Triumphal pride now invites a fall later

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper sounded a triumphal note at his riding association barbecue in Calgary.

Last weekend, Prime Minister Stephen Harper entertained his Calgary Southwest constituency Stampede breakfast with a bellicose, partisan speech dripping with what his political opponents called "triumphalism."

"Under our Conservative government, Canada is more united than it has ever been. My friends, I think something has changed. I believe the long Liberal era is genuinely truly ending. As with disco balls and bell-bottoms, Canadians have moved on," Harper said to laughter and applause.

"Quebec's honeymoon with the NDP will pass. As many provinces know well, no honeymoon passes as quickly and completely as one with the NDP."

Turning the tables on the Liberals, he conflated his party with Canada. "We are moving Canada in a Conservative direction and Canadians are moving in that direction with us... Conservative values are Canadian values. Canadian values are Conservative values. They always were. And Canadians are going back to the party that most closely reflects who they really are: The Conservative party, which is Canada's party."

He boasted that his party had smashed the formerly impregnable Ontario Liberal fortress.

"If we are in, who's out? The Liberals are out, the Bloc Québécois is out.... The politics of division are out. Canadians have found through a costly 40-year experiment with liberalism that big government is not an instant answer to everything."

Harper also touted his immediate plans -- killing the long-gun registry, passing his plethora of law-and-order bills, ending the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, pouring billions more into the military.

"There is much more to Canada's role in the world than our capacity to support our allies or to deliver aid to the needy," said Harper. "We also have a clear purpose, and that is to stand for what is right. No longer does this country just go along with everyone else's agenda. We know where our interests lie and who our friends are... Our aim is no longer to please every dictator with a vote at the United Nations."

The faithful lapped it up, frequently interrupting the prime minister with standing ovations.

Harper's opponents were quick to pounce on his hubris. Harper's "triumphal arrogance" underscores his divisive approach to politics, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae said. "His is still a politics that polarizes, that divides and that excludes. Pride like this will only be followed by a fall."

NDP MP Joe Comartin challenged the Conservatives' credibility on NDP prospects in Quebec. "Here we've got a guy who's saying our honeymoon is going to be over quickly with the people of Quebec after he didn't have anything more than a one-night stand," he told The Globe and Mail.

All political leaders indulge in triumphalism. However off-putting it is to the average citizen, it keeps the party faithful stirred up and engaged.

But Harper's triumphalism has an unsettling edge. His political opponents aren't simply wrong. They're illegitimate. They don't just need to be defeated. They must be destroyed.

Harper lacks a sense of self-restraint. He sailed to victory on a falsehood. Throughout the campaign he insisted that parliamentary coalitions were illegitimate and foreign.

Canada now has a prime minister who sees nothing wrong with deliberately deceiving Canadians about a major feature of their system of government.

Frances Russell is a Winnipeg author and political commentator.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 13, 2011 A10