From humble beginnings
Mac Harb rose from alderman to political prominence in Ottawa. TERESA SMITH reflects on his career in public office.
An Ottawa institution for just under three decades, embattled senator — and former alderman and member of Parliament for Ottawa Centre — Mac Harb resigned his seat in the red chamber Monday, abandoning his legal claims against the Senate and paying back $230,000 for eight years’ worth of living and expense claims.
In a statement Monday, Harb said the resignation is effective immediately.
A review of Harb’s 28-year political career paints a picture of a scrappy fighter, unafraid to speak his mind even if his views were unpopular or a little wacky.
A Lebanese immigrant, he came to Canada in 1973 at age 18 with a dismal command of the English language. Undeterred, he worked as a short-order cook, waiter and taxi driver while earning a masters of engineering degree at the University of Ottawa.
After school, he landed a job at Northern Telecom, taught at Algonquin College and, by 1985 — only a dozen years after arriving in Canada — was elected as a city alderman for Dalhousie Ward by less than 60 votes.
Three years later, during his bid to secure the federal Liberal nomination in Ottawa Centre, the Citizen described the race against Maude Barlow as “a long, gruelling battle, peppered with innuendo and accusations of trickery.”
Harb won the nomination and in 1988, the 35-year-old electronics engineer squeezed into the House of Commons, beating out NDP candidate Michael Cassidy by 700 votes.
At the time, Harb described his political leanings as “centre, with a limp to the right.”
His opponents criticized him for cozying up to the business community, and of being uncertain of his stance on economic issues and free trade.
They attacked him publicly when he walked out of a candidates’ forum after the audience voted to bar fringe candidates from the debate.
“Based on his lack of knowledge on the issues and poor performance at earlier debates ... Mr. Harb saw this as an opportune time to duck a likely confrontation with the residents of the Glebe,” said Progressive Conservative Candidate Bob Plamondon.
However, Harb was popular with voters. The Citizen reported that his “unhurried style” was “particularly popular with senior citizens.” He appealed to voters and his “quick compliments” and “broad smile” made him a winner at the polls.
Harb supported freer trade with the United States, but opposed the agreement drawn up by the Mulroney government. He also differed with his own party in opposing the Meech Lake constitutional accord.
Still, he was heavily endorsed by several powerful local Liberal politicians, led by Ottawa Centre’s Richard Patten, then-premier David Peterson and soon-to-be-prime minister Jean Chrétien.
During 16 years — and three successful elections — in the Liberal caucus, Harb’s antics snagged headlines.
Soon after his election in 1989, Harb was involved in negotiating the release of a busload of hostages, held captive for eight hours by a Lebaneseborn Canadian man who was hoping to pressure the Canadian government to force the Syrian regime to free Lebanese prisoners.
In 1991, now an MP for three years, Harb was interviewed by the Citizen about perks on Parliament Hill.
“I think perks should be on the way out,” he told reporter Mark Kennedy. “If we are to get these goodies, we should be treated like everybody else. We should pay the fair price.’’
Harb went on to speak about the divide between the political “elites” and ordinary Canadians.
“People believe we are shielded and rightly so. We may try to get out of the shelter, but we quickly find ourselves back in the shelter. We see things from a window in a way that people don’t see it.”
He campaigned for a red-light zone for Ottawa, where prostitution would be open and regulated.
In 1993, Harb was instrumental in creating Canada’s National Child Day, and later introduced a succession of private member’s bills to erase the word “illegitimate child” from all federal laws, suggesting it be replaced with definitions like “a child born of persons who were not married to each other at the time of birth, a stepchild and an adopted child.”
The unmarried MP, whose own daughter was then two years old, said his goal was to “make the laws serve the interests of the child” and bring the legislation up to speed with contemporary values. He wanted to harmonize Canadian legislation with the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
In 2001, Harb touched off a blizzard of calls to a radio hotline show by declaring human cloning is “on the way, big time,” saying he had no doubt human clones had already been created and were “walking the planet” somewhere. The remarks were made in the midst of heated debate about the ethics of cloning but Harb was unapologetic.
He said he supports human cloning because “we can’t stop science as long as the science is to advance human interest, and if it’s done to advance human interest, fine, we’ve got to do it.” He said he was certain there were already “two, three children now who were born through some DNA-manufacturing device.” Later, in a telephone interview with the Citizen, Harb blamed his outburst on sleep deprivation that resulted from the need to rise early for the morning show, but stood behind his claims all the same.
In 2004, Harb achieved a longsought political goal when Chretien appointed him to the Senate.
Harb, who was often seen approaching Chretien to sit beside him on the front bench of the Commons for a few quiet words, was seen as Chretien’s most vocal cheerleader in the Liberal caucus. After the appointment, Harb’s office released a prepared statement in which he pledged he would continue to work for Ottawa, the province of Ontario and Canada. “My love for Canada is larger than my love for life,” Harb said in his statement. “Canada has given me all that I have and all that I need.”
Asked if Chretien should hold some of the blame for appointing Harb, Jim Cowan, the Liberal Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, said “prime ministers who make appointments take credit for the good ones and they have their fair share of responsibility for the ones that don’t turn out so well.”
Cowan likened the situation to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s appointment of former conservative senators Pamela Wallin, Patrick Brazeau and Mike Duffy, who all now sit as independents. “There are a lot of questions about what was expected of them, what they were told they could or couldn’t do, what kind of orientation they received, what kind of guidelines they took, the Nigel Wright payment and all of these things,” he said.
Cowan said he learned of Harb’s resignation during his public statement and, while he said the two had never discussed the “particulars of his situation,” he praised Harb’s decision to step down.
Asked how the public’s trust in the red chamber could be regained, Cowan suggested an independent body could vet future senators before they are given the job in the same way that judicial candidates are scrutinized before being appointed to the bench. “I think the quality of judicial appointments has improved since that process was put in place,” said Cowan. “It’s seen as being more open and more transparent.”