Lawrence Martin's Harperland exposes a prime minister in control

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      Veteran political journalist Lawrence Martin has some experience covering secretive governments that prefer censorship over open communication.

      In the 1980s as the Moscow correspondent for the Globe and Mail, he discovered how difficult it was to gather information from those who worked in the Kremlin.

      That experience came in handy in researching his 10th and latest book, Harperland: The Politics of Control, which chronicles the first four-and-a-half years of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s command-and-control regime.

      “I’m not saying that this government is as bad as the Kremlin,” Martin quipped in a phone interview from Ottawa, “but in some cases, the degree of censorship, vetting, and control was comparable.”

      His new book paints a startling portrait of a prime minister who is often obsessed with controlling the message in ways that his predecessors never imagined.

      According to Martin, Harper imposed a vetting-and-censorship program wherein virtually every message transmitted by the federal government—whether it comes from a civil servant, a Conservative MP, an agency head, or the diplomatic corps—must be approved by either the prime minister’s office or the Privy Council Office, which provides advice and support to Harper and his cabinet.

      “This went down to minutiae, as I mentioned in the book,” Martin said. “A Parks Canada official was putting out a release on the mating season of the black bear, and he had to get that approved by central command. How far do we want to take this?”

      Harperland is replete with examples of this. A federal scientist was prohibited from giving a speech about his novel about global warming. Justice department research reports on crime were suppressed. The prime minister’s office tried to prevent the publication of a favourable book by a former senior aide, Tom Flanagan. Even the timing of cabinet meetings was concealed to keep cabinet ministers away from media microphones.

      After Harperland was published, the Harper government banned a B.C. imam with a PhD from Simon Fraser University, Zijad Delic, from keeping a scheduled speaking appointment at the headquarters of the Department of National Defence.

      Martin suggested that the prime minister’s penchant for control may be his government’s “foremost characteristic”.

      The author, who writes a political column for the Globe and Mail, also said that Harper has a temper, which was revealed by close aides in various interviews.

      “It surprised me,” Martin acknowledged. “They didn’t just use the word anger. They used the word hatred—his hatred for opponents. I mean, I don’t like throwing the H-word around. It’s an ugly word. But when you’re motivated by feelings that run that deep, you are going to go to some strange places. You’re going to bring extremes of interpretation into your behaviour. In some cases, this has worked for him in that he has obliterated opponents. In some cases, it has backfired because it has gone overboard, like with the padlocking of Parliament.”

      Martin said that Harper’s aides told him the prime minister’s foremost goal is the destruction of Liberal party dominance in Canada.

      In this regard, the author feels that Harper has been quite successful. The Liberals have been stuck below 30-percent approval in the polls for two or three years, which is unheard-of in the party’s history.

      “Part of the credit goes to the brutal tactics of Stephen Harper in rubbing them out,” Martin noted.

      In a reference to former U.S. president Richard Nixon, the veteran political journalist suggested that the prime minister has a “Nixonian distrust of people”, along with “Nixonian secrecy”.

      At the same time, Martin praised Harper’s intellect and political skills, and suggested he has made headway in achieving his objectives around rebuilding the military and promoting a law-and-order agenda.

      “He’s a very effective political operator,” Martin emphasized. “He also is, by the way, a guy with a big, big mainframe-computer mind. It’s very impressive. He’s disciplined. He studies files. He knows his stuff as well as anybody.”

      In summing up, the author suggested that Harper is a “low-road political hatchetman, but he’s also a high-road intellectual thinker.”

      “You don’t often get a leader who combines those two elements,” Martin said.

      Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.

      What is your level of trust in Prime Minister Stephen Harper?

      Ravi Patel
      Fourth-year political science student, SFU

      “Not that high. He runs a very tight-knit ship, very authoritarian, like they won’t allow for any dissent. I live in Vancouver Kingsway. [Former MP] David Emerson before when he was a Liberal, he used to say, ”˜Come here, talk to us.’ And then he flips, and it’s like you can’t contact him. If you’re leading a country, you should be open to ideas. Canadians want someone who listens to different opinions. If you have someone who’s just proroguing Parliament, it’s not the best.”

