PM HarperÂ´s problem? Stephen Harper is seen as mean, intemperate, intimidating, and imperious

When the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties merged, former Ontario premier Mike Harris entertained the idea of becoming the new Conservative Party´s first leader. It seems that unpublished surveys plumbing his prospects revealed that despite the high esteem he enjoyed in Conservative Party circles his chances with the broader public were slim, so he and his supporters backed off. By the time he left Ontario´s premiership Harris was unpopular, a liability to his own party. The Ipperwash Inquiry and leaks from his bullied caucus, among other things, confirmed an image of Harris that he had successfully hidden from the public during much of his tenure: mean, intemperate, intimidating, and imperious. This image now haunts Stephen Harper. When Harper and Preston Manning´s other Reformers trooped into Parliament in 1993, they promised political civility, a more dignified tone to proceedings. Their behaviour was going to refashion how the institution worked. On the campaign trail, they had derided the Question Period´s "gotcha" politics and the debasement of Parliamentary debate. Harper was the most luminous orb in Manning´s entourage: intellectually substantial, articulate, a focused policy wonk in a caucus replete with Stetsons and cowboy boots. Since his return to Parliament in 2002, Harper has adopted and contributed to some of the worst features of Commons´ behaviour. As opposition leader, he dismissively told Paul Martin in less than eloquent language that his government was going "down the toilet." On the campaign trail, he accused Martin of defending child pornography. Some of Harper´s charges since becoming Prime Minister have been ugly and unfair, like the preposterous suggestion that the Liberals opposed an Air India Inquiry in order to protect the family of Liberal MP Navdeep Bains, that Parliamentary critics of the Afghan mission are Taliban sympathizers, and that Stéphane Dion was obliged to distance himself from his "colleague" Elizabeth May for her comparison of Harper´s climate change policies to Britain´s appeasement of the Nazis. More recently, Harper accused the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, a long-time non-partisan civil servant, of being a Liberal agent. He then fired her as if embroiled in a vindictive vendetta. Harper´s wild, unwarranted, and egregious accusations and intimations degrade Parliament and diminish his leadership. Is it any wonder that women voters are especially suspicious of him? Nevertheless, he has occasionally demonstrated a certain soft reserve, as when shaking his son´s hand when his son was starting school. We are told Harper is funny–apparently he does great imitations–but humour is sadly lacking in his public performances. He likes the Beatles too, although his tastes are decidedly pre-psychedelic. (Think I Want to Hold Your Hand and forget Strawberry Fields Forever.) Harper lacks Lester Pearson´s endearing self-deprecation, John Diefenbaker´s funny ripostes, Paul Martin´s inscrutability, Pierre Trudeau´s complexity, Brian Mulroney´s bluster, Jean Chrétien´s mixture of charm and gruffness, and he is too young to appear avuncular like Louis St. Laurent. Harper is no drunk, but he could learn from the drunkard John A. Macdonald´s sympathetic and non-judgmental quality. Elected as a populist, Harper´s command and control style is reminiscent of an older elitist, Tory view of leadership. Many conservatives want government to accelerate its emulation of the business world. They are fond of spouting business clichés like "mean and lean" and concentrating on "the bottom line." Harper has demonstrated meanness, but he and his government have not demonstrated leanness. For years they railed on about Ottawa´s profligate spending, but their last budget increased program spending by eight per cent, well above the average annual increase for the preceding decade and far outstripping the economy´s growth. After whining about how much Liberal governments have spent on polling, his government outspent them. Where Harper has displayed fiscal conservatism is in aggressively paying down the debt. On taxes, his record is mixed. In lowering the personal income tax rate by half a per cent, he did what the Liberals did in 2005, but he reversed that cut when he came into office. In reducing the GST, instead of personal income and corporate taxes, he goes against the grain of thinking in conservative economic circles. And then there is his recent promise of generous spending, which is somehow also mean. In December, Jim Flaherty announced that the government would be unveiling a fund for economically distressed communities, that the money would come out of the 2006-07 budget surplus. By January, when Harper unveiled the program in the struggling New Brunswick community of Tracyville, he insisted that it is hostage to the 2007-08 budget being passed by Parliament. On the policy front, Harper has often been compared to George Bush, but when it comes to their personae the contrast is striking. Many disagree with Bush politically but they find him a congenial, disarming charmer. As an American politician, Harper would be a non-starter. There, to be successful, you have to show that you like people and bear no malice even toward your partisan opponents. There is nothing "aw shucks" or "plain folks" about this Prime Minister. Maybe he´ll grow into the role. It could only help him win the majority he craves. Nelson Wiseman teaches political science at the University of Toronto. news@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

PM HarperÂ´s problem? Stephen Harper is seen as mean, intemperate, intimidating, and imperious

PM HarperÂ´s wild, unwarranted, and egregious accusations and intimations degrade Parliament and diminish his leadership. Is it any wonder that women voters are especially suspicious of him?

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PM HarperÂ´s problem? Stephen Harper is seen as mean, intemperate, intimidating, and imperious

PM HarperÂ´s wild, unwarranted, and egregious accusations and intimations degrade Parliament and diminish his leadership. Is it any wonder that women voters are especially suspicious of him?

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