HARRIS: Look Out! It's the Right of the Living Dead

[Oscar]

HARRIS: Look Out! It's the Right of the Living Dead

[ http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/03/21/Lo ... ign=210315 ]

Have the Reform and Canadian Alliance zombies risen? Evidence is mounting.

By Michael Harris, March 21, 2015, iPolitics

Suddenly we're back to playing a game once popular in Canadian politics: Spot the Reformer.

Although it seems like ages since a protester drenched Stockwell Day in two quarts of chocolate milk, [ http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/g20/201 ... _milk.html ] the evidence is mounting that Reform and Canadian Alliance zombies have crawled out of their shallow graves and are shambling across the landscape once more.

Let's start with the brain-eater-in-chief. Well-known cultural anthropologist and fashion consultant Stephen Harper recently pronounced that the niqab is ''rooted in a culture that is anti-women'' and that most Canadians find it ''offensive.'' The Federal Court, meanwhile, has ruled that wearing the niqab is a constitutionally protected right.

Conservative MP John Willamson offered his insights on the competition between ''whities'' and ''brown people'' for jobs. Not to be outdone, his caucus colleague Larry Miller invited people who insist on wearing the niqab to ''stay the hell where you came from'' (presumably he wasn't talking about Scarborough).

With burning bamboo shoots shoved under their fingernails by the PMO, both men apologized. The apologies themselves were as hollow as a cottonball after the boll weevil leaves. But words mean nothing to this government. Let's repeat that for emphasis: absolutely nothing.

- - - - -SNIP - - - - -

The odd thing about this re-run of the Right of the Living Dead in the CPC is that it represents something Stephen Harper himself used to view with mortification and alarm. His original inspiration for muzzling MPs came from his days with Preston Manning.

Back then, a year's worth of work before a party convention -- not to mention the event itself -- could be blown apart by one unhinged Reformer ranting at the media about an Asian Invasion or Young Earth Creationism. Who can forget when Warren Kinsella produced a purple Barney the Dinosaur doll on Canada AM, proclaiming he was the only member of his species who had ever shared the planet with humans?

Now it's not really funny anymore. Harper has simply made the calculation that if the way to give a chameleon a nervous breakdown is to put him down on plaid, the way to win an election in our disappearing democracy is to offer Canadians only two flavours -- vanilla or chocolate.

That means hitting the hot buttons, over and over. Before oil prices tanked, greed was the button of choice. Now it's fear. It makes things starkly simple -- black and white, good and evil.

As simple as War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery… and Ignorance is Strength. It's a campaign designed for Idiot Culture. The only question is, are there enough idiots out there to put Harper over the top again?


- - - - -

Michael Harris is a writer, journalist and documentary filmmaker. He was awarded a Doctor of Laws for his ''unceasing pursuit of justice for the less fortunate among us.'' His nine books include Justice Denied, Unholy Orders, Rare Ambition, Lament for an Ocean, and Con Game. His work has sparked four commissions of inquiry, and three of his books have been made into movies. His new book on the Harper majority government, Party of One, is a number one bestseller.

Readers can reach the author at michaelharris@ipolitics.ca. To view other iPolitics columns by by Michael Harris: http://www.ipolitics.ca/author/mharris/