Toronto Star[/i]]Stephen Harper learned everything he needs from Paul Martin. Everything, that is, except what he needs most.
Since breaking the Liberal 12-year stranglehold two months ago, the new Prime Minister has been what the old was not. Decisive, defined by just five priorities and very much his own man, Harper is the archetypal anti-Martin.
A good start is always a good thing and it's not unusual for fresh leaders to make a fine first impression by distancing themselves from their predecessors. Jean Chrétien's ah-shucks style was a welcome antidote to Brian Mulroney's look-at-me political persona, and Martin made himself different, and momentarily shot to the top of the charts, with promises as broad — and as empty — as the sky.
It took voters about five years to grow weary of Chrétien and less than half that time to turn against Martin. Estimates of Harper's shelf life already vary from longer than Chrétien's to shorter than Martin's, and the reason is the contradiction at the very centre of his performance.
In doing almost everything right, Harper is doing one thing wrong: He is ignoring that the tiny village clustered below the Peace Tower adjusts its behaviour to the Prime Minister. And on the issue that remains the talk of this town, Harper's behaviour is a nasty amalgam of spoilt child and arrogant adult.
Sometime between winning the election and forming a cabinet, Harper forgot that the current Conservative success is directly connected to the very public failure of Liberal situational ethics. Somehow it slipped a shrewd mind that Canadians tentatively trusted him with power expecting it would be applied differently; that he would do what he said, not what is expedient.
Martin foundered on more than the Gomery inquiry. Along with a scandal, he inherited a culture of entitlement so pervasive and resistant that even supporters concluded that an elite inner circle was running the country to its own advantage and without democratic accountability, transparency or oversight.
That consensus was so viral that Liberal re-election hopes evaporated with the RCMP investigation into the suspicious stock market spike hours before Ralph Goodale's income-trust announcement. Conditioned to believe the worst, Canadians didn't wait for legal judgment to impose political punishment.
Despite the mad-as-hell tour and Gomery inquiry, bureaucrats compared Martin's actions to words before reaching the same conclusion as voters: Liberals weren't serious about reform. Now, Harper is repeating the pattern.
Next month, the Prime Minister will bring the Conservative election centrepiece to Parliament as the new Accountability Act. It's a solid piece of legislation incorporating some of Justice John Gomery's soundest recommendations as well as much of the current wisdom on restoring Parliament's influence.
But Harper is transmitting, and the country is receiving, a more powerful message. In luring David Emerson from the Liberals and ignoring the ethics commissioner, the Prime Minister is signalling that it's business as usual.
As Auditor General Sheila Fraser discovered, ethics are poorly matched against internal pressure to please politicians. Prime ministers get what they want.
Harper is proving the rule, not the exception. By appointing Emerson and easing Michael Fortier, first, into the Senate and, then, into the now dangerously unaccountable public works ministry, Harper is demonstrating that even fresh election promises won't block his way.
Nor will he tolerate interference from an officer of Parliament. In refusing to co-operate with the preliminary investigation into Emerson's defection while headhunting for Bernard Shapiro's replacement, Harper is creating the false impression that the independent watchdog is on the Prime Minister's leash, and edging perilously close to contempt.
Harper is right that Shapiro should go — that was evident a year ago. But even prime ministers are subservient to Parliament and must respect its procedures and officers, no matter how spurious or annoying.
Given the weakness of his minority and the inexperience of his cabinet, Harper's first few weeks have been encouraging. He watched and learned from Martin and is now offering Canadians far more self-confident leadership.
But the calculation that brought Emerson and Fortier into cabinet is coldly cynical and his overheated reaction to Shapiro is disturbing. In delivering less than promised, a new regime is behaving like the old.
That won't be missed or misunderstood in a capital where everyone follows the leader.
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