Machiavelli's Ghost

The final of four posts on the national party leaders.Few other prime ministers have left their distinct effect on Parliament the way Stephen Harper has. Not just about his leadership style, it's also how his practice of politics has characterized the House of Commons. In short, he has rendered it largely dysfunctional. In speaking with longtime civil servants and elected representatives the conclusion has been almost universal: he has changed Parliament ... for the worse.But it's worked for him. I watch him from across the aisle and witness a calculating mind in overdrive. Everything is covered in his thinking, down to the last detail. True, he is feared, but it's not a fear borne of political mastery but rather an apprehension at being walloped in the schoolyard. In Canada, where a variety of views expressed in different regions have historically been respected, Harper's leadership has been counter-productive and counter-intuitive.Machiavelli would have liked Stephen Harper; he uses just the kind of calculations the Italian writer would have encouraged, as when he wrote in The Prince:

Since there are many possible qualities that a prince can be said to possess, he must not be overly concerned about having all the good ones ... he should only seem to have these qualities. A prince cannot truly have these qualities because at times it is necessary to act against them. Although a bad reputation should be avoided, this is not crucial in maintaining power."

No one doubts Stephen Harper makes a great political chess master, the problem is that Canadian politics is actually about pool or billiards. The Prime Minister is in the wrong game and perhaps he's beginning to realize it. Many in his caucus are getting it. He thinks hard before making his chess move because his end game is that of crushing the Liberals - for good. And so he makes a move to cut cultural investment in Quebec, restrict women's rights to grieve pay equity injustices, or remove public subsidies for political parties. I watched him in the House as he made that move, sure of its outcome and confident in his demeanour.Except he was actually in a pool game. Once a shot it taken, the sheer combination of results can be incalculable. To his surprise, the Master lost Quebec, the women's vote and ended up creating a series of ricochets that saw Dion replaced by Ignatieff. Suddenly the Master had become the victim of his own surety. Thinking Parliament is constituted by a series of interests, he failed to spot that the sum total is greater than all its parts. His moves started a chain reaction that suddenly showed he wasn't so smart after all. Many in his own caucus wondered what he was doing, and when it all blew up, the lustre was gone.In his desire to obliterate his opponents, he ended up destroying Parliament - at least for a time. Neither civil servants nor elected representatives can put the pieces back together so long as his method of politics reigns supreme. His strategic mind treated politics as science as opposed to human dynamics and he has fallen victim to his own miscalculations. Whatever his strengths, Machiavelli could never have been a successful prime minister of Canada. His "ends justify the means" strategy has never really worked in Canada because there are many "ends" and many constituencies that require the others in order to succeed. Mr. Harper never understood this practical Canadian reality. This country can only be guided, not constructed. The best people in Parliament have to wait "post-Harper" until we can put the pieces together again. Steve might need to leave. Machiavelli wouldn't be pleased.