Stephen Harper shows his nasty, but true, colors

Stephen Harper, Canada’s Conservative prime minister, ate up all the attention he received when President Barack Obama came to visit him in Ottawa last month. And this was on the heels of Harper’s middle-of-the-road, bipartisan budget to deal with the economic crisis. So has Harper finally realized the errors of his past ways and turned over a new political leaf? Not a chance.

Harper talks a good game in public and in front of the media, but behind closed doors, he is as rabid a conservative as ever.

Last week, he gave a fundraising speech at the Manning Institute for Democracy, a misnomer if I’ve ever heard one. The speech was closed to the press – thank you, Mr. Accountability – so it took a few days for the substance of his speech to finally make its way out.

According to the Toronto Star (http://www.thestar.com/article/603283), Harper showed his true colors during that speech. Most notably, he dissed Obama, the most popular politician in the world, for being too liberal.

He dissed the Canadian Senate, judiciary, and federal bureaucracy for being full of “ Liberal insiders and ideologues.” And what are you, Mr. Harper, but a Conservative insider and ideologue?

He dissed Wall Street for being too “unconservative.” (If only Wall Street had been more conservative!)

He dissed Canada’s public broadcaster for being too liberal. (If only the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation were more conservative!)

He dissed Parliament, in which he is the head of government, and name-called the opposition parties as “a toxic coalition brew.” (By the way, there is no official coalition among opposition parties. In fact, the Liberals voted WITH the Conservatives on the budget.)

Then he made the most bizarre statement of all. In comparing conservatism to liberalism, he said, “Unlike various forms of liberalism, conservatism is a value system, not an ideology. … I like to summarize my idea of conservatism in the three Fs – freedom, family and faith.”

George W. Bush anyone?

Harper loves to showcase himself as a blue-sweater wearing, kitten holding, Tim Horton’s drinking everyman. But once again, he proves that he is nothing but a right-wing ideologue and partisan whose “compassionate conservative” rhetoric – like Dubya - is not to be believed.