Since the remarks get pulled back into the public sphere regularly to haunt him, it’s reasonable to consider his old commentary in relation to what he’s done as Prime Minister and figure out if his thinking has grown or changed much.

A lot of people are probably familiar with the speech I’m referencing (full text available on the CTV Web site¹). In the speech, Harper made a bunch of disparaging remarks about his country and fellow citizens, and presented a perspective that was grossly simplistic. While some of what he said was probably intended for humour value, the observations, jokes, and overall perspective represent his manner of thinking.

I’ll quote Mr. Harper and then match the quote to something relevant in his tenure as PM.

1) “…it’s legendary that if you’re like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians.”

• Change? Yes: This jest makes one think that Harper wasn’t very impressed with Canadians’ knowledge of history, current events, government, etc. Considering his joke presented the problem, he must have been concerned about this lack of knowledge. Usually a lack of knowledge is solved through learning, or education. While Harper used to be concerned with Canadian education, now he prefers to cut programs designed to improve it.

2) “Canadians make no connection between the fact that they are a Northern European welfare state and the fact that we have very low economic growth, a standard of living substantially lower than yours, a massive brain drain of young professionals to your country, and double the unemployment rate of the United States.”

• Change? Not really: It’s possible Harper’s comment was relatively neutral, suggesting simply that there’s a connection between welfare and low economic growth, indeed you’d imagine that if there isn’t much economic growth there might be more unemployed people needing assistance. However taken in context of the rest of his cynical speech it reads more like he’s disparaging the normally high standard of living we have and Canadian attitudes toward helping those who are less fortunate. He begrudgingly succumbed to improving the employment insurance program. In late 2009, the Conservative minority needed a way to survive a non-confidence vote. They traded their normally feeble stance toward EI for the NDP’s timely demands and temporary support. Background from the CBC² (12 September 2009). The Calgary Sun³ (21 December 2009) reported on the surprising $1B in EI this resulted in–badly needed within the context of an economy hurting from the global economic crisis. Harper was dragged into this one so I can’t give him a “yes” for change in this respect. Also I cannot seem to find any articles confirming whether or not he learned that Canada is not on the European continent.

3) “In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don’t feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.”

• Change? No: Canadian news agencies like the CBC⁴ reported in October 2008, when the economy was heading downhill, job losses were mounting, and people were worrying about how bad it might get that Harper suggested buying stocks. One would have to imagine that he believes the unemployed receive extremely “generous social assistance” for that kind of commentary to resonate.

4) “…our executive is the Queen, who doesn’t live here. Her representative is the Governor General, who is an appointed buddy of the Prime Minister.”

• Change? No: Although he didn’t appoint this particular Governor General, Harper phones her up for a little friendly prorogue whenever he’s having a bad day.

5) “…the Senate, our upper house, is appointed, also by the Prime Minister, where he puts buddies, fundraisers and the like. So the Senate also is not very important in our political system.”

• Change? No: He still doesn’t seem to believe that the Senate is important in our political system. The proof is in his actions. He said it wasn’t important because it was an appointed body of buddies. Yet Harper has appointed many senators, in spite of committing to making it an elected body.

6) Referring to the executive, two legislative houses, and supreme court: “. . . if you sort of remove three of the four elements, what you see is a system of checks and balances which quickly becomes a system that’s described as unpaid checks and political imbalances.”

• Change? No: Harper reaffirmed how imbalanced our system is when he twice prorogued parliament (see the little friendly prorogue link above) and went ahead carrying out his Conservative program, unchecked and chock full of deficit. Of course, if he’d just let our system’s watchdogs do their jobs, we might have a little more checking going on.

7) “. . . the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.”

• Change? Yes and No: Although it sounds like Stephen Harper doesn’t like the NDP much (he saw them as interference) he’s grown to see them, like the Liberals and Bloc, as a source for occasional support deals–when it serves his ulterior political motives. I mentioned one example above: the EI versus non-confidence issue. Harper also once upon a time, approached the NDP to help him form a coalition to topple the former Liberal government. If you’re Harper, that’s making a deal with the devil. Of course, they’re too far apart ideologically for that to have worked and when it truly didn’t work he chose to brush his little rejection under the carpet. Later, running from his own imminent loss to a non-confidence vote and Liberal/NDP coalition, he dishonestly framed coalitions as undemocratic⁵. Seems even lost opportunities with the devil can come back to bite. The CBC⁶ article from 1 December 2008 says
  

  “All three opposition leaders accused Harper of reversing his position, pointing to a 2004 letter to the governor general by then Opposition leader Harper that suggested he be allowed to form a coalition government if Paul Martin’s Liberal minority government were to fall. Layton said Harper should remember the meetings in which he proposed the coalition. “I walked out,” the NDP leader said, adding that he wrote about it in his book.”

