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Product Description
Product Description
After four years in power, Stephen Harper's governance comes under the microscope of prominent Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin. Focusing on the growth of executive power under Harper and drawing on interviews with prominent insiders, Martin probes the smearing of opponents, the silencing of the public and diplomatic service, the secrecy, the prorogations, the unprecedented centralizing of power, and the attempted muzzling of the media. He examines controversies such as the existence of a secret dirty-tricks handbook, the Chuck Cadman affair, campaign financing, the dismissal of nuclear power head Linda Keen, the Afghan detainees cover-up, the turning of access-to-information laws into barricades to information, and more--and lets readers draw their own conclusions. Tough but balanced, Harperland offers a clear picture of a skilled politician at a crucial point in Canadian politics.
About the Author
Lawrence Martin is a journalist and the author of 10 books, including a two-volume biography of Jean Chrétien. He served as Washington and Moscow bureau chiefs for The Globe and Mail before becoming a national public affairs columnist. He lives in Ottawa.
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Most helpful customer reviews
25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Ominous Warning for all Canadians,
By
This review is from: Harperland: The Politics of Control (Hardcover)
This book is a well written overview of Steven Harper's five years in power, and offers a good sense of his personality and the machine that he has built around him. The author perceives Harper as brilliant, but filled with paranoid hatred for anyone who is not in his neo-conservative camp, or could be conceived of as a threat to his compulsive desire for power and control.
Harper's means to power are described as involving a complete disregard for all the traditional checks and balances of the Canadian parliamentary system. Control has been ruthlessly centralized in the hands of the Prime Minister's Office, and the roles of the cabinet, the legislature, parliamentary committees, etc., almost annihilated. Censorship of public information is now so severe that one has the impression that Canada is controlled by a totalitarian regime. On a day to day basis Harper and his sycophantic followers are always on the attack, and their levels of cynicism and paranoia know no bounds. Wedge issues, lies, and personal attacks are the order of the day. These people can only be described as ideological thugs and bullys. Harper's ends to power are to dismantle the traditional progressive values of Canada, by initiating policy platforms revolving around tax cuts, economic deregulation, tougher measures on crime, the support of traditional social values, etc. These are the same reactionary policies that have been used by the neo-cons of the United States, over the last 30 years, to drive that great country into the ground. They are based on mind-sets that deny the future rather than prepare for it. Harper is known as the outsider's outsider, and one has a sense that this is what drives his hatred and paranoia. He despises the values of the majority of Canadians, and in spite of his brilliance and discipline, he is unable to control his extremism. I must admit that reading this book was one of the most distasteful things that I have ever done. We are all aware of different elements of Harper's manipulation of our democratic values and institutions, but to have them laid out like this, one after the other, filled me with outrage and disgust. I have never been active politically before, but I will be for the coming election. Thanks Harper for the civics lesson.
51 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Frightening,
By
This review is from: Harperland: The Politics of Control (Hardcover)
Lawrence Martin has produced a well researched and insightful look at a relentless, paranoid man who will use any means to achieve his personal goals. He paints a picture of a calculating politician who has undermined his mentors, and manufactured strategies to create one of the most centralized governments Canada has ever seen. Harper campaigned on a platform of "openness and transparency" and has gone on to create perhaps the most closed and opaque government in the history of the country. The most frightening conclusions of the book focus on Harper's distain for the principles and practices of democracy itself. Lawrence portrays a vengeful man who will book no debate, is antagonistic toward any view contrary to his own, and who will use any strategy to forward his personal philosophies, never, at any moment, acknowledging that the opposition represents a constituency of citizens who have a right to be heard and valued.
All this from a writer who is no Liberal hack. No, the Liberal party has felt Lawrence's sting in the past.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Concentration of Power is Dangerous,
This review is from: Harperland: The Politics of Control (Hardcover)
The consistently anti-democratic & freedom reducing administrative and policy decisions described in this book are saddening to any who believe that liberalism and responsible government are real and precious political options. This book, and the convincing summary of events and decisions at the end of the book, should cause one to do whatever possible to limit the growth of authoritarian government in Canada. Reading this books gives one a good understanding of the factors which are relevant to ensuring good government in our country.
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