The “socialist” meme comes to Canada

Image by Kashmera via Flickr

The normally publically staid, on-point, and careful Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke privately to a group of fellow Conservatives this week in Sault-Ste.-Marie, Ontario, and might have revealed some of his true political feelings. The speech was captured on video by a student who forwarded it to the Liberal Party, who then gave it to the  CBC.

In the speech Harper said that a possible upcoming election would give Canadians

the choice between having a Conservative government and not having a Conservative government… We need to win a majority in the next election campaign… We saw what happened last year. Do not be fooled for a moment. If we do not get a majority, the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois will combine and they will form a government… If we do not win a majority, this country will have a Liberal government propped up by the socialists and the separatists… If they get together and force us to the polls, we have to teach them a lesson, get back there with a majority and make sure their little coalition never happens.

The original idea for the coalition government that Harper referenced arose last winter after he prorogued Parliament in the face of a confidence vote. By doing so, Harper saved his political life, and angered the three main opposition parties so much that they threatened to form a partnership that would ensure the Tories were defeated on major motions in the House.

And though the Alliance party of 2000, (Harper’s former party prior to being combined with the Progressive Conservatives into the present-day Conservatives) also proposed a coalition with the separatist Bloc Quebecois to defeat the then-Liberal government, Harper still declared a coalition would be undemocratic. The new Prime Minister, the Tories argued, would be an unelected individual. As the prorogation went on, the Liberals scrambled over the thought of another election, and Stephane Dion stepped down as leader. The interim (now official) leader, Michael Ignatieff stated that he wanted nothing to do with a coalition, and with that, the prospect died.

Harper’s newest reference isn’t a mistake; the coalition was vastly unpopular in most provinces apart from Quebec. For his part, Ignatieff agreed early this year to uphold the Harper government on the condition that it released acceptable reports of its progress on issues like the economy every few months. Now that Ignatieff has declared that he won’t uphold the Conservative government any longer, it seems that Harper is prepared to remind Canadians of what could have been.

But Harper’s patronizing rabble-rousing is off. As Ignatieff pointed out today, had he wanted to be Prime Minister just for the sake of it, he would have agreed to the coalition last winter and taken control at that point. Not only that, but a minority government – any minority government – must be propped up by the other opposition parties. Harper’s own government has, technically, been “propped up” by those same parties for months. What he really wants is control.

In response to the video, Michael Ignatieff said that Harper,

“treats every adversary as a public enemy who has to be destroyed, so you wonder why it’s difficult for me to continue to support him?”

and that,

“This in-camera speech by Mr. Harper has settled once and for all his character as a Conservative leader but also has revealed the true values — the spiteful attitude towards institutions, spite towards Canadians who are helping other Canadians, spite for our institutions,”

Despite Harper’s guarantee that coalition like that proposed last year will form, the circumstances needed for it aren’t really foreseeable. What Harper ignores is that the Liberals are also attempting to win a majority. Ignatieff seems to believe that he can rally Canadians and defeat the Tories with his own platform, whatever it may be (his recent television ads claim that he believes that Canada can “take on the world and win” – a most ambiguous phrase, even in the realm of politics). There would be just as little political benefit for Ignatieff to accept a formal coalition now as there was ten months ago. Ignatieff wants to be Prime Minister with his own party, not two others. In that, he is very similar to Harper: neither seems to enjoy sharing power.

But the “socialist” bomb that Harper dropped in his speech might not bode well for the discourse of the upcoming election. There are socialist parties in Canada, but none of them hold seats in the House of Commons. The NDP, as a social-democratic party  has, compared to the Tories, a far-left agenda. But even if a coalition government were to somehow be implemented, it’s doubtful that NDP-led legislation would pass without Liberal (and Tory) distillation. The NDP has held sway in Parliament before, and Canada has managed to avoid socialism to this point.

What Harper is really afraid of is that the Canadian left (the Liberals and NDP) could unite in the same way Harper united the Alliance and Progressive Conservatives, and form an official party. Annoyingly, to make his point, Harper lent credence to what has become an aggravating idea in North American culture at the moment – that “socialist” takeovers are something that’s really happening. Even to a friendly crowd, it’s hardly appropriate.

If Ignatieff is correct – if this is the way that Harper “really” is – then the brief ideologue-like political maneuvering of last November might have been a truer character reveal of Harper than anything he’s done before or since. His recent accusation of a “socialist” party in the House of Commons is perhaps also telling. If there’s anything Canada doesn’t need, it’s deeper partisan political divisions. We’ve seen where it leads: to legislative distraction and, possibly, yet another election.