Modeling Journey

Forget about the polls for a minute and let's turn to another facet of our politics. A short while ago, the Liberal Party unveiled a new theme: We can do better. Many right wingers ridiculed the theme, with some wanting to know how on earth the Liberals could claim that they could do better.

What many Tory supporters (and many in the media) missed is that the Liberal theme applied equally to Canada and Canadians.

We, Canada, can do better than we are doing right now under the governance of Harper's minority government.

Why?

Because, when the history of Harper's stint as prime minister is written, I fully expect most independent historians to focus on one overarching theme: the many ways in which the Stephen Harper government has reduced the standing of Canada in the eyes of the world.

As Lawrence Martin succinctly summarized in his article in Wednesday's Globe & Mail:

"You wonder how far the standards can fall."

For fall the standards have taken under Harper's leadership of our country.

If you examine any major area of our country, you will soon find signs of a diminution in our standards, a lessening of our worth (moral and economic, amongst others) as a country.

One example of the debasement of the values of our democracy is the Tory style of using Parliament to wage unremitting partisan war on the other parties, in the process turning what should be an institution in which Canadians can take pride, into a caterwauling and dysfunctional kindergarten of the worst kind.

As another example, take the lowered standards of the central government's use of Canadians tax dollars. The Harper government, with his sanction, has perverted the distinction (essential for a functioning democracy) between the roles and functions of a political party, and the roles and functions of a government. The stimulus funds have been allocated disproportionately to projects in Conservative ridings, as if those funds were funds belonging to the Conservative MPs.

If we can borrow a phrase applied by a Tory minister to a Premier, it would be fair to say of Prime Minister Stephen Harper that, as compared to the past dozen or so prime ministers, he has proven himself to be the small man of our confederation.

What a legacy to leave.

And what an insult to all those supporters of the Conservative Party who had hoped that the union of the old Reform-Alliance party with the old Progressive Conservative Party might result in a political party in which they could take pride.