Glen Pearson, MP (London North Centre): Few other prime ministers have left their distinct effect on Parliament the say Stephen Harper has. Not just about his leadership style, it's also how his practice of politics has characterized the House of Commons. In short, he has rendered it largely dysfunctional. In speaking with longtime civil servants and elected representatives the conclusion has been almost universal: he has changed Parliament... for the worse.
But it's worked for him. I watch him from across the aisle and witness a calculating mind in overdrive. Everything is covered in his thinking, down to the last detail. True, he is feared, but it's not a fear borne out of political mastery but rather an apprehension at being walloped in the schoolyard. In Canada, where a variety of views expressed in different regions have historically been respected, Harper's leadership has been counter-productive and counter-intuitive...
In his desire to obliterate his opponents, he ended up destroying Parliament -- at least for a time. Neither civil servants nor elected representatives can put the pieces back together so long as his method of politics reigns supreme...
Machiavelli could never have been a successful prime minister of Canada. His 'ends justify the means' strategy has never really worked in Canada because there are many 'ends' and many constituencies that require the others in order to succeed. Mr. Harper never understood this practical Canadian reality. This country can only be guided, not constructed. The best people in Parliament have to wait 'post-Harper' until we can put the pieces together again.
Aaron Wherry, Maclean's: When Elections Canada ruled that his party had violated electoral rules in winning the 2006 campaign, he took them to court. When an MP's dying suggestion that Conservatives tried to bribe him was made public and the opposition demanded to know what Mr. Harper knew, he sued. When the Military Police Complaints Commission insisted on looking into the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, he sought an injunction. When parliamentary committees too insistently went about their own business, they were driven to dysfunction...
Forgive the Prime Minister if you find his behaviour unseemly. He knows not what he does. Or, rather, he knows only what he does -- 50 years into his life and three years into his government, he certainly seems to have settled on who he is.
