Not a Good Time for Stephen Harper to be Compared to Richard Nixon

The historian Garry Wills once observed that Richard Nixon wanted to be president not to govern the nation but to undermine the government. The Nixon presidency was one long counterinsurgency campaign against key American institutions like the courts, the FBI, the state department and the CIA. Harper has the same basic approach to politics: attack not just political foes but the very institutions that make governing possible. The state for Nixon and Harper exists not as an instrument of policy making but as an alien force to be subdued.

If it's not the media, or the courts, or the Senate, or Elections Canada, it's the Wheat Board, the federal government's own spending power, the bureaucracy, the gun registry ... Canadians should rightly wonder why their head of government has such a problem with so many Canadian institutions. (1)

It certainly is a "wonder" and a bigger "wonder" how someone who hated our institutions this much, was given the job of upholding them.

From Nixonland to Harperland, a story is told of unprecedented control in what are supposed to be healthy democracies.  National Post's Kelly McParland said that it was the result of a "siege mentality".

One of the many online encyclopedias defines “siege mentality” as “a shared feeling of helplessness, victimization and defensiveness” which “refers to persecution feelings by anyone in the minority, or of a group that views itself as a threatened minority.” If there’s anything that typifies the Conservatives under Mr. Harper, it’s the notion that anyone outside the party is to be viewed with suspicion, and even within the party trust is to be handed out sparingly. Beyond the fortified redoubt of the Prime Minister’s inner circle, everyone is on permanent probation. (2)

Richard Nixon kept enemy lists maintained by Watergate plumber Chuck Colson.  Word was that you didn't want to get on that list.  Many in the media did make it there.

"Never forget," he tells national security advisers Henry Kissinger .. and Alexander Haig in a conversation on December 14 1972, "the press is the enemy, the press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy, the professors are the enemy, the professors are the enemy. Write that on a blackboard 100 times." (3)

Harper's enemy list extends to young girls who share photos of themselves standing with his political opponents, on Facebook.

There is yet another book written on the life of Richard Nixon, that uncovers not only more control and paranoia, but a violent temper, a battle with alcoholism, wife beating and even homosexuality.  I'll leave out the last three in comparing Harper to Nixon, but his pathological control and violent temper are well known, despite attempts to keep it from the public.

Harper's former VP when he headed up the National Citizens Coaltiion, Gerry Nicholls, writes in his book Harper, Me and the NCC, that Harper's temper is not red hot but icy blue, and when he was in a "mood" you kept out of his way.

Lloyd Mackey in The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper, tells of a chair throwing incident at a Conservative Party convention because things were not going his way.

Former Alliance MP Larry Spencer, in his book Sacrificed: Truth or Politics, relates an interview he had with Harper, where he was torn down for a radio interview, in which he spoke of a "homosexual agenda".  Harper wasn't angry about about the gay bashing, but it's timing, suggesting that he was "put up to it" by his political enemies.

Belinda Stonach and Garth Turner took similar dressing downs, where the air was so blue, the big guy may have set a new record for his use of profanity.  Others have confirmed, off the record of course, that Harper has quite a potty mouth, and they never want to get caught in his verbal line of fire.

In the many books written on Stephen Harper, the authors have tred softly, opening up many areas for discussion, that for the most part have remained closed.  Of the ones I've read, Lawrence Martin's Harperland and Christian Nadeau's Rogue in Power, are the most revealing, and the ones that we should be paying attention to.

Jeffrey Simpson in his critique of Harperland wrote for the Globe and Mail:  Looking for Nixon-like tendencies in Harperland

... the interesting comparisons arise between Mr. Harper and Mr. Nixon. By all accounts, and especially those in Harperland, the Prime Minister is not only a partisan, as all prime ministers must be, but he viscerally hates Liberals. His objective is not just to defeat but to obliterate the Liberal Party of Canada. For that purpose, the gloves are off all the time, from nasty attack ads against Liberal leaders to ritualistic, partisan punches from him and his ministers.

