a decade in power. So their strategy is to ... ignore the problem?
But that is the approach, astonishingly, to every area in which the Conservatives have been hit hard this past year. Procurement, source of last winter’s F-35 imbroglio? The throne speech contained a half-baked promise to ensure purchases of military gear would lead to jobs. Climate change? Never mind Obama, Keystone XL and all that nonsense. There was zilch, beyond the usual vague pledges to work with the provinces on reducing emissions. Even the much-leaked and heralded consumer commitments were surprisingly unambitious. Promising to unbundle cable TV is not, in and of itself, a consumerist agenda; it is a sop, the equivalent of killing the penny.
The message here, and in question period Thursday, is consistent with what the PMO has been saying, in word and deed, for the past six months: focus on the economy and all will be well. But the disconnect, which begins to look like cognitive dissonance, is huge.
For it is obvious to anyone not drinking PMO bathwater that free trade with Europe, or for that matter India, or Japan, or the Trans-Pacific Partnership, will not on its own be enough to beat back this government’s enemies, or make its problems go away — for the simple reason that liberalized trade is not a unique position. In 2013 that horn can be tooted, and will be tooted, by every party in the Commons. What’s to prevent the Grits, or the New Democrats for that matter, from taking on the trade agenda in 2015 and pursuing it with more integrity, likability and charm?
For months now, extending into years, observers have watched and waited for a return of Stephen Harper’s old skill. The only reasonable conclusion we can draw from this week’s events is that it’s gone. What you see is what you get. Given what Harper has shown himself capable of in the past, and the gathering threats he faces, that is more than intriguing. It is downright bizarre.