MacLean’s columnist, Paul Wells, wrote a book on Prime Minister Stephen Harper entitled “The longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada 2006 –“. In this book, the author warns that as the years pass with Harper in office, Canada is being radically transformed.
Truthfully, Canada is being transformed because of Stephen Harper’s government in Ottawa – just not in the way that Paul Wells anticipated it would be. Wells pictured our federal government being fashioned into a reflection of a Reagan-esque Washington, where an enduring small-c government will be his legacy.
If Wells is right and that was Harper’s goal, then he hasn’t accomplished it. Canada’s Economic Action Plan was one of this country’s largest ever public spending policies and Harper’s government has run deficits each year in office, except for the last budget.
But Stephen Harper has changed Canada, and in at least one case irreparably, because of his influence on Provincial politics.
Over the course of the past 50 years, provincial leaders have postured during campaigns that Ottawa has been unfair to their province. Trudeau’s National Energy Policy was pure gold to the Alberta PC’s led by Peter Lougheed. Anti Liberal sentiment has endured and kept the PC’s in power for more than a generation after Trudeau left office.
Canadian voters inherently understand the need for checks and balances by electing a strong Premier who promises to guard against the power of the federal government.
The trend in Ontario is if the Prime Minister is a Liberal, then the Premier will be a PC – and vice versa. This trend has been going on for generations.
In reaction to Stephen Harper being Prime Minister, Ontarians have sleep-walked into re-electing Liberals who have put in place policies that have devastated the Ontario economy. Seven years have passed since the great recession and Ontario shows scant few signs of recovery. The crown jewel of the Ontario economy, it’s manufacturing sector, has left Ontario after years of artificially high energy costs and unnecessary red tape. Local economies once buttressed by auto manufacturing are left reeling under Kathleen Wynne’s government.
The longer that Stephen Harper remains Prime Minister, the deeper the chasm for Ontarians created under provincial Liberal mismanagement. With public debt loads skyrocketing, it will soon be impossible for the next generation to find its footing after a decade of reckless waste.
What is going on in Ontario today under the ardently left wing government of Kathleen Wynne should be a splash of cold water in the faces of Albertans who recently voted to give a majority mandate to the NDP.
Alberta had 42 years of provincial PC power. During that time, they saw four conservative Prime Ministers, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, and Stephen Harper. (Clark and Campbell held power for only a few months and they had little impact on provincial politics.)
When Mulroney won his massive majority by piecing together a winning coalition of conservative voters in Alberta and Quebec, his government elicited a jarring reaction from Alberta voters. Rather than change the provincial government, Albertans birthed a new federal party, the Reform Party, and booted all of the federal PC’s out of the province in the next election.
And the provincial vs. federal dynamic played a role in last night’s Alberta election results. A former high ranking cabinet minister in the Harper government, Jim Prentice was soundly rejected by voters, ending the PC dynasty as the party moves from first to third in the provincial legislature. Simply put, Jim Prentice was too close to Stephen Harper. And when Alberta’s only sound opposition, former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith, shocked her party to join Prentice in an attempt to “strengthen forces” we saw the idea backfire magnificently in last night’s results with a crushing Orange wave. Alberta voters did not trust Prentice to provide the checks and balances that will see the province through the economic crisis brought on by low oil prices.
Does an Alberta Orange Wave mean that Stephen Harper’s support in Alberta is waning? Will we see prominent cabinet ministers defeated on October 19th?
Anti-Harperites might think so but there really isn’t a chance the CPC will lose seats in Alberta this time around.
Alberta has an Albertan Prime Minister. Many of the most powerful cabinet ministers are also Albertan. When Harper retires, his successor will likely also be an Albertan.
Alberta voters have people in Ottawa that they know they can count on.
On the other hand, the two other federal options can be easily discounted. Mulcair and Trudeau are both from Montreal and each have a checkered history with Alberta oil interests.
Rather than change the Prime Minister, Alberta voters decided that they will change the provincial government instead .
Checks and balances will be restored in the voter’s minds. For the Silo, Maddie Di Muccio.
ABOUT MADDIE:
A former municipal town councillor in Newmarket, Ontario, Di Muccio often appears as a political pundit in the media and her freelance columns in the Toronto Sun discuss political issues across Canada. She currently serves as President of York Region Taxpayer’s Coalition and President of the Society for Quality Education.