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Prime Minister Stephen Harper has learned well how to exercise, maintain, and expand power, as well as those of the Karl Rove school of campaigning—controlled dispatches combined with a permanent, pervasive attack on the opposition and its leader.
The steady centralization and concentration of executive power, specifically in the Prime Minister and his office, is not exclusive to Canada; it has occurred in Britain, Australia, continental Europe, and elsewhere. In Canada, however, the phenomenon extends to an exceptional degree and the media have contributed to it by focusing more on leaders and less on MPs and Cabinet ministers. There is now little pretence in Ottawa of shared, collegial power. Helena Guergis tellingly revealed that during her six years in caucus and Cabinet, she only met Prime Minister Stephen Harper face-to-face four times. With the exception of Joe Clark, Harper is the only Prime Minister since the 1970s to dispense with a deputy prime minister. Muzzled are MPs of the governing party and the Cabinet. When the leash loosens slightly, the centre scripts their utterances as if they were infants.
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Here's where power has headed, sadly
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has learned well how to exercise, maintain, and expand power, as well as those of the Karl Rove school of campaigning—controlled dispatches combined with a permanent, pervasive attack on the opposition and its leader.
The steady centralization and concentration of executive power, specifically in the Prime Minister and his office, is not exclusive to Canada; it has occurred in Britain, Australia, continental Europe, and elsewhere. In Canada, however, the phenomenon extends to an exceptional degree and the media have contributed to it by focusing more on leaders and less on MPs and Cabinet ministers. There is now little pretence in Ottawa of shared, collegial power. Helena Guergis tellingly revealed that during her six years in caucus and Cabinet, she only met Prime Minister Stephen Harper face-to-face four times. With the exception of Joe Clark, Harper is the only Prime Minister since the 1970s to dispense with a deputy prime minister. Muzzled are MPs of the governing party and the Cabinet. When the leash loosens slightly, the centre scripts their utterances as if they were infants.
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