[R-G] Hard-right Tory ideology has put the PM in a bin

[Anthony Fenton]

Hard-right Tory ideology has put the PM in a bind  TheStar.com -  
Canada - Hard-right Tory ideology has put the PM in a bind
November 29, 2008
Thomas Walkom
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/545795

Think of it as hubris. Stephen Harper's governing Conservatives are so  
used to seeing the opposition parties back down that they think they  
can get away with anything.

It seems that this time the Conservatives are wrong.

The catalyst for this remarkable state of affairs, in which the  
opposition parties say they are planning to unite to bring down  
Harper's government and replace it with one of their own, is Finance  
Minister Jim Flaherty's economic update – a bizarre document that  
bears no relation to either reality or any of the current prime  
minister's recent statements.

In that update, Flaherty downplays Harper's fears of a lengthy  
economic depression, ignores his stricture not to cut back at a time  
when governments should be doing more and singles out seemingly random  
targets in an effort to solve problems that don't exist.

Flaherty says he would cut back public service pay at a time when no  
one is suggesting that it is out of control. He wants to suspend the  
right to strike for federal employees even as the country enters a  
slump in which such strikes are highly unlikely. And he would put a  
crimp in pay equity – a program that requires Ottawa to pay women  
equal wages for work of equal value – although there is no evidence  
that the current system is either iniquitous or expensive.

Here, as Toronto lawyer Mary Cornish explains, the key is his apparent  
decision to end the right to appeal pay equity cases to the quasi- 
judicial Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The only thing that links these targets is their place in the  
Conservative party pantheon of villains.

If there's anything a red-meat Conservative hates more than a civil  
servant, it's a unionized civil servant. Indeed, the only thing worse  
is an uppity, female, unionized civil servant who complains to a human  
rights commission (which red-meat Conservatives also hate) that she's  
not paid enough.

In short, Flaherty's update is a standard piece of hard-right  
Conservative ideology, released at a time when Harper is promising to  
be less ideological, and just days after the Prime Minister explained  
why he thought his party's usual cut-and-squeeze nostrums wouldn't  
solve the crisis.

It is this contradiction, as much as anything, that signals the  
Conservatives are neither serious nor united about tackling the  
economy. Putting off substantive action until February, as Flaherty  
has suggested, is arguably reasonable. Using recession as an  
opportunity to ride Conservative hobby horses is not.

So how did the famously clever Harper get himself in this bind? To  
answer that question, recall The Sopranos. In that television show,  
mob leader Tony Soprano occasionally felt compelled to whack innocent  
bystanders – particularly after he'd demonstrated some element of  
human understanding – just to remind his own supporters that he was  
ruthless enough to be their boss.

Keep this image in mind. Keep in mind also that when Tony Soprano  
became too outrageous, his equally venal opponents felt compelled to  
stop him.

With Flaherty's update, Harper has entered outrageous territory. The  
opposition parties smell blood. They also know that, thanks to the  
peculiarities of the parliamentary system, this is their last chance  
to replace Harper's minority government without triggering another  
election.

Thomas Walkom's column appears Wednesday and Saturday.