Another Canadian Author Stands up To Harper and Wins

There is a disturbing pattern with the Harper government whenever anyone challenges them. They put them in their cross hairs and then go on the attack. It usually works.

Then along came Margaret Atwood.

She stood up to the bullies and won. Score one for the good guys.

Now we have another brave soul refusing to be victimized. One of Canada's best authors and journalists Lawrence Martin was subjected to the usual nonsense after the release of his book Harperland.

He was called a Liberal hack, but Martin is no Liberal, nor is he a hack.

The Prime Minister's Office is, predictably, dismissing Lawrence Martin's fascinating new book -- Harperland: The Politics of Control -- as the work of a Liberal sympathizer.

This ignores Martin's crusading pursuit of past Liberal misdeeds, from Shawinigate to the sponsorship scandal, but, also, the intriguing fact that most of the author's sources are former intimates of Stephen Harper's. And they're speaking on the record.

"Former" is the operative word, of course. No one who wants to keep their job, or pursue a career in the capital, can afford to be openly critical of this wary, self-protective prime minister. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews illustrated the approved technique recently, when asked about federal funding for hockey arenas: "Whatever the leader said, I stand by what the leader said."

And when Kory Teneycke denied telling Martin that Harper was going to go see the Queen if the Governor General refused his request to prorogue, he simply denied it.

He forgot that Lawrence Martin is smarter than the whole lot of them.

He produced a tape. Hee, hee.