I Assert That The CPC Has Not Changed

Why would I make such a statement? After all, Harper's been very careful to make sure that his party is "on message" all election - and it's overall a relatively moderate message...especially when we compare it with some of what came out of the former Reform/Alliance camp.

Let me give a few key points:

1) Harper's apparent moderation is superficial, in my opinion. There's a few reasons for me to say this. First, Harper's not entirely stupid. He knows full well that the Canadian voter is not impressed by the hard line conservative stance that he has taken in the past. Second, please take a careful look at Harper's behaviour in the spring sitting of the House of Commons last year. Between Harper and his cabinet, you could have very easily mistaken the lot of them for being clones of Dick Cheney and other members of Bush Jr's cabinet.

I suspect that Harper's changed views are a reflection of a desire or even outright lust for political power. Like the 'ex-gay', Harper's outward alteration of behaviour has not changed his core beliefs - and is unlikely to change.

2) If the CPC has moderated under Harper, then please explain to me why the most hard-line wingnuts still hold positions of significance in the party and caucus? We have running as candidates under his name people like Jason Kenney, Rob Anders, Art Hanger, Stockwell Day, Myron Thompson and numerous others who have a long standing track record of demonstrating to the world that narrow minded ugliness still exists, and manages to rise to some prominence.

3) On topics such as social issues, the Harper CPC has been deliberately mushy. Instead of taking a clear stance on topics such as abortion and SGM, the party adopts a policy of a 'free vote' should a "private member's bill" be introduced. Give me a freaking break. The old Progressive Conservative party at least had the intellectual honesty to state their position. This lot gives the voters a sop that the hard liners can grasp onto, and then turns around and tells the moderates (most of Canada) that they've "changed" - horsefeathers.

4) On topics of international relations, we have heard Mr. Harper talking about "discussing" BushCo's totally dysfunctional "missile defense" toy program (discuss being another code phrase for reopening a debate that Canada doesn't need to go through). We get to hear MPs like Jason Kenney talk about the "moral rightness" of invading Iraq, and then spin things around to Iran "pursuing nuclear weapons". Even if they are, so what? If that's such a huge risk, then why is nobody taking steps to disarm India, Pakistan, North Korea, South Korea, China, Israel or Russia (and the former Soviet Republics) - not to mention the United States?

5) Harper complains - openly - about the "activist judiciary" - pulling a line from the Republican US campaigns - a line which completely ignores the actual rulings of the Supreme Court in this nation and the carefully considered reasoning that they have consistently used.

6) His senior MPs, like Jason Kenney, repeatedly demonstrate their utter ignorance of both Canada and its roots - comparing us to the United States and ignoring our heritage in British Empire and France. At a recent All Candidates Forum, Jason Kenney asserted that Canada was the only "major democracy in the world with an unelected upper house". What utter nonsense - look across the Atlantic, Mr. Kenney. (Granted, I have always held that the senate in Canada could do with an overhaul to make it more effective than it is - but I still utterly loathe statements like that made in utter ignorance - what other acts is he going to undertake out of that same fount of wisdom from which that statement sprang forth?)

In short, little has happened since Peter Mackay reneged on the deal that got him the leadership of the PC party. I could have written much of the same essay anytime since the Reform Party ate its young and ejected Preston Manning as its leader.