Mr. Nixon saw enemies everywhere: in the media, the “liberal elites,” the Ivy League colleges .... He carried enormous resentments, remembered many past slights, and bottled them up inside where they fed paranoid streaks in his character. He was a control freak, and demanded that his staff act accordingly.

With the release of Nixon's Darkest Secrets, Harper might want to tone it down a bit, before someone starts looking for his.

Sources:
 
1. The Canadian Nixon: Stephen Harper's feud with Elections Canada is just the latest front in his war against government institutions, By Dimitry Anastakis and Jeet Heer, The UK Guardian, April 24, 2008

2. Harper discovers it's easy to find enemies, if you look hard enough, By Kelly McParland, National Post, April 23, 2008

3. Recordings reveal Richard Nixon's paranoia: Recordings show Nixon urged staff to use all means to discredit his political opponents, both large and small, By Dan Glaister, UK Guardian, December 3, 2008

Michael Ignatieff Not the Only Victim of Smear Campaign

Though the media had been both perpetrators and spectators to the horrible character assassination of Michael Ignatieff, we find that across the country similar smear campaigns were taking place on Liberal candidates.

We knew this election, with everything on the line, Harper and his team would fight dirty. But we were not prepared for what took place, in what is becoming clear was the most fraudulent election campaign in Canadian history.

Harper's former VP when he was running the National Citizens Coalition, called it guerrilla warfare. And it was indeed an undercover operation. A small group of combatants whose mission was not only to win, but to destroy every Liberal in its path.

The Conservatives even disbanded their 'NDP Unit' just before the election to focus their attention on a single enemy.

And one of the victims of this war, was Glen Pearson, a decent man and hard working Member of Parliament. He never let partisanship destroy his integrity, but in the end it destroyed him.

He explains what happened on his blog: Transitions – Brutal In Their Despondency

It was expected by most that I would win and the media sent its staff to my campaign office to cover the victory party that wasn’t. It became clear as the evening progressed that the vote split between myself and the NDP was proving fatal. Yet I’d had something of a premonition of the outcome during the last few days of the contest. At doors I canvassed I kept hearing certain stories about how I spent too much time in Africa, or that my voting presence in the House wasn’t too impressive. When I informed them that I only spent one week a year on that continent (Sudan), and that I take it on my holiday time over New Years and on my own dime, I could sense the hesitation in their voice. “Oh … that’s not what we heard when the Conservatives phoned us last night.” Something that hadn’t been an issue heretofore was suddenly looming large in the final days.

It was frustrating, but I didn’t know who to talk to. It was only when the election was over that a good Conservative friend informed me that they had actually been utilizing a central office for phone calls and that none of them emanated from London itself. They had poured big money from afar into influencing my riding. What I had thought to be a local campaign had suddenly taken on national dimensions.

Mr. Pearson does volunteer work in Africa. Who knew that the Conservatives would stoop to the level of using it against him.

Sadly his story is not unique. Riding after riding, is reporting the same dirty tricks, reminiscent of Karl Rove and the way he stole elections for George Bush.

But in the process, people's lives are being destroyed. As Andrew Potter said recently of the destruction of Michael Ignatieff, Canada is 'No country for good men'.

Sadly, we are now a country where good people will be afraid to run for office. If Glen Pearson can be destroyed, anyone can.

To Understand Stephen Harper is to Understand the National Citizens Coalition

I've read a great many books on the rise of Neoconservatism in Canada, in particular as they related to the Western Reform Movement (now the Conservative Party of Canada) and the Mike Harris government in Ontario (now headed up by Harris' lapdog, Tim Hudak).

But I thought that to really understand the philosophy behind it, I'd also read books written by some of the major players.

Anything Preston Manning churned out was revisionist history that left out many important details, like the influence of the American Republicans and the National Citizens Coalition. He only stopped short of suggesting that God himself wrote their platform, chiseled it in stone and delivered it on Mount Sinai.

It wasn't of course. In fact the Reform polices were written by Stephen Harper and most "cribbed from the National Citizens Coalition handbook". (1)

Gerry Nicholls, VP of the NCC when Harper was president, also laments the fact that Stephen Harper fails to mention his involvement with the group, in his own official bio.

Stephen Harper fails to mention a lot of things. And for good reason. The NCC being the least of them.

However, what I've discovered in my journey to the dark side (I'm kidding. Just using a bit of neocon-speak), is that there may be another reason why Harper leaves out some very important elements of his life.

It's because he not only plagiarized the NCC handbook to appear that he knew how to draft policy, but he also stole most of his ideas, from not only the NCC, but many of the players in the early days of Reform.

One of the authors affecting his ideology was Peter Brimelow, so I read his book Patriot Games, that had such a profound affect on Harper that he went out and bought ten copies (2) to give to friends (Shut up. Yes apparently he did have 10 friends, though it is rumoured that he thinks his cat can read).

From that book, I found most of Harper's political "ideas", including the notion of a Belgian model, that made headlines during the 2004 election campaign. Not his idea it turns out, but Brimelow's.

Stephen Harper is a smart man, but not a wise man, and his strengths are in cunning and combativeness. He has no fresh ideas to help the country, so instead attacks the ideas of others. And when he can't attack their ideas, because they make too much sense, he instead attacks them.

This commando style "guerrilla warfare", comes from the National Citizens Coalition and Arthur Finklestein, who was a master of the simplistic attack ad. KeepItSimpleStupid with the emphasis on 'Stupid'.

What Is/Was the National Citizens Coalition?

"Not only was I helping to make Canada a better, freer country, but I had the pleasure of knowing my work was upsetting the left-wing elite." Gerry Nicholls

In his book, Loyal to the Core: Stephen Harper Me and the NCC, Gerry Nicholls speaks of the misconceptions surrounding the NCC and what they were, and attempts to correct them.

He also follows Manning's lead (Preston Manning is the recipient of the "prestigious" medal of freedom given out by the NCC, as is Stephen Harper and Conrad Black. Enough said), and writes a bit of revisionist history of his own.

1. The NCC was started by Colin M. Brown "one of the country's leading life insurance salesmen". It was started by Colin M. Brown, however, he was hardly a mere life insurance salesman, but a wealthy agent for London Life. Most say millionaire and I think they're right. And he was inspired, not by a desire to help others, but in response to the promise of public healthcare, fearing it would hamper his business.

The idea behind the creation of the National Citizens Coalition as an advocacy group, came from Ernest Manning, father of Preston, who had many connections with the American Republicans. It was Manning who came up with the idea of making the NCC non-profit, so that they could take advantage of tax breaks. (2) Meaning that while they screamed "lower taxes", they were enjoying tax benefits, passing more of the burden onto the working class, while soliciting the same people for their funding.

2. The National Citizens Coalition is not "extremist", "radical" or "extreme right-wing". However, in their early days they championed the causes of the extreme right. Case in point, is the horrendous "boat people campaign", to keep Canada from accepting Vietnam refugees.

You can listen to the podcast here. And this was launched the same year that Stephen Harper joined the NCC.

They were also involved in circulating the video of Peter Worthington's propaganda documentary against Nelson Mandela. The mainstream media wouldn't broadcast it because it was too one-sided.

They only became involved in political campaigns when Brown hired Art Finklestein.

Finkelstein had created the concept of independent expenditure campaigns (third party advertising), which could operate behind the scenes, to get a chosen candidate elected or defeated.

Finklestein was the chief strategist behind the most successful IE operation of this period, the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). In 1981 New Right activist Richard Viguerie wrote, "NCPAC relies heavily on research and polling, a reflection of one of its founders, conservative pollster Arthur Finkelstein."

In 1978, NCPAC was instrumental in the defeat of Democrats Dick Clark in Iowa and Thomas J. McIntyre in New Hampshire. Both liberal Senators were replaced by committed conservatives. NCPAC ran hard-hitting ads for television, radio and newspapers, crafted by Finkelstein. A central idea behind the strategy was to expose the liberal words and actions in Washington of elected officials ... (3)

From then on, this became the mandate of the NCC. Their most successful independent expenditure campaign, in fact, first got Stephen Harper elected as an MP in 1993, when he went up against his former boss, Progressive Conservative Jim Hawkes.

The campaign was so ugly that Harper's former fiancee, Cynthia Williams, went to work for Hawkes, feeling that he was being unjustly vilified. That campaign cost the NCC about $50,000.00.

They were also responsible for the four-year campaign against Bob Rae when he was premier of Ontario, through their spin-off group: Ontarians for Responsible Government. Billboards, bumper stickers, radio spots. They were relentless. And of course the same group was instrumental in getting Mike Harris elected.

So even that far back, the American conservative movement was interfering in our elections.

But instead of just exposing the roots of Stephen Harper, we can actually use some of their logic against them, with simple ads. Not personal attack ads, but attacks against policy and strategy.

The "In and Out" is not an "accounting problem", but involved Conservative operatives fabricating receipts for government rebates, they weren't entitled to.

Harper is not for lower taxes, but his government is behind the HST and the payroll tax on workers.

They are not fiscal conservatives, but have racked up a record debt and deficit, exploiting the Wall Street "heist", dubbed the "global economic crisis".

They are not worried about creating jobs, because during the same period when we were experiencing massive job losses, their government stepped up the use of migrant workers.

Bang, bang, bang. Simple facts. Guerilla warfare.

Thank you Gerry Nicholls and thank you Arthur Finklestein.

Sources:

1. Loyal to the Core: Stephen Harper Me and the NCC, By: Gerry Nicholls, Freedom Press, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-9732757-8-0

2. Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, by William Johnson, McClelland & Stewart, 2005, ISBN 0-7710 4350-3

3. Wikipedia: Arthur J. Finkelstein

Why Is the American Ann Coulter Proud to be Canadian?

Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed'). Ann Coulter

There has been a lot of controversy this week over the projected visit of the highly controversial American journalist Ann Coulter. The provost of the University of Ottawa, Francois Houle, did not prevent her from appearing but did warn her to watch her mouth. (Many Americans would prefer she just kept it shut)

"Our domestic laws, both provincial and federal, delineate freedom of expression (or "free speech") in a manner that is somewhat different than the approach taken in the United States. I therefore encourage you to educate yourself, if need be, as to what is acceptable in Canada and to do so before your planned visit here." He continued, "Promoting hatred against any identifiable group would not only be considered inappropriate, but could in fact lead to criminal charges."

Eventually, however the event was cancelled, which got organizer Ezra Levant in a flap:

"It would be physically dangerous for Ann Coulter to proceed with this event," said Conservative political activist Ezra Levant inside the hall. "This is an embarrassing day for the University of Ottawa and their student body . . . who chose to silence her through threats and intimidation."

Of course Levant was in full support of the ban imposed on British MP George Galloway, because he provided humanitarian aid, with the permission of his government, to Palestine. Talk about your double standard, huh?

Levant has been a long time supporter of Jason Kenney and Stockwell Day. Enough said.

However, since the warning, the Canadian right-wing is crying foul, calling it an assault on our freedoms. I guess forbidding us to criticize Israel or even mouthing the word 'Apartheid', without the risk of being charged with a hate crime, is A OK, though.

This sounds a lot like a tactic taught at Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. Blackwell was the Republican strategist who invited Stephen Harper to deliver a speech at the Council for National Policy in 1997. Both Karl Rove and Rob Anders are graduates of this school, and Preston Manning is running a similar program.

They call it 'Controlled Controversy' and Blackwell states that "Academia is the last unbreached citadel of the left, and I believe we are today over the moat." I would rather throw Coulter and Levant in it ... figuratively of course, not literally. Wouldn't want Ezra accusing me of violent intentions, now would I?

Why are so Many American Neoconservatives Proud to be Canadian?

This university speaking tour is not Coulter's first foray into Canadian politics, though. She has been contributing articles for some time now on a site called ProudToBeCanadian.

And while they claim to be proud Canadians, most of the journalists on the site, are from the American Right-Wing. Stephen Harper's former VP when he was running the National Citizens Coalition, Gerry Nicholls is an exception. And so is William Gairdner, whose book The Trouble With Canada became like a bible to the Reform Party under Preston Manning.

But I find the whole thing rather bizarre.

A true conservative site that helps explain the difference between liberals and conservatives.

We're: Pro-life. Pro-freedom. Pro-USA. Pro-Christian. Pro-Israel. Pro-family. Pro-traditional marriage. Pro-free market capitalism. Pro-war-on-terror and war on Islamofascism and terror in Iraq and everywhere else. Pro-military. We're for smaller governments. For less taxes. Against socialism. Against state-owned or state-run media. Against asinine state controls on our legal gun ownership. Against the so-called "progressive", left-wing church of liberalism. Against idiocy generally ...

Few of those things represent Canadians at all, so what exactly are they proud of?

Besides Coulter, their membership includes:

Republican activist Mike S. Adams, author of the book: Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" on Campus

David Warren who also writes for the right-leaning RealClearPolitics

Doug Giles, the Miami pastor who created and hosts Clash Radio. His bio claims that 'Giles’ interests include guns, big game hunting, big game fishing, fine art, cigars and being a big pain in the butt to people who dislike God and the USA'

For Coulter and PTBC, I believe they are just singing to the choir. Anyone attending her lectures, already believe in this nonsense, and the same could probably be said for anyone joining PTBC. I doubt they will lure anyone with their viciousness.

At least I hope not, because I want to still be proud to be Canadian, for all the reasons that actually define us as a tolerant and fair minded country.

PS: For anyone worrying about Ann of the Neocon's interview above; the Reformers have put it to right. In July of last year they erased any mention of our allowing Vietnam draft dodgers into the country.

Text on how both draft dodgers and resisters of the Vietnam War were ultimately allowed to stay in Canada suddenly vanished from the Citizenship and Immigration site earlier this year.

Jason Kenney to the rescue. Did he learn that one of them may have been gay?

IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?

Reform-Conservatives Guilty of the Largest Propaganda Campaign in Our History. And the Good News Is - We Are Paying For It!

And I thought their ten per centers were an awful abuse of tax dollars. But spending millions and millions of dollars on partisan advertising and charging it to taxpayers is horrendous, even for them. However, the scandals erupting over the way the money has been spent, also promise to be pretty damaging.

The Ref-Cons have been allowed a free ride, because being a new party, they didn't have to wear the sins of those before them. Therefore, it was easy to constantly bring up the sponsorship scandal, and claim the moral high ground.

However, if unfortunately, we ever elect another Reform-Conservative government; the opposition will be able to bring up not only the 'In and Out', the Cadman Affair and an illegal election. They will also be able to state the fact that this government was the most corrupt in Canadian history.

And they've set the bar pretty high (or pretty low depending on how you look at it), so they may hold the record for a great many years. Good job.

Tory ridings receive bigger slice of big-money stimulus cash: Research

OTTAWA -- Conservative ridings across Canada received more than their fair share of big-money stimulus projects paid for by taxpayers, an investigation into the Harper government's Economic Action Plan shows. The numbers -- drawn from Ottawa's own website -- bolster opposition allegations of pork barrelling in the multi-billion-dollar stimulus package, a charge the Tories deny.

An Ottawa Citizen-Halifax Chronicle-Herald investigation shows 57% of the projects, with more than $1-million in federal funding nationwide, went to Conservative ridings. The party holds only 46% of the seats in the House of Commons. Conservative ridings therefore received 23% more million-dollar-plus projects than if the projects were divided evenly among all ridings ....

National Citizens Coalition and Other Right-Wing Groups Help Mike Harris

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

The billboard to the right was designed by Gerry Nicholls when he was running the anti-Bob Rae campaign for Ontarians for Responsible Government, an offshoot of the National Citizens Coalition.

I've read several books on the Mike Harris Revolution and all ignore the influence of these right-wing groups, that played such an important role in the success of the movement.

Colin Brown Jr., son of the founder of the NCC, Colin Brown, was invited to speak to the Ontario legislature in 1997.

