Right Side Up: The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper's New Conservatism - Hardcover

Wells, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0771089198 ISBN 13: 9780771089190

Publisher: Douglas Gibson Books, 2006

Synopsis

The Fall of Paul Martin and the Rise of Stephen Harper’s New Conservatism.

Shakespeare isn’t around to write it — so we have Paul Wells!

Think of it. Two men on an opposite yet parallel trajectory. In the space of only three years, one man, a huge success as the Minister of Finance, goes from his new role as the leader of an all-powerful party with a huge majority all the way down to a retired also-ran. The other one reluctantly steps in to salvage a dying party, links it to another dying party, “unites the right,” becomes its leader, goes through trying times, and inside three years rises to become prime minister, against all odds.

It’s an amazing drama, told here in three acts. First, Paul Wells takes us through all of the events (from Martin’s assassination of Chrétien onward) that led up to the election campaign of January 2006.

The second act deals with the campaign itself, where the Harper armies conquered, with the assistance of an RCMP cavalry raid, and less-than-brilliant opposing campaigns: “We’re not allowed to make this stuff up.” Full of new, amazing inside details.

The final part answers the What now? that so many Canadians are asking about Stephen Harper’s "new conservatism." Nobody can answer that question better than Paul Wells. Witty, irreverent, opinionated, personal, and very, very funny, this book launches Wells’s career as an author.

About this title

About the Author

Born in Sarnia, Paul Wells has worked for the Montreal Gazette, and as a columnist for the National Post. He is now Maclean’s chief Ottawa correspondent, and a frequent panelist and speaker.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

To understand who Stephen Harper is, it helps to know who he isn’t. For starters, he’s not Strom Thurmond. Probably this shouldn’t need saying. But I keep hearing from readers who believe, or claim to believe, that racial segregation, an abortion ban, the institution of a state religion, and an aggressive program of chastity-belt distribution for all Canadian women under thirty are just over the next hill.

Before the January 23 election I became very cross with a reader who emailed me to announce that with Harper in charge it would be only a matter of time before they were teaching creationism in the schools again. And that it would be my fault, because I hadn’t done enough to stop him. Actually, what got me angriest was the hash this reader was making of constitutional law: school curriculum is a matter of provincial jurisdiction. But besides that, the reader’s note demonstrated how deaf some left-of-centre Canadians are to the differences of tone among the various strains of conservatism. Social conservatives know Harper isn’t really one of them. Legislating right moral conduct isn’t his game.

“This is the interesting story of Stephen Harper,” Pierre Poilièvre, the young Ontario Conservative MP who once worked as an assistant to Stockwell Day, told me one day. “Everyone thinks he seduced the centre. It’s actually the way he tamed the right.

“Let’s get this straight. He’s now taken the most left-wing position of any conservative party in the world on gay marriage. He’s adopted the position of European socialists that gays should have civil unions — full marital rights without the word marriage. Harper has ruled out any abortion legislation. He has basically moved the party onto an agenda that is centrist and acceptable to mainstream people.

“And he’s done it almost without a peep from the right — from the people who founded the Reform Party, who had made the bombastic and even embarrassing remarks that had come to typify the Reform era. All of those people have gone along with this swift, centrist move while making almost no sounds at all.”

Why? Why are social conservatives so willing to let Harper pursue a not-particularly-socially-conservative policy? One school of thought, of course, holds that the hard-core right wingers know that Harper is one of them. They’re just biding their time. Once he gets his majority, the masks will fall and the real Harper will become visible. This theory will certainly be a centrepiece of any Liberal leader’s campaign to block Harper from gaining seats at the next election. “Oh sure, you haven’t seen any hidden agenda...yet...”

But for my money this analysis misunderstands Harper too. First, because I don’t believe his political beliefs are wildly out of the Canadian mainstream. But second, because even if they were, he has never been interested in implementing wrenching change if it means doing lasting damage to Canadian conservatism’s electoral chances. The “penchant for incremental change” he valued in Progressive Conservatives so long ago has become an integral part of his own political philosophy.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Douglas Gibson Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0771089198
• ISBN 13: 9780771089190
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336