School Yard Stevie's Ottawa Adventures

As much time as I spend exploring politics, and endeavoring to cut through the rhetoric and lies that abound there, today I find myself deferring to my better half with regard to Stephen Harper and in getting straight to the meat of matter.

Since Harper arrived on the federal scene I’ve been at a loss to figure the guy out. Not so with my wife. By no means a political animal, I suspect she most often listens to my ramblings out of a mixed sense of charity, duty and kindness, but she never the less she has the innate ability to size up any situation quickly, succinctly and accurately at a glance. Her take on Stephen Harper is no different.

When the topic of Canada’s self described “new” PM came up the other day, as it often does in my company, my guiding light simply looked at me and said, “You know he’s like a kid who never had any friends and wasn’t allowed to play with his toy soldiers growing up. He still doesn’t play well with others but now he’s got thousands of real soldiers to play with.”

Well said honey. You said a mouthful and you hit the nail on the head.

Since narrowly slipping into office, hot on the heels of the Liberal spending scandal 18 months ago, Stephen Harper has been the picture of an angry, frustrated unsocialized child who is getting far too much of his own way.

His handling of the Afghan mission bares witness to his lack of military and political understanding (read: never played with toy soldiers) and his willingness to tag along at George Bush’s coat tails speaks volumes about his hunger to be accepted and to find a buddy (read: never had any friends).

Harper’s apparent lack of socialization as a child seems to have followed him into his adult life and is quite obvious in his handling of any conflict situation he encounters. A clear example of this is his refusal to hold a first ministers conference since taking office and his propensity for quietly slipping in and out of places like Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador without informing the leadership there. These acts show a clear preference to run and hide from any and all confrontation rather than facing it head on. Not a laudable leadership trait.

Stephen Harper’s lack of self confidence is clear in his dealings with his own MPs as well. He is afraid to let anyone in his party speak publicly to the media without first clearing it through his office. Some have speculated this shows a lack of confidence in his party but taken in conjunction with Harper’s other character traits it seems more likely he’s afraid of losing control of the situation and having everything he holds so dear slip away from him. Something a person who has never been accepted by others simply cannot face. In his handling of the media we once again see his “run and hide” response to pressure situations.

Like any outsider Harper will do or say almost anything to be accepted by others. This explains his willingness to make solid and clear election promises across the country and his propensity for breaking them as soon as an opportunity arises where he believes he can please an even larger number of people.

It’s a little sad in some ways. I can almost picture young Stevie Harper standing on the playground at school back in his day. A lone figure by the school steps, hands thrust in pockets, hoping someone, anyone, will ask him to join in the latest game of red rover or dodge ball, only to be forgotten, or more accurately ignored, once again.

I can picture him watching the other kids laughing happily while he instinctually feels the dirty little glances occasionally cast his way.

It must have been a cruel existence for little Stevie but somewhere along the line, as the mind of the future PM was maturing, a spark was given to his political life and with it the urge, no the need to gain total power over everyone who ever called him a name or laughed at him in his youth.

These days little Stevie is all grown up and has achieved his burning desire to rule all that he surveys. It seems however that his social skills, mentality and emotional development never progressed beyond that of the little schoolyard outcast. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing history will be left to decide.

Some of the world’s most influential leaders, Napoleon and Hitler included, are believed to have been outcasts as children. They may not have been the most lovable of leaders in history but but I challenge anyone who says they never left their mark on the world. This is not to say Stephen Harper should be placed in the same category as those world leaders, in fact I'm sure there are many differences, not the least of which is his inability to gain the kind of wide spread public support they did. For that we should all thankful.

I have to hand it to my wife. She may not eat, sleep and breathe politics the way some members of our household do, (those who will remain nameless), but she sure knows how to call a spade a spade when she sees one.