Harper muzzles London by-election candidate, risks further alienating caucus

As if you needed any additional evidence that our new government is highly centralized and elitist, doesn't respect local decision-making, and prefers all matters to be decided by the Prime Minister and his unelected assistant: Harper has muzzled London-North-Centre by-election candidate Dianne Haskett.

Soon after winning the Conservative nomination, several press releases were sent to the media, and various media interviews for Haskett were scheduled. However, shortly before Haskett's first round of interviews was to be conducted, a Tory backroom boy by the name of "Geoff Donald" cancelled all of them. Several of the interviews were cancelled just minutes before they were due to take place, leaving CJBK-AM and the local CBC TV outlet in a fury.

So just who is Geoff Donald? A quick search engine request shows that he is the Conservative's "BC Political Operations Officer at the National Office in Ottawa". Or, in other words, he is the chap appointed by Harper to act as Haskett's political minder; to ensure she stays quiet, and doesn't let any homophobic comments slip out. For those unfamiliar, this is the baggage that Harper is hoping doesn't get a re-airing in the media:

"Dianne Haskett, the Mayor of London, Ontario, Canada, was fined $10,000 for refusing to proclaim a “Gay Pride Weekend.” After she lost her case in Canada’s courts, she resigned as mayor rather than to be forced to proclaim the event – just 3 weeks before Election Day. (However, the voters re-elected her with an overwhelming 64% of the vote.)"

Knowing that the Conservatives face an extremely difficult battle in both by-elections (London, Ontario and Repentigny, Québec), Harper feels that keeping the candidates silent is the best chance to ensure nothing "unscripted" slips out in an interview and jeopardizes the party's chances of winning. But while this may seem a clever strategic move in the short-term, this concept of muzzling candidates to ensure that everyone stays "to script" is likely to be the downfall of the Harper government - or at least of Harper personally.

Harper's strategy of containing the pariahs in his caucus by silencing them, especially during elections, has worked tremendiously well - at least in the short term. However, such a strategy is doomed to fail over time.

Harper's technique alienates voters, as their individual MP becomes unable to loudly voice local concerns within caucus, and such matters become trivialized by the urgency of the "top-down" national agenda. It also challenges the very foundations of "grassroots democracy", for a highly-centralized government is in fact the polar opposite.

It is worth noting that Harper's neo-conservative government is an uneasy hybrid of Reform/Alliance supporters and Progressive Conservatives. The former group is quite clearly dominating the policy agenda of the new Conservative party, which has aliented many former Progressive Conservatives. But by muzzling his peers and discouraging "grassroots democracy", Harper also risks losing the support of the Reform/Alliance members of his caucus. If both heads of the conservative hydra become severed, Harper's game will be up.

The prospect of leading government will be enough to placate most Conservatives (with the exception of Garth Turner) in the short-term. But once the gleam and novelty of power wears off, the expections that the average Tory MP will place upon Harper wll significantly increase. And if Harper is still acting as headmaster by that point, he will likely find that the caucus' appetite for his style of leadership has faded.

(cartoon by Sue Dewar)