COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA TODAY
As a Canadian with a strong bias towards international
relations, I have little good to say about any of Stephen Harper's cabinet.
But I do think it important to point out something about how
that awful government worked.
Harper had the precise temperament of a tyrant.
He allowed no minister of senior government bureaucrat to
speak out on any matter whatsoever.
If they were interviewed by the press, an event fairly rare
during the Harper years, they had "canned talking points" from which
they dared not depart.
You never learned anything of substance from such
interviews. Harper himself rarely, rarely subjected himself to interviews.
Harper kept this kind of discipline over senior officials
because he had in private a terrible temper, and he was a highly vindictive
mam.
All that is to say, you really cannot say in most cases what
his ministers believed or didn't believe.
I have heard Chris Alexander giving the official line, but I
have also heard people who know him that he is a fairly decent man who doesn't
agree completely with the bleak views of Stephen Harper. I don’t know.
This was said by people who knew him during the shameful
treatment by Harper of Syrian refugees. Harper accepted virtually none - in
complete contradiction to Canada’s historic humanitarian role.
Later, it was revealed that the small number even being accepted
were being held up by having applications slowly and inappropriately
securitized for religious identity. The secret order went out – we know from a
brave civil servant who leaked the fact – to not admit any Muslims. Imagine, no
Muslims from Syria – that’s the kind of filthy man Harper was.
Harper’s motives can only be speculated about, but I think
they involved his bizarre relationship with Israel. He was absolutely servile
towards Israel, a posture which earned his party handsome campaign-finance
contributions from Israel’s lobby.
That same motivation is likely behind Harper’s ugliness
towards Russia. Fans of Israel do not like any country which opposes American
interests or challenges American hegemony, America being the country’s chief
source of financial subsidy and unquestioning support.
At any rate, Russians should never believe that Harper's
views were the views of most Canadians. He held office with 39% of the vote.
