09) TRANSFORMING CANADA THROUGH "HARPERISM"

 

Harperism: How Stephen Harper and his think tank colleagues have transformed Canada, by Donald Gutstein, $22.95 pb; James Lorimer & Co., Publishers, September 2014, 288 pages. Book Review by Doug Meggison

 

            Donald Gutstein argues persuasively that the reign of Stephen Harper is accomplishing, by steady increments, profound and possibly permanent changes in Canadian political economy and the way we perceive and do things.

 

            The relentless neoliberal advance of Harper is treated by Gutstein as significant enough to be titled as a full‑blown ideology.

 

            "Harperism" is not as crass as Thatcherism, illustrated by Margaret Thatcher's provocative remark that there is no such thing as society‑only individuals in the market place. Harper, in subdued creepy contrast, says there is no such thing as sociology, when talking about Canada's shameful response to murdered and missing aboriginal women. There are only criminals to be severely punished. But, his sentiments are essentially grounded in the same market fundamentalism shared by the zealots from the various right wing think tanks Donald Gutstein surveys.

 

            Similarly, rather than dramatic confrontation with unions (Thatcher vs. the miners), Harper has been engineering incremental suffocation. Donald Gutstein devotes most of chapter 3, "Reject Unions and Prosper" to charting the origins and players lurking behind the supposedly private members bill C‑377 which seeks to impose onerous reporting requirements on unions.

 

            Donald Gutstein makes the case that a handful of crusty neoliberal ideologists like Friedrich Hayek have, through their published ideas, profoundly influenced their students, broadly understood. Starting after WW II, the original neoliberal think tanks have proliferated under corporate and multi‑millionaire munificence, plus skewed charitable contribution regulations.

 

            The neoliberal think tanks (e.g. Fraser Institute) have developed communication strategies to influence second hand dealers in ideas like newspaper columnists and gradually cover us with a blanket where no other way of viewing the world seems "reasonable."

Gutstein writes (p 73) "... a tightly knit, smoothly operating neo‑liberal propaganda system has been installed in Canada. The foundations of wealthy businessmen, corporations, and individuals are investing more than $26 million a year in neo‑liberal think tanks and single issue advocacy organizations. ... The long‑term goal is to discredit government as a vital institution and to champion market alternatives. ... The repetition of these ideas... has been effective in incorporating them into the common‑sense understanding of the world held by Canadians of all political stripes."

 

            The famous Communist leader, Antonio Gramsci, is not referenced in Gutstein's book, but Gramsci's intricate writings on "hegemony" provide a theoretical framework to evaluate Harperism. Gramsci wrote about struggle from above, and struggle from below, where the terrain of class struggle includes cultural expressions as well as downing tools in a strike.

 

            Harperism is, in my opinion, a popularized Gramscian analysis.  Donald Gutstein does a real service by clearly identifying where various products from the right‑wing blast furnace originate. For instance, Harper and his Ministers often make the hypocritical claim that their policies on environment, fisheries, and so on will be based on "sound science." From where did this non sequitur arise? Gutstein traces it back to a neocon strategist from the US who came up with the wording in 2002. You can just hear any of Harper's Ministers of Environment bleating from the playbook that sound science must back up any policy dealing with climate change, which after all, is only 99% certain.

 

            Harperism is a complete and radical program hidden by incremental ratcheting up of market fundamentalist forms. Donald Gutstein's chapters on "free market environmentalism" and "a new land ownership regime for the First Nations" and "fashioning Canada as a great nation" through permanent war are only part of this book. Get it for yourself, and work with others to develop counter‑hegemonic strategies to rid us of Stephen Harper and his ilk.

 

(The above article is from the December 1-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)