It strikes me as perversely appropriate that veteran Maclean’s political writer Paul Wells’ thoroughly absorbing and intensely readable book on the Harper years in power — The Longer I’m Prime Minister, Stephen Harper and Canada 2006- — arrives on the scene as the Senator Mike Duffy affair continues to fester. And that’s because this Senate scandal deftly illustrates what Wells believes are the lengths to which our prime minister will go to achieve his single most abiding strategic goal: survival.

Much of Harper’s take-no-prisoners reputation stems from his crisis management style, or as Wells notes, “He was ruthless in damage control, as in much else, because he was convinced that an unscheduled bit of trouble, a careless remark or an unexpected move could threaten his hold on power.”

This visceral need to retain power at all costs — clearly anyone that threatens it will be thrown under the bus, no ifs, ands, or buts — speaks to the central thesis of the Wells book. For Harper to achieve his goal of transforming Canada into a small government Reaganesque-style society he must retain power for a very long time. After all it took Ronnie’s two terms, Ford and two Bushes for America’s right-wing makeover to be complete. Can’t expect Steve to do it in just seven years.

Simply put, the Harper endgame is the replacement of the onetime Liberal hegemon with a conservative one, so even if the Liberals regain government — perish the thought — they won’t fundamentally tamper with Stephen’s Brave New World, in much the same way that Mulroney didn’t dismantle small-l liberal Canada when he was in power. Courtesy of tax cuts and federal transfers there won’t be any dough left in the Treasury for Ottawa-spawned spending initiatives in any case.

That the Harperites may already have executed their counter-revolution is illustrated by one of Wells’ more telling anecdotes. In La Presse not long after becoming new Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau said he wouldn’t have to raise taxes to fund a more activist Liberal agenda because “Canada has lots of money at the federal level.” As Wells rightly notes, “[Trudeau] was talking the talk of Conservative hegemony.” But was Justin right? In a word, No. “The federal government has less revenue as a share of the economy than it has ever had at any point during Pierre Trudeau’s time in power,” notes Wells. “Harper’s goal is to hobble not just his government but any federal government that will come after it.”

For Paul Wells, however, what is most striking about Harper’s grand strategic plan is the prudence of its execution. Stephen Harper has a reputation in some quarters as an extreme right-wing politician. Perhaps, deservedly. And Wells documents many of the political excesses that roil his opponents: “He called Stephan Dion a terrorist sympathizer, questioned Michael Ignatieff’’s loyalty to Canada, fired the nuclear safety lady for worrying about nuclear safety and stacked the Rights and Democracy Board with clowns from the Shriner circus but, by and large, he has put the long game ahead of the instinct to scratch whatever itched.”

But much of this is just nasty political theatrics.

In the hegemon-replacement game, patience is the name of Harper’s game. The prime minister practices what Wells terms “arch incrementalism.” Don’t scare the public with big gestures on politically divisive programs or policies — banning abortion, threatening universal health care, etc. — but rather transform society by the hundreds of smaller decisions that a prime minister makes, daily. So inevitably the sacking of “enemies” like the nuclear lady eventually pay-off. “Our crowd has their hands on the levers of power — not theirs. So there,” gloats Mr. Harper.

If small-l liberal Canada’s dies, it will be not be an execution-style slaying, but rather death by a thousand cuts, literally and figuratively. Indeed, according to Wells, Harper views his reputation as a fire-breathing revolutionary as somewhat bizarre. “He has seen revolutions — most recently Mike Harris’s in Ontario — undone. He is an incrementalist to the bone. . . a diligent student of how Liberals win and make change, not by revolution or even really by evolution, but by erosion.”

Which is why one wouldn’t want to be in Senator Duffy’s shoes right now, or Senator Pam Wallin’s stilettos. Profligate senators are a threat to The Man’s survival — and he must survive, at all costs, to complete his life’s work: Making Canada a place where Harper conservatism is the political culture of the country — finally.

Robert Collison is a Toronto-based writer and editor.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: