It was easy in some ways to write Harper off, he was polling so bad, there was a prominent and large discourse by people how they all wanted Harper out (how corrupt he was etc.) but now that the Conservative Party has hired Lynton Crosby to be their strategist for this election, I am generally terrified and worried that Harper now has a legitimate chance at winning.
I know Harper has definitely learned from John Howard’s government (former AUS PM) and made certain rhetoric statements distinctly his and that’s not a good thing (though it can be argued that it’s why he keeps winning these damn elections). He knows how to use wedge politics and further, his entire tenure thus far has seen the heavy use of populism. No other PM has had such a heavy hand using mainstream populism and regardless if you’re a supporter or not, you have to admit he really has concentrated his power and changed Canadian politics.
By using mainstream populism, he’s created this symbolic division of Canadian society; the legitimate “people” of the Canadian “heartland” and the illegitimate, “other”. The “other” in Harper’s case has been elites (anyone seen as ‘different’ from the ‘ordinary’ Canadian), critics (pundits, academics, or anyone else that voices their criticism of his government and their policies) and more worrisome, minority groups. So when he warns that ‘the other’ has infringed upon the Canadian ‘heartland’ (or his constant rhetoric of “Canadian Values”), the constructed threat is seen as a challenge to the Canadian people, their ‘way of life’ and ‘sense of identity’. Don’t believe me? Look at how how he’s dealing with the Syrian refugees this past week (x), look at his previous discourse that asylum seekers are “bogus refugees” and look how he silences scientists (or the ‘elites’).
He’s always relied on wedge politics to concentrate his power and this election has seen the Conservative Party slowly losing its steam but the most worrisome yet is now that they’ve hired Lynton Crosby to be their strategist, what policies are they going to introduce, what strategy and discourse are they going to adopt to further wedge the electorates into voting for them and will they win another four years?
Recommended further readings:
Straddling the divide: mainstream populism and conservatism in Howard’s Australia and Harper’s Canada by Dave Snow and Benjamin Moffitt
Stephen Harper: Authoritarian Partisan and Radical Social Conservative Ideologue? by Steve Patten
Harperland: the Politics of Control by Lawrence Martin
Eight Things about the Man Hired to Save Harper (x)