"Harper’s bottom line in London? It is better to adapt than to oppose. Some people might be 'troubled' by the world-wide 'polarization' that is taking place. Tough beans, he says. Trump seems to have brought out the Neville Chamberlain in Harper."

So Stephen Harper, the finger-wagging savant of do-as-you’re-told politics, is back representing Canada on the world stage.

Yes, the guy who thinks trickle-down Reaganomics is the way to go and rat lines to report “barbaric” practices are an awesome idea, is living large in the media again.

Like a lot of former somebodies, Harper has used his past political office as an occasional ticket to return to the limelight. Lately though, what he’s up to looks more like a publicity tour to drum up support for something. The former PM’s latest appearance was at a policy forum in London England, a panel of the so-called Five Eyes security pact nations. At that gathering, he said that the rest of the world would just have to get used to the new world order Donald Trump is trying to impose on everyone — everyone, that is, but dictators and fellow racists.

Harper opined that it is a “polarized” world, and regardless whether Trump succeeds, his America First motto will likely survive his presidency.

My questions would be different. Will anything survive Trump’s presidency, including American democracy or the independence of the judiciary? Has Congress been gelded? Is Bob Mueller dead man walking?

Harper’s bottom line in London? It is better to adapt than to oppose. Some people might be “troubled” by the world-wide “polarization” that is taking place. Tough beans, he says. Trump seems to have brought out the Neville Chamberlain in Harper. The former Canadian PM’s use of the word “troubled” to describe reaction to Trump’s ongoing shit-show demonstrates that Harper has about the same feel for Canadians as he does for language.

They are not “troubled” by Trump’s fascist impulses, they are “horrified” – along with most of the rest of the world.

A recent Angus Reid poll showed that 76 per cent of Canadians disapprove of what is happening south of the border. On the international stage, and thanks to Trump, Gallup reports that the U.S. has the same approval rating as that legendary democracy, China; an underwhelming 30 per cent.

What is there not to be appalled about in Trump’s America? Trump talks about, even encourages “knocking the crap” out of protestors, literally. He’s told police to manhandle “criminals” they are taking into custody. (That would be “suspects” Donald. Be careful. You might be one someday.)

The President has threatened to annihilate countries that defy him. Trump says the media is the “enemy of the people” and the “enemy of the state,” suggesting that he believes that his pathological lies are a suitable substitute for independent, verified, and professional reporting.

Trump says desperate migrants are “infesting” the United States. This president has turned the Environmental Protection Agency over to a public official who oozes corruption, and who thinks nature should be just one big oil field. Trump insults his friends, and starts a trade war with allies like Canada, while doing the sword dance with dictators around the world, from Saudi princes, to wretched despots like Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines.

It is now reported that a diplomat claims that Trump told leaders at the recent G7 Summit in Quebec that “NATO is as bad NAFTA.”

Trump congratulates world leaders who become president for life, like Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. He tells the world that he believes despots like Vladimir Putin when he denied meddling in the recent US election. Never mind that the president’s own intelligence community unanimously agrees that Putin not only meddled in the 2016 presidential election, but set out to carry Trump to victory.

Trump gives massive and permanent tax breaks to the super rich, while cutting 42 million needy Americans from things like school lunch and food stamp programs. Are there no workhouses, are there no prisons?

When he is not stacking the courts (as he is about to attempt with the U.S. Supreme Court in the wake of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement), Trump is threatening to dissolve them when they don’t rule his way. That’s exactly what he contemplated after the U.S. Court of Appeal for the 9th District blocked his plan to cut federal funds to so-called “sanctuary cities.”

Now Trump is putting parents in prison and creating a kiddy-gulag in his land of the not-so-free and brave no more. For those who say he has reversed that policy, read his crazy executive order, tell me what it means, and check again tomorrow.

Trump is also trying to force through a system of deportation for illegal aliens devoid of due process. More border cops, not more judges, which would mean zero tolerance — even for legitimate asylum seekers. It comes up just short of get-a-rope, find-a-tree justice.

Trump’s treatment of women and children should have been the one place where Harper put down his neo-con hymn book and spoke out against child abuse, as Justin Trudeau ultimately did last week. After all, Prime Minister Harper made a big show of his concern for mothers, newborns, children and their health while in office. First, he committed $150 million to that cause. Then in 2014, he pledged $3.5 billion to extend the program to 2020.

So far, Harper has said “nada” (that’s Mexican for thanks for diddly squat.) Is it just me, or is it hard to see how plucking children from their parents, and putting them in cages is good for anyone’s health?

Let’s face it, Trump and Harper are ideologically joined at the hip.

And of course, Trump deep-sixed the Iran nuclear deal, a boneheaded act of bad faith posing as policy — and one that Stephen Harper recently endorsed in a full-page ad in the New York Times. Harper is not just resurfacing in speeches, paid ads, and on panels, where he represents the International Democratic Union, and its 71 sun-baked autocratic members, which includes the Conservative Party of Canada.

But wait, there’s more. Now there is The World According to Harp, the former PM’s new book coming out later this year. The perfect Christmas gift for insomniacs and masochists. The wit and wisdom of the man who got his political ass kicked by Trudeau but just can’t take off the gloves.

Harper also occasionally shows up on Twitter, as he did last April, to congratulate Hungarian immigration bigot Victor Orban on his dubious election victory. Like Trump, Orban has “upended” democracy in Hungary according to experts from the Munk School of Global Affairs. Attacking the UN, civic groups that oppose him, and strangers who would wipe out Hungary’s Christian identity. Strange grounds for sending off congratulations from a guy with ‘Right Honourable’ affixed to his name, no?

Harper’s is also the guy who signed the latest Conservative fundraising letter. After emphasizing that he is “volunteering” his time to serve on the CPC Fund, Harper tells potential donors that he has made a commitment to raise $50,000 by the end of June.

“I can think of no one better than Andrew to be Canada’s next Conservative Prime Minister.”

Ah, I’m pretty sure he can.

And guess who’s going to the White House on the day after Canada imposes counter tariffs on U.S. steel and aluminum, and other products? You got it Pontiac, Citizen Steve. Not that the current PMO knew about it. Harper didn’t have the courtesy to inform the man who had the class to let him return home in a government jet after his drubbing in the 2015 election. If Paul Martin had pulled that stunt on the Conservative government, Harper would have had him in leg-irons. Trudeau meanwhile has taken the high road, which means he will never run into Harper.

Who knows what Harper will be talking about to the biggest horse’s ass in the Trump administration, John “B-52” Bolton. This is the guy who famously said of his approach to foreign policy, “I don’t do carrots.” Just the pointy ends of sticks.

Let’s hope Harper backs his country this time, instead of Trump’s America. Everyone should remember what he did in that infamous Wall Street Journal article, apologizing for his own government’s decision not to enter the disastrous Iraq War.

Andrew Scheer, what are you thinking? Are you the captain, or just the first mate in disguise? All Harper, all the time. Really?

As one commenter recently responded to a news story in iPolitics: “Why, given that he is no longer a politician here, is he speaking about what we should do…I think I need a gin and tonic.”

Make mine a double.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.