December 16, 2008

The crisis in parliament parallels Prime Minister Harper's
inner conflict.

His heart tells him one thing and his head another.

"You actually see the inner struggle," says Janice Stein,
member the International Society of Political Psychologists
and professor at the University of Toronto.

His heart tells him to stay the course he knows to be right.
His deeply-held values were ingrained at the University of
Calgary. The Calgary School of Economics has been described
as "a rambunctious, Rocky Mountain brand of libertarianism
that seeks lower taxes, less federal government, and free
markets unfettered by social programs such as medicare that
keep citizens from being forced to pull up their own socks."

Prime Minister Harper is libertarian at the core. "I'm very
libertarian in the sense that I believe in small government
and, as a general rule, I don't believe in imposing values
upon people," he explains. Government should get out of the
way of the entrepreneurial spirit that makes nations great.

But his head tells him the opposite. His U.S. allies are
headed the other direction towards in massive government
spending. And his analytical voices tell that if he wishes
to remain in power, he must stimulate the economy.

It isn't hard to imagine the agony of Stephen Harper. His
internal conflicts must create cognitive dissonance. His
well-established ideas no longer fit into the world view.

Harper's cherished ideology is collapsing around him like a
house of cards. The U.S. government has rescued the banking
system and is now considering a bailout of the automobile
industry.

Harper also has a rescue plan for the auto industry as well,
but it is contingent on the U.S. plan which his heart hopes
will fail. Not long ago, he boasted that Canada was about
to become an "energy superpower" through the export of
Alberta's energy. Now those plans are fading like the
winter sun.

Professor Stein has studied political psychology: "What we
know from studying political leaders is the longer you hold
beliefs, the more embedded they become. The more attached
they are, the harder it is to move another view."

"Politicians can be either foxes or hedgehogs," explains
Stein. "Foxes have ideological ideas they are convinced are
absolutely true. They deny the changing reality for long
periods of time. Hedgehogs are pragmatists. When the world
changes, they take a look around and adapt."

The near-death experience Harper's government is a symptom
of a troubled man. What else would he deliberately provoke
Liberal leader Dion whom he had already humiliated? Liberal
MP Dan McTeague explained it this way: "They're either very
stupid or very arrogant in thinking we'd simply just buckle.
We don't have many more cheeks to turn here."

His deliberate provocation was not a mistake; it was a
subconscious wish of a conflicted man. Two paths lay before
him; neither which he could he take. The conflict forced
him to make decisions that were irrational.

"He is out of step with the new orthodoxy," says Armine
Yalnizyan, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for
Policy Alternatives. "It's turned around 180 degrees. Now
the unemployment insurance system must be strengthened to
deal with the hundreds of thousands of unemployed in the
next few months. The federal government must float the bonds
to pay for the infrastructure plans that now in place from
coast to coast to coast."

Stephen Harper's world is shrinking to the point where he
trusts only his own advice. He trusts very few members of
his cabinet. Even the counsel of his mentor from the
University Of Calgary, Tom Flanagan, is fading like a hollow
echo.

"He has no kitchen cabinet, no Rolodex of friends from
across the country," says Globe and Mail columnist Jeffery
Simpson, "no advisers whom he has deliberately chosen for
their different views." There is no one to temper is
impulsive and reckless ideas.

As he retreats into his own world, he becomes more removed
from sources that could provide a reality check. His
conceit borders on delusion.

Harper's actions can only be seen as symptoms of inner
turmoil which seethe to the surface as irrational behaviour.

Canadians should worry about this man who would lead Canada.
If reckless brinkmanship characterizes his control of a
minority government, what wild impulses would propel him if
he had unfettered power?

David Charbonneau is the owner of Trio Technical.
He can be reached at dcharbonneau13@shaw.ca

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