Mel Hurtig, one of Canada’s most-celebrated economic nationalists, has fought the good fight for this country for more than 60 years.

Over the years, Hurtig has raged about foreign control of our economy, the threats of free trade and the grumbling foundations of our democracy. He also was a successful businessman, operating a book company that was best known for publishing the Canadian Encyclopedia.

For his efforts, Hurtig received honorary degrees from six universities and was awarded the prestigious Order of Canada.

Now, at an age when most of his contemporaries have either withdrawn to the political sidelines or died, Hurtig, 82, is still going strong. To prove it, he has just released his eighth book, which he calls the most important one he has ever written.

Titled The Arrogant Autocrat: Stephen Harper’s Takeover of Canada, the book takes direct aim at Harper’s actions since becoming prime minister in 2006 that are systematically and deliberately in Hurtig’s view destroying our democratic institutions and values.

“My major purpose in writing the book was to reveal the extent to which Harper has damaged our democracy,” Hurtig said in an interview from his home in Vancouver. Harper “doesn’t understand what democracy is all about or care about it,” he added, saying he is “terrified by the idea that the man could be re-elected.”

In recent decades, nationalists like Hurtig have been largely ignored by Canada’s political and media elite.

But for years, especially from about 1960 to 1990, nationalists such as Hurtig, Walter Gordon, Keith Davey, Maude Barlow, Jack McClelland and Claude Ryan were dominant forces in Canadian life. They formed influential groups such as the Committee for an Independent Canada and later the Council of Canadians and fought against free trade and foreign ownership of key industries.

Today, even Hurtig concedes he is slowing down, but says he decided to write his new book because he was increasingly worried about what Harper, who he calls a “control freak,” was doing to our democracy.

Using extensive research and public statistics, Hurtig presents a powerful argument showing that Harper has indeed weakened Canadian democratic institutions and traditions.

Hurtig examines actions that Harper has taken that have affected our democracy, such as muzzling cabinet ministers, federal scientists and top bureaucrats, introducing omnibus bills, withholding information, gutting the Parliamentary Budget Office, distaining parliamentary committees, and overseeing a party rife with questionable campaign spending and robocalls. The list goes on.

Most of the information has been published elsewhere over the years. What Hurtig has done, though, is package it all in a short, 140-page book that is easy to read and understand.

“Through decades of sounding the alarm on (foreign) takeovers,” he says in the book’s introduction, “I never imagined that the greatest threat would come from the takeover of our democratic institutions by one politician determined to remake our nation according to his own values and priorities.”

Hurtig writes that “not only does Stephen Harper demonstrate a lack of respect for the democratic foundations of our nation, all indications are that he is determined to undermine or destroy them. Information is withheld, dissent is stifled and the checks and balances on government power are eroded or eliminated.”

As Hurtig sees it, the only way to stop Harper is for the Liberals and NDP to form a coalition “for the sake of restoring our democracy and indeed, our civil society” if there is a minority Conservative government after the Oct. 19 federal election.

Longer term, Hurtig recommends Canada hold a national referendum on whether to adopt a proportional representation electoral system, which he argues would prevent future “autocrats” from hijacking our democracy.

As much as Hurtig wishes it to happen, it’s highly unlikely Canadians will see a revised voting system for years to come. However, Hurtig’s dream of a Liberal-NDP coalition could come true if Harper wins the October election, but fails to achieve a majority government.

“I love this country,” Hurtig says. But the Canada “we know and love will not survive another four years of Stephen Harper and his Conservative government. Everything we value is at stake” in the coming election.

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

Hurtig wrote the book as “a wake-up call to Canadians” and to convince them “to reclaim our democracy and our country before it is too late.”

It’s a much-needed wake-up call that all Canadians need to heed.

Bob Hepburn’s column appears Sunday. bhepburn@thestar.ca

Read more about: