Same old, same old in Harper book

Re: Stephen Harper comes across as banal in effort to claim mantle of populism,” Opinion, Oct. 11.

Andrew Coyne nailed it. The Herald’s excerpt of Stephen Harper’s book was a deep disappointment. I was hoping time and distance would spur in Harper some thoughtful, honest perspective on the political landscape; instead he just found another parade and got in front of it.

Harper’s book is just an extension of the communication policy he used in office, nakedly branding federal programs — the public service his government was elected to do — as programs “by your Conservative government.” And his vilification of the elite “Anywheres” — numerically insignificant to the grassroots “Somewheres” Harper still somehow identifies with, despite being a globe-trotting senior policy consultant and former head of government — is simple scapegoating, akin to Reagan on “welfare queens” and Trump on refugees.

Harper’s habitually reserved language gives him a considered air, but it doesn’t hide the intellectual poverty and self-interest on display in his book.

Kris Eckstrand, Calgary