For all of his alleged political smarts, Stephen Harper is surprisingly out of touch with most Canadians when it comes to his fascination with Canada’s former days as a British colony.

In recent years, Harper has unilaterally imposed measures that reinforce an image of our prime minister as a man who loves our outdated colonial roots, loves the monarchy and loves all things British.

It’s an image that stands in stark contrast to how most Canadians want to see our country in the 21st century — independent, proud and one that has cast off its last ties to a foreign power.

Importantly, Canadians are actively urging Ottawa to distance itself from Britain, not embrace it more closely as Harper is doing.

The latest slap at Canada’s independent image came this week when the Harper government announced our army will be tossing out the Canadian-style Maple Leaf rank designation on the shoulders of officers’ uniforms and restoring the traditional British Army-style stars, or “pips,” that existed until the 1960s.

Harper also is expected to restore British insignia and rank designations to our air force and navy.

“This takes nothing away from the Maple Leaf,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said defensively in making the official announcement on Monday.

“There are other places which the Maple Leaf is honoured,” he added, insisting the move is merely a return to tradition and in no way diminishes Canada’s image as an independent nation.

How does this not hurt our image?

With this change, Harper has taken the main distinctive Canadian symbol off our military uniforms, the one the world would instantly recognize as “Canada.”

And why order the change at all? There was no obvious pressure either from the public or the military to make the switch, especially after 45 years of having our own insignia and military ranks.

It’s especially odd given all the issues facing the military at this time, particularly the huge budget cuts that are coming and the growing concerns over the military’s handling of personnel returning from Afghanistan.

The real answer likely lies with Harper’s love affair with British symbols and traditions.

In just the last two years, he has restored the word “Royal” to the official name of our navy and air force, ordered our embassies abroad and federal offices at home to display the Queen’s portrait prominently and agreed to have Canadian diplomats share office space in British embassies.

When “Royal” was put back into the navy and air force names, MacKay said it was done to correct a “mistake,” a reference to the 1968 decision made by the Liberal government as part of its program to unify the forces.

As Harper moves to promote our outdated British ties with silly moves such as ridding the army of the Maple Leaf insignia, most Canadians have long tired of honouring the British royalty and traditions.

On Friday, for instance, lawyers will argue in a Toronto courtroom that it is against the Charter to force applicants for citizenship to swear or affirm allegiance to the Queen and her heirs based on their belief that the “monarchy is an anti-democratic relic of the past.”

Also, Democracy Watch, a non-profit citizens’ group, launched a national petition two weeks ago to elect U.S. comedian Stephen Colbert as “King of Canada.” The gimmicky campaign is aimed at getting Canadians to think seriously about replacing the Queen with an elected head of state.

A national poll conducted in February indicated 55 per cent of Canadians want to dump the British royal family as Canada’s head of state. And barely 15 per cent of us consider the Queen an important symbol of Canada.

Given these trends, it’s time Harper realized most Canadians no longer care about British traditions, British royalty or British military insignias.

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Harper may feel he’s being a smart politician by appealing to his established older, conservative, Anglo base of supporters with his love for the British.

By doing so, though, he has shown a stunning lack of understanding for how much Canada has changed in recent decades — and how far we have come from the days when we were British subjects.

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

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