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This article was published 8/3/2011 (3493 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

The longer "The Harper Government" stays in office, the more radical — and transformational — it becomes.

It is dismantling, layer by layer, nearly 150 years of Canadian parliamentary democracy. Into the trash can has gone respect for the institution and traditions of Parliament, moderation in public discourse, toleration of differences of opinion, respect for civil society's institutions and even, at times, respect for the rule of law.

Politics outside Parliament has descended into a cesspool of perpetual savage political attack ads. The poisonous hyperpartisanship of the American permanent election campaign is the new Canadian norm. Inside Parliament, the opposition is largely unable to hold government to account because ministers treat opposition MPs with flippancy, disdain, contempt, derision and insults.

Last May, The Canadian Press reported Ottawa hired a media group to monitor political discussion on social media and online forums and have federal employees correct public "misinformation." Last week, Canadians learned the term "Government of Canada" will be replaced by "The Harper Government" on all official documents. This, spokesman Dimitri Soudas says, is "a long-standing practice that accurately reflects the government's leadership, regardless of who was the prime minister."

Jonathan Rose, a specialist in political communications at Queen's University, disagrees. "It is one thing for journalists or even the public to use the more partisan "Harper government." But it is another thing for the state to equate the Government of Canada with the leader of the governing party."

Two weeks ago, the Federal Court of Appeal struck a blow for Canadian democracy and upheld respect for Canada's election laws by ruling the Conservatives' "in-and-out" scheme illegal. It amounts to electoral fraud because it means the Conservatives may have bought their 2006 victory by deliberately exceeding spending limits by $1.3 million. The court's judgment was clear: "(The Conservatives') interpretation... would weaken compliance with the limits set by Parliament on the amount of money that candidates may well spend... Abuses could well proliferate, and the statutory objective of promoting a healthy democracy through levelling the electoral playing field undermined."

The judges underscored their ruling with a reference to a case familiar to Harper.

As head of the National Citizens' Coalition, he fought numerous unsuccessful court battles to strike down the law banning third-party campaign advertising. In 2004, the court said "First, the state can provide a voice to those who might otherwise not be heard. The act does so by reimbursing candidates and political parties... Second, the state can restrict the voices which dominate the political discourse so that others may be heard as well... These provisions seek to create a level playing field... This, in turn, enables voters to be better informed; no one voice is overwhelmed by another."

Harper's personality cult prompts Prof. Rose to recall French King Louis XIV and his 17th-century divine right of kings: "L'État, c'est moi" (The state is me). The prime minister yearns to replace Canada's constitutional monarchy with the American presidential-congressional system. He objects having to be accountable to Parliament, abruptly shutting it down in December 2008 to avoid defeat by the opposition. And, like the American Supreme Court, which recently abolished all limits on third-party political advertising, he believes the thickness of one's wallet -- not the democratic principle of one person, one vote -- should rule.

Former Privy Council clerk Mel Capp has a warning for Canadians. "It's the Government of Canada. It's my government and it's your government," he says, recalling Harper's quip during last summer's Arctic tour that "I make the rules."

Capp, now president of the Institute for Research in Public Policy, says that's just not so. "We are governed by laws. Not by men. This is trying to change that."

Frances Russell is a Winnipeg writer and political commentator.