Saturday, August 15, 2015

Closing The Canadian Mind

                                             http://www.stephenmarche.com/

Stephen Marche is a Canadian journalist who writes for American publications. In this morning's New York Times, he provides Americans with some background information on Canada's ongoing federal election and current prime minister:

THE prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, has called an election for Oct. 19, but he doesn’t want anyone to talk about it.

He has chosen not to participate in the traditional series of debates on national television, confronting his opponents in quieter, less public venues, like the scholarly Munk Debates and CPAC, Canada’s equivalent of CSPAN. His own campaign events were subject to gag orders until a public outcry forced him to rescind the forced silence of his supporters.

Mr. Harper’s campaign for re-election has so far been utterly consistent with the personality trait that has defined his tenure as prime minister: his peculiar hatred for sharing information.

Marche then goes on to document Harper's attempts over almost a decade to ensure Canadian ignorance: 

But the nine and half years of Mr. Harper’s tenure have seen the slow-motion erosion of that reputation for open, responsible government. His stance has been a know-nothing conservatism, applied broadly and effectively. He has consistently limited the capacity of the public to understand what its government is doing, cloaking himself and his Conservative Party in an entitled secrecy, and the country in ignorance.
Mr. Harper’s war against science has been even more damaging to the capacity of Canadians to know what their government is doing. The prime minister’s base of support is Alberta, a western province financially dependent on the oil industry, and he has been dedicated to protecting petrochemical companies from having their feelings hurt by any inconvenient research.

In 2012, he tried to defund government research centers in the High Arctic, and placed Canadian environmental scientists under gag orders. That year, National Research Council members were barred from discussing their work on snowfall with the media. Scientists for the governmental agency 

Environment Canada, under threat of losing their jobs, have been banned from discussing their research without political approval. Mentions of federal climate change research in the Canadian press have dropped 80 percent. The union that represents federal scientists and other professionals has, for the first time in its history, abandoned neutrality to campaign against Mr. Harper.

His active promotion of ignorance extends into the functions of government itself. Most shockingly, he ended the mandatory long-form census, a decision protested by nearly 500 organizations in Canada, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Catholic Council of Bishops. In the age of information, he has stripped Canada of its capacity to gather information about itself. The Harper years have seen a subtle darkening of Canadian life.

Harper's single minded focus, Marche writes, has been twofold: to close the Canadian mind and to change the essential nature of the country. This election, therefore, is seminal:

Whether or not he loses, he will leave Canada more ignorant than he found it. The real question for the coming election is a simple but grand one: Do Canadians like their country like that?

This entry is cross posted at The Moderate Voice.

11 comments:

Dana said...

Short answer to your question is: yes. Enough Canadians are very pleased with ignorance that there is every likelihood of another Harperian government, albeit of the minority variety.

Owen Gray said...

If that's the case, Dana, we're in deep trouble.

Mogs Moglio said...

"Later, he said, the future prime minister would nurture dreams of going into city planning, then destroying it from the inside as a service to free enterprise." commentary about Steve Joe Harper from a classmate during Harp's U of C days from:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/the-nerd-who-came-from-nowhere-stephen-harper-knows-you-dont-need-to-like-a-politician-to-elect-him

Its down about 1/2 way beside a pic of Harp with a green backdrop with bold white letters that says results [top left]. "...destroying it from the inside..." how very telling...

Mogs Moglio said...

Forgot the link to the article:

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-politics/the-nerd-who-came-from-nowhere-stephen-harper-knows-you-dont-need-to-like-a-politician-to-elect-him

Appropriately entitled 'The Nerd Who Came From Nowhere:...

Lorne said...

Since Canadians often still seem in awe of things American, perhaps seeing this recitation of the Harper record in The New York Times will prompt them to some sober reflections on what we have lost under Harper's reign, Owen.

UU4077 said...

Most Canadians are not politically engaged. They do not know that they do not know.

The interest in the Duffy trial may change that. However, many "right wing" news outlets are not covering it much.

Owen Gray said...

Indeed, Mogs. Harper's destruction of our institutions has been an inside job.

Owen Gray said...

March writes that we are where we are because of "willful ignorance," UU4077. Let's hope that the Duffy trial wakes Canadians up from their slumber.

Owen Gray said...

A commenter at The Moderate Voice writes that, "Someone has been taking lessons from those neighbors to the south," Lorne. He adds, "They should have known better."

Toby said...

Harper reminds me of Hannah Arendt's expression, "the banality of evil."

Owen Gray said...

That fits, Toby. Arendt was writing about Adolph Eichmann -- the ultimate technocrat who lacked a conscience.