Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Is Stephen Harper the Worst Prime Minister in Canadian History?



It's not a question most people who know me would dare ask me.

Lest they be forced to listen to a five-minute diatribe, or watch my face turn red, and smoke pour out of my ears.

But now somebody has asked the question: Is Stephen Harper the worst prime minister EVER?

And since I'm really too tired to erupt right now, all I can say is thank goodness Bruce Livesey answers his own question. 

Naturally, assessing Harper’s legacy depends on your own politics: conservatives will view him more kindly than liberals and leftists.

Still, given his longevity in power, and in regards to the fundamental things people grade a government on – such as the economy, democratic practices, the environment, corruption, foreign policy, culture, civil liberties – Harper’s record might very well place him as the worst prime minister in Canadian history.


For what else can you call a prime minister who has savaged our democracy in such a bestial manner? 



If there is one area in which Harper is particularly vulnerable, it’s the charge that he runs one of the most undemocratic regimes in Canadian history – and has undermined and abused democratic institutions and procedures at every turn. In fact, he is the only Canadian prime minister to be found in contempt of Parliament, which occurred in 2011 after his government refused to release costs on certain programs to opposition MPs.

What else can you call a leader who has prorogued Parliament four times, introduced one omnibus bill after the other, used robocalls to try to steal the last election and made it easier to steal the next one, muzzled scientists, spied on environmental activists, lied like a thief, used millions and millions of OUR money to promote himself as a Great Economist Leader.

While ravaging our manufacturing industry in search of his oily dreams of glory.



In the five years prior to 2006, Canada’s manufacturing industries lost 200,000 jobs. After Harper was elected, another 400,000 manufacturing jobs vanished, with manufacturing as a share of the economy dropping from 16 per cent in 2004 down to 12 per cent last year. The high-tech manufacturing sector is in terrible shape, having shrunk to 1.3 per cent of GDP, making it one of the smallest in the developed world.

What else can you call a leader who has done nothing to fight climate change? The greatest threat this planet faces.

Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe — which produce an annual report card on climate change performance — put Canada 58th out of 61 countries in regards to its efforts to combat global warming, above only Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Australia. In 2013, these organizations said Canada “shows no intention of moving forward with climate policy and therefore remains the worst performer of all industrialized countries.”

What else can you call this sinister ideologue with the cold dead eyes? 


Who is now trying to scare Canadians into voting for him, so he can continue his demolition of this country and his values and turn it into a police state.

I mean really, what else can you call a leader like that? Except the worst prime minister in Canadian history.

Or as I prefer to call him, the worst monster, in the worst nightmare, this country has ever known...



A cold, cruel, psychopathic bully who should never have been allowed anywhere near power.

And the only question that will haunt me forever, is why did it take so long for so many Canadians to see Stephen Harper as the man he really is? And understand what a political pervert like him could do to the country we love.

When it seemed so obvious to me, so long ago. 

But better late than never, and it couldn't happen at a better time, with an election on the horizon.

Despite all he has done to it, Canada still lives.

And I'm happy because even after writing more than 4,000 posts on the atrocities of the Con regime and its depraved leader, to establish that indeed Stephen Harper is the worst prime minister ever, I'm still reasonably sane, still standing, still blogging.

My journey to freedom which began so long ago is still continuing... 



But at last I think I can see the end in sight.

We will get there together.

The monster has been exposed and will be destroyed.

And we will take our country back...

Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.

18 comments:

Steve said...

He is easily the worst PM in terms of style. However Brian Mulroney did huge damage in terms of substance. Killing the NEP which would have brought Norway style oil wealth to Canada. Signing the disastor of free trade with the Narco State Mexico. Two body blows Canada will never really recover from. They robbed us of our independent future.

thwap said...

There is simply no reason for us, the majority, to tolerate a "prime minister" who employed electoral fraud, demonstrated contempt of Parliament, unilaterally abrogates treaties and abuses prorogation as he has.

I find his continued presence in power an indictment of Canadians' democratic maturity and commitment.

Marmalade said...

Is this a 'trick question', Simon? haha Since I never really followed politics very much until the past few years, I really can not answer the question based on my experience. However, as a teenager, I remember liking PET.......probably because he was more portrayed as a rebel!

However, since I got hooked on the Internet and started paying attention, I know I don't care for SH because I didn't like his style........especially when he said "Canada wouldn't be recognizable to us when he was finished" THIS IS REALLY WHAT MADE ME ACTUALLY SIT UP AND TAKE NOTICE! It has been all downhill ever since.......ABC!

Unknown said...

He is not only the worst Prime Minister ever Simon, he is the only dictator, that Canada has had as PM.

jrkrideau said...

@Steve,
Agreed that Mulroney was not good but he was not actively evil and except for that one little bribe not too dishonest. He did have at least one good point; he strenuously opposed apartheid in South Africa when Maggie T supported South Africa and IIRC the US called the ANC terrorists.

@Simon et al.

