It has been two years since the last federal election, with two years until the next one. This puts the Conservatives halfway through their third term of office, which has been listless and unimaginative.
If Stephen Harper has laid any popular notion to rest since winning a majority, it is that he has a secret conservative agenda to remake Canada. Up to now, his ideology plays out in small projects, largely on the margins.
In the middle of its mandate, this is a government in neutral. It governs as if it were a caretaker — dusting the furniture, patching the roof — rather than a contractor. Redecoration appeals more than renovation.
No one could accuse it of vision. Pragmatism trumps ideology, which is why it won’t reopen conservative social issues like abortion, capital punishment or same-sex rights. Management overwhelms ambition, which is why it won’t reconsider health care or champion a real economic union.
By temperament, the prime minister is an accountant. As a leader, he is methodical, prudent, cautious and intolerant of dissent.
After seven years in power, what can Harper boast?
Lester B. Pearson introduced a new flag, Medicare and old-age pensions. Pierre Trudeau established bilingualism, patriated the British North America Act and entrenched the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Brian Mulroney embraced free trade and introduced the Goods and Services Tax. Jean Chrétien eliminated the deficit and passed the Clarity Act.
Stephen Harper? Oh, he lowered taxes. He made the public service more accountable. He strengthened the military. He ended the long-form census. He humbled the Liberal party.
Unfortunately for him, they don’t carve that in stone on statues.
Harper doesn’t dream. If this is nation-building, it is writ small. From his crowd, there is no talk of a country laced with fast rail, of proportional representation, of national standards in education. There is no talk of creating grand institutions — new national museums, a national library, research institutes.
But we have survived the fiscal crisis, haven’t we? Our banks are the envy of the world, aren’t they?
If Europe is in debt, at least it has great trains, galleries, concert halls, parks, generous social assistance and innovative cities. What does Canada get for its debt? Hockey arenas? Shorter wait times?
The government pursues an agenda glacially and superficially. It celebrates the monarchy, an atavistic, adolescent infatuation. It talks of the North, erratically. It celebrates Canada’s history — admirable as that is — while politicizing it.
Occasionally, it thinks of the nation. It has given meaning and substance to citizenship — making it harder to gain and easier to lose — and encouraging immigration. It has protected wilderness and created the country’s first urban national park, in Toronto. It has pushed for a national securities regulatory commission. All fine.
Rather than elevating political life, the Conservatives have diminished it. They disdain the rules of Parliament. They muzzle backbenchers. They avoid the media.
Critics call the government nasty and high-handed. It practises the politics of slash-and-burn. At this, Harper’s Conservatives are masters.
In two years, Canadians will make a choice. If the economy is strong, they may well vote for stability and reliability in this one-man government, grey and cold as it is.
The question is whether Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, who now lead the polls, can make a persuasive case for a bolder Canada. If Canadians awake to a new sense of possibility from their government, they will seize it.
As of now, there is no conventional reason — no scandal, no mismanagement, no economic slump — for Canadians to defeat the Conservatives. Still their popularity falls, suggesting a persistent dissatisfaction with a tone of small and mean.
It’s not impossible that Canada could swing as America swung from Eisenhower to Kennedy in 1960 or as Britain swung from Churchill to Atlee in 1945. It won’t matter here, as it didn’t matter there, that Eisenhower represented prosperity or Churchill brought victory. Change has an appeal of its own.
If Canadians hear that siren call in 2015, if they hear a seductive narrative of a Canada ready to re-imagine itself, watch out.
Andrew Cohen is a professor of journalism and international affairs at Carleton University.
