A rchive Date
[ 06-06-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mansur.html
Harper should seize the moment
By SALIM MANSUR -- For the London Free Press
June 6, 2002
Stephen Harper has come to Ottawa as Leader of the Official Opposition with a reputation of being a policy wonk.
For the gods who dole out favours to the brave and the wise, Harper may be in just the right place at the right time to receive such favours.
Machiavelli, the wily counsellor to the Florentine princes in the early Renaissance period, described favour granted by a higher source as "fortuna."
He noted that for those who are so favoured, fortuna comes as a test of their mettle, of whether they have within them the right stuff to acquire the prize they seek.
The bloodletting that Canadians may witness as the two Liberal titans, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, go for each other's jugular over the next little while is the stuff that belongs to Shakespeare's high drama.
That such a scene has unfolded in public, shattering the Liberal boast that they are never so inept as to conduct their quarrels in the open for the underlings to watch and gloat, will inevitably take away the shine from the party and its ideologues and reveal that it is no different from any other collection of politicians lusting for power.
The corruption in high places within a democracy is as predictable as the stench of undergarments worn for too long.
The only fear that motivates politicians in a democracy to resist the abuse of power and not transgress the boundaries of propriety, is the fear that the people, as sovereign, will exercise their authority to regularly change their elected representatives.
H.L. Mencken, the often-quoted American journalist and literary critic, once observed that a "good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar."
To keep politicians good, the people need to retire them regularly before they begin to take the people for granted.
Harper's challenge is to convince Canadians that he is more than a policy wonk, that he is the new broom ready to sweep this stale and arrogant bunch of Liberals from office.
People do not elect mere policy wonks as prime ministers, for if they did, then Jean Chretien would have long been retired, and John Turner would not have had so brief a stint as prime minister.
Canada is a G-7 country and one of the oldest democracies in the world. The peril confronting Canada under Jean Chretien and the Liberals is its gradual slide into becoming a rich northern version of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
Canadians are not unaware of this peril. They have to be convinced, however, that the alternative is not worse.
The gods have smiled, giving Harper the fortuna of a lifetime.
Harper now has to show his mettle, whether he has the right stuff, to cajole and convince Canadians with charm, wit and intelligence, that he is a politician ready to serve them even as he wants to govern them.
In other words, Harper has to make Canadians believe it's all about democracy, of the people reasserting themselves as sovereign and holding government accountable.
Here Harper may profitably borrow a page from Ronald Reagan, the great communicator. Reagan did not get himself all wrapped up in the details of policies as did Jimmy Carter, the one-term president he defeated.
Reagan communicated a vision and an idea about America to his people that restored pride in them after years of self-doubt.
Bill Clinton, unlike Reagan, was a policy wonk, but like Reagan and unlike Carter, also a great communicator.
Clinton came out as an unknown governor from Arkansas in 1992 to defeat George Bush senior, who for a while dwelled in the stratosphere of public opinion after the Gulf War of 1991.
Harper is perhaps right in viewing the support among Canadians for the Liberals as a mile wide and an inch deep. But his problem, and that of his party, is the reverse.
Unless Harper can widen his support by communicating convincingly the urgency of rejuvenating Canadian democracy, his fortuna may vanish as swiftly as our northern summers.
Salim Mansur is a professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario. His column appears alternate Wednesdays Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@lfpress.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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