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Many years ago, Stephen Harper ran under a famous Reform banner. It was the Hard Right’s best bumper-sticker: The West Wants In.

By 2015, the Rest of Canada wanted out — of Harperland.

Wondering why? Forget the drivel about the demolition of the Con Empire all coming down to ‘Harper Derangement Syndrome’. Trust me, there’s not much of the historian in Kory Teneycke.

The Harper-Hater meme Teneycke cites was created for one purpose and one purpose only: to shut down any meaningful criticism of our former dictator on the basis that all criticism was merely partisan cant and personal attack.

Guys like Kory were simply burning Giordano Bruno at the stake for political heresy 24/7. Who really cares if the Sun doesn’t orbit the Earth? What matters is papal infallibility, right?

Journalists who bit on that simpleton’s lure should stop rising to the bait now that the Harper Era is over. Remember, Teneycke’s idea of the perfect newsroom was one that had been emptied of journalists and topped up with party operatives. Just ask Krista Erickson.

Nor is there much more of the historian in Paul Wells’ touching but mostly irrelevant comment that he still likes Harper, whom he believes will be seen by history as an estimable prime minister, maybe even a great one.

Perhaps — but only in the way the establishment players and their inky courtiers dry-cleaned the legacy of Margaret Thatcher after her death. The issue is hardly one of liking or not liking Harper. It is, as it was with Thatcher, all about social damage and the abuse of power.

It was curious to see another author and journalist, John Ibbitson, opining as an ‘expert’ about the reasons for Harper’s political demise. For one thing, his most recent book on the Conservative leader was more of a peck on the cheek than an investigation — a few gentle scratches, but mostly purring.

For another, Ibbitson is the government-friendly columnist from what is left of the Globe and Mail, that rabbit hole of a newspaper that believes you can endorse a party without its leader. In his previous book, Ibbitson predicted a “seismic shift” in Canadian politics and culture, a Tory dynasty stretching out to the crack of doom.

With Naheed Nenshi mayor of Calgary, Rachel Notley premier of Alberta, Kathleen Wynne leader of Ontario, Stephen McNeil running Nova Scotia and now Justin Trudeau prime minister-designate of Canada — progressives all — could it be time for an updated chapter, John? Or should we wait for the Tory resurrection under Doug Ford?

Adding to the efforts by the PM’s friends to soften Harper’s epic bellyflop is the pathetic run of stories attacking Justin Trudeau. Firing flaming arrows into the castle before the new guy even gets his crown on seems like an awful waste of ammunition.

Like their swarming of Rachel Notley after her majority victory in Alberta’s provincial election, this is just an element of the press inadvertently declaring its true allegiance — not to the will of the people, or to their professional obligation to present the entire Harper legacy, but to their corporate ownership.

Harper’s downfall, and that of the party he built, had nothing to do with ‘Harper Derangement Syndrome’. Nor was it about the machinations of war rooms, whore rooms, evil gurus or a burnt-out lieutenant screaming at her own deckhands as the ship went down. Harper’s downfall, and that of the party he built, had nothing to do with ‘Harper Derangement Syndrome’. Nor was it about the machinations of war rooms, whore rooms, evil gurus or a burnt-out lieutenant screaming at her own deckhands as the ship went down.

Does anyone really believe that the big story of the day is how long it will be before Justin Trudeau disappoints Canadians — especially with all those Con paper shredders moving at warp speed, serious questions remaining about Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s attack on Parliament, and claims from the federal bureaucracy that basic democratic rights are at risk in this country?

Harper acolytes, apologists and die-hard supporters should review how so many people celebrated Margaret Thatcher’s demise in places like Brixton, Liverpool, Glasgow, Derry and even Trafalgar Square. They should recall the denunciations and stony official silence from countries like Argentina and South Africa.

Yes, while the Establishment applied coats of sugar to the Iron Lady’s disastrous stewardship of Britain, her moral failures and dead-end militarism, half the nation celebrated her death as though a long-lost Beatles album had just been released.

After all, Thatcher called Nelson Mandela a terrorist while she maintained her staunch opposition to sanctions against apartheid South Africa. She was the PM who sacrificed 900 lives to keep up Britain’s colonial image in the Falklands — dead for fifty years before she ordered the sinking of the General Belgrano.

And Thatcher was the one who broke the unions and turned hundreds of communities in Britain into industrial wastelands. Ergo, the chilling tweet from former British MP George Galloway, shortly after news of Thatcher’s death broke: “Tramp the dirt down.”

Agreed, Galloway is nobody’s candidate for Mr. Conviviality. And a physical death is not the same as a political death, to be sure. But news of Harper’s fall from power was also greeted with a torrent of Twitter giddiness, relief and sarcasm.

There is column space and then there is cyberspace. Guess which one gets the final word these days? My personal favorite tweet was a caricature of the outgoing PM accompanied by the words, “A tearful Stephen Harper boarding the ship to return to his home planet.”

Why the unkind euphoria? Just as with Thatcher, it’s all about the record: lost manufacturing jobs by the hundreds of thousands; the attempt to destroy unions and charities for the sin of seeing the world differently; the senseless wars; the endless mendacity and cynicism — all of it overlooked by his political and media supporters up to and even after the bitter end.

So let it be said: Harper’s downfall, and that of the party he built, had nothing to do with Harper Derangement Syndrome. Nor was it about the machinations of war rooms, whore rooms, evil gurus or a burnt-out lieutenant screaming at her own deckhands as the ship went down — assuming Tory MP Ron Liepert has it right.

It comes down to this: you can’t have a dictatorial liar running a democracy for the benefit of his corporate buddies and expect a country like Canada to tolerate it forever. Canadians ultimately drop the gloves when they come face to face with tyrants — and kick the stuffing out of him.

That is what really happened here. The country really did embrace the “better angels of our nature”, to borrow the phrase Trudeau borrowed from Lincoln. It was more disgusted by than afraid of Stephen Harper.

It didn’t appreciate his lies about what he was doing and why, his degradation of Canadian foreign policy for domestic political gain, his toxic manipulation of information that belonged to everyone, and his vicious mistreatment of anyone who dared to tell him that the sun didn’t orbit around … him.

How ironic is it that his kingdom of secrets, that bubble once hermetically sealed, is now leaking like an old rubber boot. Party brass like Jenni Byrne and Ray Novak at each other’s throats. Ex-PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin saying the PM had lost the moral authority to govern. Tory Blue Bill Thorsell saying throw the rascals out. And now even pipsqueak MPs daring to unload on the autocrats at CPC headquarters who made their lives a living hell as long as Harper rode the back of the tiger — before he ended up inside.

What scares me? These people still won 99 seats. For some of them, it should have been 99 years.

Michael Harris is a writer, journalist, and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his “unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.” His nine books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. His new book on the Harper majority government, Party of One, is a number one best-seller and has been shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Literary Award for English-language non-fiction.

Readers can reach the author at [email protected]. Click here to view other columns by Michael Harris.

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