I have yet to see one good point with Harper but he may have one.One area the article did not really touch on is that Harper has been consistently wrong in Foreign Affairs. He started out by attacking China's human rights record. Well, it was and still is terrible but one would have thought that a politician and soi-disant economist would have had qualms about attacking one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world when everyone (well except maybe a delusional Harper) knew that all it was was grandstanding to get votes.

As a Canadian I was rather embarrassed to see him groveling to Beijing a few years later; as a opponent it was most gratifying.

And then to make it worse he mouthed off in Beijing about China's human rights record. Grovel, then insult the Chinese leaders in their own city. I, personally, would be very very insulted and I expect the Chinese leaders were. How stupid can one be?

Then there was, at least to me, out-of-the-blue unconditional support for “Israel” or rather for the thuggish Benjamin and his right wing fanatics. At one stroke, Canada goes from being considered a reasonably honest broker to an Zionist stooge.

Again, the Con government is so intransigent in dealing with landing rights at Pearson Airport that the UAE boots the Canadian Forces out of the free base in the Emirates just as the Afghan war is winding down, costing us millions and just to humiliate the Cons, and unfortunately the rest of Canadians, won't let the Minister of Defence land on a return trip from Afghanistan.

Again, with impeccable timing close the embassy in Tehran loudly complaining of human rights abuse. Maybe there are more Iranian-Canadian votes than I thought. Of course this does not exactly help any Iranian-Canadians in trouble in Iran.

And then the current imbroglio in Syria/Iraq breaks wide open and when we could have used a listening post and even some real contact with the Iranian government with whom we now share a lot of common interests---sorry folks.

Then there was Harper in Australia telling Putin to get out of Ukraine. Grandstanding as usual, and joined in with by Tony Abbott. The rest of the Heads of Government and Heads of State must have thought, “Who let those fools loose?”

Then there was the brilliant move to support the attach on Libya. Here he was no worse than a lot of other heads of State/Government but he certainly was not smart enough to suggest perhaps some kind of after bombing program to help stabilize the country. Obviously Iraq and Afghanistan had not registered.

Then there was the Omar Khadar case. Every other Western country and IIRC a lot of other ones fought hard to repatriate their nationals. Whether or not there was a case against Khadar we are seen as abedding torture, human rights abuses and supporting kangaroo courts.

The problem is not only the damage that he has done to Canada but it seems to show a mammoth level of incompetence and total insensitivity to other peoples feelings.

Mogs Moglio said...

Simon Hi :)

Listen to these reports:

https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=ssl#q=canadian+press+cuts+in+oilpatch+loss+ofr+185%2C000+jobs

Looks like the oil and gas industry is prepared to shed 185,000 jobs. Under not so dear leader we are quickly moving toward a society like North Korea. Harper struts around like Supreme leader Kim Jong-un and they are both as ugly and refuse democracy as an option. I wonder when Steve will make a secret trade deal with Kim?

Mogs

Anonymous said...

A data company in Toronto, did a survey on who was the greatest Prime Minister in Canada"s history.It was based on policy,performance,and personality,and Stephen Harper finished in second place of all time.
All the other Prime Ministers were tied for first.

Steve said...

heh you had me going for a moment.

Mogs Moglio said...

Steve you are funny so are you Anon 8:50 PM in a good way. Lets laugh the Harper-cons out of office then send them to trial and jail them for crimes against humanity.

Mogs

Simon said...

hi Steve....Mulroney did help transform Canada in all the wrong ways, but even at his worst he was never as morally depraved as Stephen Harper., and that's what offends me the most...

Simon said...

hi thwap...you're absolutely right, it is an intolerable situation, and his depravity is not only an indiictment of him, it reflects badly on all of us, or at least all those who ever voted for him. For they must be held accountable for what that monster has done to this country...

Simon said...

hi Kathleen...I understand that some of our early governments were as corrupt as it is possible to be without going to jail. But never was there as bestial a bully as Stephen Harper, who has violated our Canadian values in the most outrageous manner, and tried to change our country beyond recognition without our permission...

Simon said...

hi Pamela...I agree with you completely. I know some object to calling Harper a dictator, but it if walks like one, and it quacks like one, what else could it be?

Simon said...

hi jk rideau....well he himself had admitted that he can't feel the pain of others, but does like to see fear in the eyes of his subordinates. Which in my professional opinion makes I'm a clinical psychopath. But as for his foreign policy atrocities, I blame that largely on the fact that until he became Prime Minister he had hardly ever left the country. So his ignorance is enormous, and viewing everything through the prism of his fetid ideology leads him to do the most barbarous things. I might with the passage of years be able to forgive some of his transgressions, but I can never forgive him for shaming us in the eyes of the world...

Simon said...

hi Mogs...I feel very bad for those who are losing their jobs. But I only hope that they understand the pain of all those workers in our manufacturing sector who lost their jobs thanks to Harper's policies. Because one disaster reflects the other, and the Cons are to blame for both of them...

Simon said...

hi anon ...good one. You shocked me for a second too. But after he is defeated I intend to dedicate as much time as possible to doing what I can to tearing down his legacy, and making sure that his name will live on in infamy...

Scotian said...

Simon:

You and me both!!!

Anonymous said...

I think we should just forget him.