Tyee: President Stephen Harper

[tuvor]

President Stephen Harper
Oil for one, one for oil?
Is he governing for Canada, or just Alberta?
By Murray Dobbin
Published: April 20, 2006

TheTyee.ca

The only thing missing when Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks is an American flag as the backdrop.

A long time admirer of everything American, Harper even included an explicitly pro-American clause in the Reform Party's constitution. He has even begun extending his admiration of American political ideology to an adoption of a presidential political style. The change in style ranges from the relatively benign practice of recognizing visitors in the Commons Gallery (an American, not Canadian practice) to the more serious treatment of his cabinet ministers as if they were appointed lackeys (as US cabinet members are) and not elected representatives. At his news conferences, he has tried to enforce a system where only a very select number of journalists will be allowed to ask him questions. Those deemed "unfriendly" to the regime are effectively silenced.

Those matters of style are troubling, but it is still the substance of the parallels with George Bush that are the most serious. The latest example is on the climate change front. Just as all kinds of dedicated unbelievers are reluctantly getting on the climate change train - Tony Blair, Australia's John Howard, Time magazine, the Pentagon and even George Bush - Harper is determined to take Canada off the train. Why?

The answer might lie in Oilberta, just as George Bush's hatred of Kyoto is rooted in Texas oil fields.

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/04/20/PresidentHarper/