      Kim Baird
      Chief, Tsawwassen First Nation

      “I think he’s an exceptionally intelligent person. And I find him to be a bit cold. I think he’s probably competent, if you get what I mean, but I suspect the sort of ideological policies that drive him. But I think he’s likely a man of integrity. Again, I don’t want to underestimate the concern I have about Conservative policies, especially in relation to aboriginal issues. But I don’t think I could pin any concerns to him as an individual.”

      Jeet-Kei Leung
      Spokesperson, B.C. Compassion Club Society

      “I think he’s close to the worst thing that we could have. He’s deeply regressive in his politics, and I feel he’s quite out of step with the majority of Canadian society based on all of his policies that are attacking all the elements of progressive culture in Canada, from the arts to cuts to women’s funding to mandatory prison sentences for cannabis cultivation, including compassion club cultivators. He certainly hasn’t won any friends over here.”

      Jay Razon
      Filipino-Canadian community organizer

      “I think he’s doing the right things for the country. Economywise, he’s on the right track. He has shown that Canada can withstand the global recession. We are not deeply affected about what’s going on south of the border. This country is stable. That’s a good sign. I mean, it can always be better. The political process is very alive. He is doing the best he can do. He probably can be a little bit more vocal about what Canada is doing for other countries.”

      Comments

      7 Comments

      gerrym

      Oct 7, 2010 at 6:46am

      What has always surprised me about the guy, is his unwavering support of goofs like, Gerry Ritz, the Ag Minister. I mean this guy, Ritz, is seriously flawed. Ritz actually made jokes about the people who died of Listeria at the hands of Maple Leaf Foods. Why support him? Ritz also is ,not to friendly, toward gay people, he had an anti gay petition on his website, before he became minister. Harper and his buddies are all manufactured. I guess all politicians are. Who knows what they are really like. Maybe, white christian reform party prairie folk.

      Camero409

      Oct 7, 2010 at 7:08am

      For me, anyone who has that much control is a coward and a liar. There shouldn't be anything to hide. He's paid by the people of Canada and he should be forthright.

      He's a bully and a coward. His actions speak to this louder than words. I wish I were a politician, I'd take him on!

      Jaded in Vancouver

      Oct 7, 2010 at 7:43pm

      Dictators are bullies and cowards; that is why they need that control. Harper just doesn't understand democracy. I also don't believe that he is intelligent at all; in fact, I believe he is someone's puppet who is bent on destroying Canada.

      RickW

      Oct 8, 2010 at 8:27am

      Quote:
      “This went down to minutiae, as I mentioned in the book,” Martin said. “A Parks Canada official was putting out a release on the mating season of the black bear, and he had to get that approved by central command. How far do we want to take this?”

      Micro-managing for the sake of micro-managing. It's just a re-run of the 50's "reds under every bed" in the McCarthy era.

      If this is any indication at all, get set for a real roller coaster of a ride:
      http://integral-options.blogspot.com/2010/07/democracy-now-tea-party-in-...
      RickW

      gnome_telus.net

      Oct 8, 2010 at 9:24am

      Harper is clearly an American puppet his mission to destroy Canada's social safety nets ......healthcare, welfare and unemployment insurance....He uses the tried and true underfund
      and complain the system no longer works tactic used By Campbell on BC Rail!

      e.a.f.

      Nov 10, 2010 at 11:52am

      Harper is a vast improvement over Mulroney but he is not different than Paul Martin, just different ways to go about it.
      He isn't Trudeau but then who is. Cretien was better but then who are the alternatives.
      Harper doesn't need to work too hard to destroy the liberals, the federal liberals are doing that all on their own. Their current leader isn't all that inspiring. Gilles D. from Quebec looks much better as a leader as does Jack Layton but neither will make it to P.M.
      Harper does need to change his agenda to continue to maintain support of Canadians. His law and order approach, in a time of declining crime rates and his insistence on mandatory sentencing just isn't going to cut it. His cuts to women's programs will eventually catch up to him at the polls.

      aline toulouse

      May 10, 2011 at 11:52am

      Loved your book as it is so accurate. I'm passing it to friends. We are living far from good store books. People will be dissapointed with the result of the elctions.
      Aline Toulouse