People change. At least I believe people are capable of changing. Cynics might like to argue that point with me (if you convince me to change my mind–I’ll have proven my point). Often times, in the public sphere, a politician will take a particular stand at one point in time and years later, if he or she changes position, the media will call out the past position as though the politician is being dishonest.

While it may be the case that the politician is indeed being dishonest, sometimes it’s also possible that the person’s experience and thinking simply evolved over time. If politicians would just, publicly state when they’ve changed their minds and what led them to change their minds, I think it would go a long way toward dispelling the aura of dishonesty.

I’d rather vote for people that show me they’re capable of learning and addressing situations the best way possible, rather than sticking to some preconceived notion in spite of contrary evidence or public opinion. I don’t see Stephen Harper doing that but I also don’t see him changing much.

The CCL describes itself as “a catalyst for lifelong learning, promoting and supporting evidence-based decisions about learning throughout all stages of life, from early childhood through to the senior years.” That seems like a worthy thing to promote in Canada. It’s important after all, to ensure that people’s knowledge and skills are up-to-date with those required to keep Canada competitive and successful in the world economy. Additionally, I’d argue that lifelong learning has intrinsic value to individuals and our society as a whole–but that’s for another post.

Remember, the Conservative minority squandered our budget surplus with its poor planning over the last several years; cuts that Harper and Flaherty have been warning about have already begun. Here’s some evidence that they’re extending beyond silencing the watchdogs that keep government accountable. The Globe and Mail¹ reported (8 January 2010) that the Conservatives (through Conservative MP Diane Finley) stopped funding to the CCL and provided us with the following doublespeak:

“Ryan Sparrow, Ms. Finley’s communications director, said the government is working with the provinces and other stakeholders to create a better system that is more responsive to Canadians’ needs.

“Employers, workers, and economists in Canada have told the government that there is a need for better learning information that is more aligned with labour market demand and takes into account international competitive challenges. This need has become even more apparent due to the recent global economic downturn and the government’s focus on Canada’s economic recovery… In other words, there is a need for a more comprehensive learning information system than the CCL can provide.”"

Really? The public isn’t stupid. It doesn’t make sense to shut down an organization that was already successfully doing what the Conservatives claim they want. According to the President and CEO of the CCL² (January 2010):

“In 2004, Canada saw that it had some catching up to do. Canadians were falling behind the rest of the world in some crucial areas. Innovation. Creativity. Skills development. Learning.

There was no debate about what we had to do to stop the decline, and begin to improve. We had to figure out what works in education and learning, from early childhood to post-secondary schooling, from job training through adult literacy improvement, and we had to monitor our progress so that we were certain we were always on the right path.

That is why the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) was created.

By any measure, CCL has a proud record of accomplishment.

Our Composite Learning Index, the first of its kind anywhere in the world, measures learning conditions, not only in the country as a whole, but in almost 5,000 individual communities. It shows that when you make learning conditions better, you inevitably make economic and social standards better. Europeans have told us they have been “inspired” by the Index, and are now working to produce a version for themselves. …”

The letter continues with more bullet points and information about the CCL’s successful program. As you can see, the CCL was doing what the Conservatives claim they want to do. The Conservatives haven’t announced any other program to accomplish their goal. So how does it make sense to cut off the funding to the program that was designed and already functioning in service of the very goal they claimed to want to reach? It doesn’t. C’mon Conservatives, that’s blatant doublespeak.

Finally as a side note, it’s interesting to contrast Harper’s Conservative approach to the perspective, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff presented in a speech, as reported by the CBC³ (2 May 2009).

“A key strategy for Canada to emerge from the economic downturn is lifelong learning because it fosters innovation that will help to create future jobs in a knowledge-based economy, he said.

“A strategy for recovery must be a strategy for learning. We must create a society where learning is a way of life and learning is lifelong… If you ask what I want for Canada, it is this: That we surprise ourselves, astonish ourselves, that we astonish the world.”"

Truly it surprises that the Conservatives, billing themselves as good stewards of the economy, prefer to cut our economic prospects by halting and reversing Canadian know-how, competitiveness, and leadership in a knowledge-based economy.

(Update 12 January 2010: The Toronto Star has an opinion piece on this issue, further examining the politics and faulty reasoning behind this cut.)