To my great relief, Monday’s election has set us on a new political course, hopefully putting an end to years of mean-spirited governance and narrow-minded policy-making. We are well rid of Stephen Harper as prime minister. Unfortunately, we are not rid of his destructive legacy.
This campaign has not just been notable for being the longest Canadians have seen in well over a century, it will also go down in history as one of the most nasty, divisive and hate-mongering our country has seen. True, the electorate ultimately opted for Justin Trudeau’s message of progressive promise over Harper’s cheap-shot politics and pandering to petty fears. But Harper has manufactured divisions among a Canadian society that will linger long after all the ballots are counted. His alarmist campaign has revealed a weak point in our national identity; he has shown us just how tenuous our commitment to tolerating difference and celebrating diversity really is.
Throughout this campaign, we have seen his public debate devolve into roiling fights on social media, but it is in the private sphere where Harper’s lowest-common-denominator style of campaigning has caused the most harm. He has single-handedly eroded the foundations of not just Canadian communities, but Canadian families — the very bedrock of the country he pledged throughout his campaign to protect.
Of course it is not unique for family members to disagree over politics. But while most are able to accept each other’s right to difference of opinion in a democratic society, Harper’s introduction of institutionalized xenophobia and scapegoatism has made the political personal in a very painful way. For many, talk of the election over Thanksgiving turned into ugly feuds. I personally know two people locked in stalemates with family members that are unlikely to be resolved as easily as the vote count.
One colleague of mine said this campaign brought out the worst in her family. She knew she’d be voting differently from her parents as they’d always fallen on different points along the political spectrum. But this had never been a problem. Previously, they’d always been able to discuss their differences through respectful debate and agree to disagree. This time was different. Rather than thoughtfully considering the parties’ approaches to the actual issues that threaten the wellbeing of Canadians, the conversation over Thanksgiving dinner stayed squarely on issues like the niqab. She was shocked to hear her fiscally conservative parents suddenly parroting the bigotry inferred in the Conservative Party line.
“I have never heard them spew such vile things — about Muslims ‘taking over,’ about immigrants and refugees being criminals, and about the need for Harper’s ‘tip line.’ The debate over our turkey dinner was more than heated — we were barely speaking to each other when it was all over,” she told me.
Another colleague is in a similar holdout with her mother after a conversation the pair had about bill C-24. In case you missed it, that’s the Conservative legislation allowing those who are eligible for citizenship in another country to have their Canadian citizenship revoked if they are convicted of certain crimes, even if they were born here. A Jewish convert who is entitled to Israeli citizenship, my colleague is on the list of those the bill singles out for second-class citizenship. Thus her mother’s support for the bill, and by extension Harper’s xenophobic zeal, is a deeply personal slight. A change in government may lead to a reversal of the legislation, but the family rift won’t soon be healed.
In his exploitation of fear and prejudice, Harper’s aim was to turn neighbours against one another and earn votes along the way. Thankfully, his efforts in the latter endeavour were for naught. But he has managed to open a Pandora’s box of hatred that has turned parents against children and vice versa. His tactics have seeped into the most sacred structures of our society and, in many cases, poisoned the most important corners of our lives.
I am cautiously optimistic that a change in government will remedy some of the harm done by the Harper era. Canadians have delivered a clear mandate to move forward and toward values like unity, justice and equality under the law. But it won’t be easy to forget who and how many among us would be swayed by hatred, bigotry and fear. In what would be his dying days of power, Harper held a mirror up to Canadian society and revealed our darker side. He showed us just how ugly we can be to one another, even to the ones we hold most dear.
@jm_barrett