I appreciate the chance to speak to you today. My name is Colin Brown and I'm the president of Ontarians for Responsible Government. As our name suggests, we at ORG believe in responsible government. That means we believe in government that is careful with tax dollars That means we believe in government that's efficient and, most of all, we believe in a government that promotes economic freedom. We came into being around in 1991 to oppose and expose the ruinous socialist policies of Premier Bob Rae and the NDP after his first budget. For four years we battled that government and ultimately contributed to its defeat at the polls in 1995. (1)

And indeed they did. For the entire duration of Bob Rae's premiership, the OFRG did nothing but harass, while building support for a neoconservative takeover.


The National Citizens Coalition

The National Citizens Coalition, which was started in 1975, on the advice of Preston Manning's father, Ernest Manning; had always been considered to be a right-wing fringe group. But after helping to get Brian Mulroney elected, they began to earn some legitimacy, and with 50 members of Mulroney's caucus belonging to the NCC, it was not too difficult to influence policy.

In 1987, when Stephen Harper, who had joined the NCC in 1980, was helping to start the Reform Party, he worked with the NCC and it's then president, David Somerville. Somerville had been a journalist for the Toronto Sun when Peter Worthington was the editor, so his devotion to right-wing causes was already well tested.

Somerville's connections with the Reform Party were even more direct. He attended virtually all of their assemblies during his term of office as an observer." At the founding convention of Reform in 1987, he told reporters, "If NCC supporters notice a remarkable similarity between the political agendas of the Reform Party of Canada and the NCC, it may be because an estimated one third of the delegates are NCC supporters." Although he continued to argue the NCC was beholden to no other organization, he nevertheless declared enthusiastically after Preston Manning's speech in 1991 at the Saskatoon convention that "it was conceivable to think of him, for the first time, as Prime Minister Manning." Not surprisingly, an NCC poll released that summer also indicated more than 60 per cent of NCC members outside of Quebec planned to vote Reform.(2)

And while Stephen Harper has been credited with writing policy for the Reform party, most of it was actually cribbed from the NCC handbook. (3) They would also put $ 50,000.00 into his 1993 campaign, that brought him to Ottawa as an MP.

But besides simply being engaged in guerrilla warfare against Bob Rae, the NCC also worked closely with Mike Harris and his team.

In 1994 Somerville was asked to address the Ontario Conservatives' platform committee, the group of whiz kids Mike Harris had assembled for his "Common Sense Revolution." According to a report on his presentation in the NCC's June 1994 Consensus, Somerville urged Harris to "come out strongly in favour of privatization, contracting-out, repeal of pro—labour union laws and immediate action to eliminate the deficit". (2)

Corporate money began to flow, and the debt of the party was gradually reduced.

But it would take more than just the NCC if the Revolution was going to have any success, and just as with the Reform Party, Harris could count on several, including the Fraser Institute, of which he is now a fellow. Michael Walker told Enterprise Magazine in 1995, that he and Mike Harris were regular fishing buddies.

Another important group working behind the scenes was the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) led by Craig Chandler. In January of 1994, Mike Harris attended a PGIB rally in Hamilton, Ontario, where he stated "I encourage you to join the PGIB is you have not already and demand a restructuring of the public sector to both cut costs and improve services. It is time to go forward with a common-sense plan to unleash the power of the marketplace." and on March 14, 1997, from The Globe and Mail: "...the Calgary-based Progressive Group for Independent Business, a group known as the brains behind Ontario Premier Mike Harris's Common-Sense Revolution. " (4)

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, then led by Jason Kenney also featured a Harris pledge as part of their literature, and praised him for promising to cut taxes.

But the most important influence on the success of the Harris Revolution came from south of the border. That coming next.

Sources:

1. Pre-Budget Consultations, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, March 6, 1997

2. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2 4, Pg. 413

3. Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, by William Johnson, McClelland & Stewart, 2005, ISBN 0-7710 4350-3, 2005

4. What are People Saying About PGIB, PGIB Website, Accessed July 23, 2010