After years of appearing to be the "Teflon-Don" during which no transgression seemed to stick to him no matter how heinous, Stephen Harper seems to have finally found the limit to what Canadians will collectively accept from their politicians. Engaging in nasty smear campaigns didn't do it. Proroguing Parliament not once but twice to avoid accountability didn't do it. Complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees didn't do it. Thumbing his nose at our democratic process didn't do it. Stacking the Senate with partisan stooges after promising to reform the Red Chamber didn't do it. The atrocities of the G20 in Toronto didn't do it. Corrupt party insiders, illegal and unethical behaviour by his ministers nor the "In and Out" affair could do it, Contempt of Parliament didn't do it. The muzzling and firing of Government whistle-blowers and scientists didn't do it. Rampant election fraud which is currently seeing investigation into questionable CPC campaign activities in 200 of 308 ridings didn't do it. Lying to the country about the real cost of the F-35 didn't do it. But the craming through of the massively undemocratic and environmentally disasterous 425 page Omnibus Budget Bill, simply known as C-38, seems to have found the electorate's boiling point. He has attacked our country. Stephen Harper has realized his Pearl Harbour and he has awoken a Sleeping Giant - the Canadian People.
Why it has taken Canadians so long to stir from their cozy hibernation is open to conjecture. Some might point to our stoic nature brought on by generations of living in a harsh Northern Climate. Or perhaps the "stiff upper lip" of our English colonial heritage. Others might make the claim that ever since the Mulroney years and subsequent Sponsorship scandal of the Chretien Government, Canadians have become jaded about our politicians and have come to accept unethical and hyper-partisan behaviour as business as usual on Parliament Hill. More than likely however, our awakening has been a gradual process, brought on by a number of factors rather than a sudden jolt.
Like Yamamoto, Harper is a skilled tactician. He uses stealth and duplicity much as the venerable Japanese Admiral might have in order to wreak havoc on an unsuspecting enemy before they knew what had hit them. But in Harper's case, the enemy is the Canada he hates so much that he has promised we won't know it by the time he's done changing it. He has mastered the arts of bafflegab and doublespeak, referring to the disastrous C-38 as the "Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act" for example. A primary tactic is for Harper and his minions to tell the same un-truth so often that it becomes an accepted truth (such as the Conservative myth that coalition governments are undemocratic). And it works every time. But first among his many dastardly ploys is the use of "wedge politics". Divide and conquer as it were. He has pitted east against west, French against English, young against old, men against women, urban against rural, created the illusion of an elitist artistic class and painted them as the enemy of the working class, painted a healthy and organized working class as the enemy of a prosperous nation and painted anyone who disagrees with his policies as enemies of democracy when in reality, Harper is the real enemy of Canada and our democratic heritage.
And while it took the "Sleeping Giant" almost four years to punish it's enemy after the Pearl Harbour disaster, we have slightly less than that before the next election, at which time, Harper and his minions will pay for their attack on our country. He will feel the wrath of the Canadian people for we are filled with a terrible resolve.
