Stephen Harper's Slide to the Policy Centre

Despite all his strangulation of Parliament and disingenuity to the public, Stephen Harper doesn't want to be a dictator.  His goal isn't to be the lord and master, but rather to foster a society that feels more comfortable to him.  It doesn't seem to work out that way, does it?  For all the right-wing political gains that can be made and partisan points he's scored, there is an inevitable gravitational pull to the centre of the policy spectrum.

It's funny how that happens...



Stephen Harper shows flashes of consumerism: Goar

There are three theories about what’s going on:

 

The first is that Harper has matured as political leader. He recognizes that market forces can lead to collusion, price-fixing and a lessening of healthy competition; that throwing the doors wide open to foreign investment entails too big a risk; there is a role for government in setting and enforcing standards.

 

The second is that Tory strategists have figured out it makes more sense to court consumers — who also happen to be voters — than captains of industry and commerce.

 

The third is that a bias toward consumers is an inevitable by-product of Ottawa’s ban on corporate donations and cancellation of public subsides to political parties. Dependent on the grassroots — the people who watch TV, own smartphones, buy and sell houses and pay bank fees — for electoral funding, any party has a powerful incentive to serve its financial supporters.

 

None of these is likely to please corporate leaders.

 

The only explanation they’ll countenance is that Harper has strayed from his free enterprise principles, testing their goodwill.