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Stephen Harper should worry. If public opinion polls are any barometer, support for his so-called ‘anti-terror’ law, Bill C-51, is fading fast.

The more people learn about the bill, the more they loathe it. The latest poll shows that 56 per cent of Canadians now oppose C-51 — including a growing number of Conservative supporters.

I got a first-hand glimpse of that growing sense of unease this week when I spoke to members of the Canadian Club in Kingston. The fact that the club’s executive – which includes a senior local Conservative riding official – asked a known critic of Harper’s secret police strategy to talk to its members about the lack of oversight for Canada’s security services is, I’m convinced, a clear sign that the government is losing the argument.

Again, this was a Canadian Club audience — mostly respectable retirees, none of them carrying placards with Omar Khadr’s face on them, not a tie-dye or Che Guevara T-shirt to be seen anywhere. Small-c conservative types who back a variety of parties, and who start every meeting with rousing renditions of O Canada and God Save the Queen. (I mention this purely to forestall a CRA audit.)

My little speech struck a nerve, I think. The audience listened intently and seemed both surprised and appalled as I described the new and extraordinary powers C-51 would grant to our largely unaccountable spy service, CSIS.

Some of them actually gasped aloud when I told them how C-51 would, in effect, make dissent a crime and allow CSIS to ‘disrupt’ potential terrorist plots and break our highest laws with a judge’s permission — obtained in secret.

Few in the audience appeared reassured by the ‘just trust us’ mantra coming out of the mouths of senior PMO officials like Harper’s national security advisor Richard Fadden, and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney.

One man, a former intelligence officer with the RCAF, told me he saw C-51 as evidence that the ‘terrorists had won’ — that the bill was a product of the very fear terrorists want to instil in us. One man, a former intelligence officer with the RCAF, told me he saw C-51 as evidence that the ‘terrorists had won’ — that the bill was a product of the very fear terrorists want to instil in us.

Some shook their heads in disbelief and anger as they heard how the prime minister in 2012 shuttered the minuscule Inspector-General’s office — ostensibly the Public Safety minister’s eyes and ears inside CSIS — because CSIS whined that several IGs were, simply put, a pain in the ass.

That anger turned to dismay after I told them how Canada’s last IG, Eva Plunkett, told me in an interview recently that Harper wasn’t at all interested in keeping CSIS in check and that the only remaining review body over CSIS — the Security Intelligence Review Committee — is a “joke,” populated by part-time political hacks disinclined to ruffle any feathers.

Afterwards, a lot of them came up to me to say they oppose C-51 because it doesn’t reflect the values and principles their kin fought and died to defend in far-off places long ago.

One man, a former intelligence officer with the RCAF, told me he saw C-51 as evidence that the “terrorists had won” — that the bill was a product of the very fear terrorists want to instil in us, and a failure of our political leadership.

Another elderly woman told me that while she’s not afraid of terrorists, my speech left her feeling a little hopeless about the odds against undoing C-51.

I told her she was wrong. I told her that an election is around the corner and she should challenge every political candidate that comes knocking on her door to state what he or she intends to do about C-51.

And that is the political quandary that Harper may face in the fall. Look at the latest polling: Terrorism isn’t moving votes, but C-51 is. It may even emerge as a defining issue during the election campaign. If it does, Harper and Blaney may find that the people they most need to convince — sober, sensible retirees like the ones who welcomed me this week — may be tuning out their talking points.

They’re not convinced anymore. If C-51 truly becomes a ballot box issue, Harper may not be able to count on his entire base coming along with him. They may decide their loyalty to the principles that built this country is worth more than party loyalty or dog-whistle appeals to fear and paranoia.

If that happens, it would be bad news for the Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Good news for the rest of us, though.

Andrew Mitrovica is a writer and journalism instructor. For much of his career, Andrew was an investigative reporter for a variety of news organizations and publications including the CBC’s fifth estate, CTV’s W5, CTV National News — where he was the network’s chief investigative producer — the Walrus magazine and the Globe and Mail, where he was a member of the newspaper’s investigative unit. During the course of his 23-year career, Andrew has won numerous national and international awards for his investigative work.

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