Runner Debate: Was Harper a Force for Good or Evil? (Con Side)

Why Stephen Harper’s dropout of Canadian politics is a cause for celebration

Click here to see the other side!

During the last federal election, I spent weeks pondering who to give my vote to. My heart was screaming Liberal, but my mind was urging NDP, and my soul was begging to see the Greens pull out a miraculous victory. It took ages of thinking and researching to side with the New Democratic Party, and even then, Trudeau’s win came as a thrill.

The only party that I knew I conclusively did not want representing this country—the only one whose leader I could not bring myself to like with a single fibre of my being—was the Conservatives, and I wasn’t the only millennial to feel that way.

Nearly all of my friends were voting strictly to get Harper out of power and away from big red buttons. Most of the anti-Harper sentiment focused on environmental or social justice issues—two areas that he vehemently ignored throughout his ten-year reign—which are now particularly important to young Canadians.

As a member of that demographic, looking out for minorities and working against global warming have always been two of the top jobs I want my Prime Minister to be doing, but we all knew that there was a slim chance of that with Harper. After all, he didn’t work for us. He worked for our parents, and they didn’t want their Prime Minister messing around with fluff like the Missing Women’s Inquiry and not killing everything in the ocean.

Like many Conservatives, Harper was obsessed with the economy. Running a deficit would be the end of the world. Diseasing the planet for money is a sacrifice we must be willing to make. Stealing land from aboriginal Canadians is just how we got our resources, and we can’t afford to give them back. Tough luck.

Now, it would be naive to say that the economy doesn’t matter. It is a basic building block of our society. Poverty often leads to social injustice and imbalance, and a healthy economy is intended to neutralize that.

The truth, however, is that there is more to a prosperous nation than how fat its pockets are. That was something Harper failed to recognize time and time again.

During his days in office, the government massively overspent on ad campaigns, fighter jets, senator compensation, and more. They suspiciously rescheduled events that could have threatened their control, got called out on torture controversies in Afghanistan, dodged questions from reporters, enacted the horrific Bills C-24 and C-51, and completely ignored the Kyoto Protocol. In fact, they pretty much did everything it advised them to avoid.

They also suppressed and swerved around almost all activists—especially those fighting against pipeline projects—and even screwed over David Suzuki by trying to force charities into political inaction. The Conservatives muted their own scientists by making up rules preventing them from talking to journalists. They invited oil companies to design environmental legislation. The PM pretended to be a changed man after visiting the melting ice caps, and then kept pumping Canadian money into fracking.

It didn’t come as a surprise when we blew past our emissions limit in 2013, or when we came in last place globally as protectors of the environment. That same year, the Harper government spent millions on the tar sands. Then, a year later, they cut the budget for climate change research.

All in the name of the economy. Amen.

Right before Trudeau kicked him out, Harper’s government made a fuss about refugees and whether women should be able to wear niqabs during citizenship ceremonies. For their platform, they talked about expanding the military, banning Canadians from travelling to certain areas, and how to give retired seniors more money. As a testament to his maturity, he also organized a fake protest against Trudeau.

Now, months after stepping down as Prime Minister, he’s resigning as an MP to work as a consultant. I can’t say I’m heartbroken. On top of being cancerous to Earth’s life and completely lacking transparency, he has the personality of a soggy plank of wood.

So good riddance, Harper, and enjoy watching future generations frantically struggle to clean up your mess from the comfort of your Calgary mansion.