Harper Like Nixon?
| 4/29/2008 | Posted by Patti under Canadian Politics |
Interesting article in the British paper Guardian comparing Steven Harper’s attitude to Richard Nixon’s. Now, before you’re thinking that the paper is suggesting Harper is a crook like Nixon (aka Watergate), that isn’t the gist of the article.
What the writers are comparing between the two men is their rather obvious utter contempt for the institutions which shape and form their respective governments. That contempt was evident before either of them arrived in office and became even more obvious through Harper’s rather long running war with the national media.
Sometimes even more so than the official opposition, the media can manage to hold governments to account simply through their willingness to dig beyond the facade and find out what is going on behind the scenes. Then they publish their results. I often rail against the media’s often clear bias in their reporting and selective quoting but at the same time, they are bringing to light what would be otherwise in the dark and allowing governments in particular to operate without rebuke.
Harper has gone to great lengths to flip the media the metaphorical bird. He considers the national media to be by and large hostile toward him thus he and his government only communicate with those they consider to be ‘friendly’ toward them. He even keeps cabinet meeting times, dates and even locations secret to avoid media presence.
Nothing has shown his utter contempt more than the latest standoff with Elections Canada. The Conservatives have been told by Elections Canada, the non partisan body overseeing elections, that some of their spending practices were improper and created overspending at the national level. More specifically Elections Canada has ruled against the Conservatives practice of transferring funds to local campaigns and then directly back to the federal campaign and treating the move as a media purchase.
The transaction would then be counted as an expense to the local campaign which allowed the federal campaign to gain the use of the exposure without it counting as an expense. It also allowed the local campaign to gain a 60% rebate on the expense without them spending a penny. The rebate comes from taxpayer’s money. Basically the money is simply moved in and out with advantages for both parties. In some circles that would be considered to be money laundering.
Rather than respect the body’s ruling and demand equal oversight of the other political parties, Harper has gone on the attack against the Elections Canada by taking them to court. Ah the courts, Harper and his party have made clear their contempt for the courts and most importantly access to those courts by those who don’t have the funds to initiate access when the Conservatives killed the Court Challenge program.
During the election campaign Harper put forth the argument that a Conservative minority government would be kept in check not only by the opposition (which it isn’t doing) and by the Liberal loaded civil service. Since gaining his minority government Harper has used and abused that civil service at will. Hardly a body keeping him in check.
So, is Harper like Richard Nixon, the disgraced US President? They do share contempt for the institutions of government. Will he take that contempt and arrogance to the extent that Nixon did? Only time will tell.
Follow Me!