Reading (Audiobook) - "Harperland: The Politics of Control" - Lawrence Martin

Enjoying is not he word for "Harperland: The Politics of Control" - Lawrence Martin.  Unfortunately, this book seems to support what I see and fear in the U.S. Republicans and their Canadian buddies, the Conservatives.


I'm a middle-of-the-spectrum, lying in the current Liberal party, somewhere on the border of where the PCs and the Liberals were in the '80s - "right wing" on the Liberal side, "left wing" on the older Conservatives.


I lived the last 12 years in Alberta, and was astounded at the political scene there.  The provincial Conservative party had done an excellent job of vilifying any party other than their own, and really only have to fear a split in their own party - no other party can reasonably ever catch them (and they've been in power since 1972).  The power of the PM's office and the PM himself shouldn't be surprising in Harper - this is the federal mirror of what happens everyday in Alberta - message control, top-down political influence (interference, depending upon your orientation).  The situation has been in place so long, some bureaucrats can't understand the politics/bureaucracy distinction anymore.


I don't particularly fear the stated ideas of the Conservative party - lower taxes, less waste, even some privatization might be OK in some circumstances.  What I fear, and what I saw in Alberta, and am seeing in Martin's book, is the "politics uber alles" mentality, the black-and-white viewpoints that drive everything to absurd extremes.


What I'd really like to see is the actual policies and ideas presented, with associated costs and benefits explained.  Why can the "right" call the "left" "tax and spend" when the "right" runs massive deficits?  Why aren't they called to explain how they are going to pay for tax decreases - what programs are going to be jettisoned or left to rot?


In Alberta, Premier Ralph Klein ran around the province and closed hospitals at smaller centres as a cost cutting measure - OK, I can accept that.  However, a few years later, he stood in the legislature and stated that "lack of beds" required a private health care system.  How can anyone get away with that?


My fear with Harper is similar - is the "big plan" for Conservatives to sell off Canadian assets, pull apart Health Care and other non-popular policies by driving the deficit up until they are unaffordable, leaving only unpopular options remaining?


The politics at all costs, and the inability to admit problems (and deal with them), all the while claiming to be open and accountable, is the problem I have with the right wing parties in both countries.  On some level, they realize that their "dream state" is not popular enough with the actual population - however, non-democratic practices is a dangerous path to tread.