OPINION: Wagging at the world

I couldn’t tell whether he was bragging or complaining last week when Stephen Harper wagged his finger at the world during the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. 

On one hand he was taking credit for Canada’s fortunate position in the global economic hierarchy and on the other he expressed his outrage that Europe wasn’t following his example.

Doing his best to imitate a world leader, he used his keynote address to scold Europe for being social and economic slackers and to gloat about Canada’s fiscal performance under his expert guidance. And then, to prove he meant business, he took some cheap shots at his fellow Canadians back home, including pensioners and businessmen. 

If this is the face of Canadian capitalism, it doesn’t bode well for the rest of us. 

The prime minister has a bold new swagger as he struts his stuff on the international stage. He tried to impose his will on the European Union and at the same time he put his Canadian subjects on notice. Majority Steve is in charge.

The sight of our pompous prime minister as he lectures the world and pats himself on the back might be a little embarrassing to Canadians but as for our European friends, I wouldn’t be surprised if they found it downright insulting.  

Rubbing salt in the economic wounds of our potential trading partners is not helpful.

As I watched the PM speaking in Davos he came across as smug and condescending. He was a long way from home and a guest in another country on another continent. I think it would have been more effective and much more Canadian if he had just been pleasant. Is Mr. Harper serious or is he just grandstanding for the folks back home?

Many of his colleagues at the Forum, including the founder of the conference, are looking toward the future and questioning Mr. Harper’s traditional view of capitalism.

In the words of the Forum’s founder, Professor Klaus Schwab, “Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us.”

The Davos Economic Summit was the brain child of Professor Schwab and it has been influencing world economic policy since 1971.  In those four decades many world leaders have gathered in Switzerland to discuss the global economy. That historical perspective seems to escape our PM.

The European delegates are looking at the situation differently and are openly referring to a global sense of social responsibility. 

The Davos crowd envisions a future that demands an entirely different way of thinking, one that is holistic and inclusive.

They seem more in tune with the Occupy movement than the Harper doctrine.

While the boss was out of the country another story hit the papers to put things in perspective.  It dated back to 2006 when a newly-elected minority Prime Minister Harper was prevented by the majority opposition from hiring a business friend to head up his new accountability commission.

In response Mr. Harper had a Parliamentary hissy fit and scrapped his newly formed Public ¬Ap¬point-ment Commission. He said at the time that he would need a majority to pull it off but in the meantime he continued the million dollar funding.  There was no mandate for the commission and nothing to do but spend taxpayer dollars.

There are other “phantom agencies” with generous budgets, courtesy of Canadian taxpayers. 

The Employment Insurance Financing Board was formed in 2008 to manage a fund that doesn’t exist. It has needlessly gobbled up more than $2 million including $100,000 on travel, another $265,000 on consultants and $86,000 on accommodations.

Now, to be sure, Canadians are familiar with stupid government spending tricks, especially after being horrified by former Auditor General Sheila Fraser, but this is different.

Mr. Harper stood on the world stage to accuse European leaders of being complacent and ineffective. He told them to swallow some smartening-up pills and start being more, you know, Harper-like. I don’t think they bought it

Then, adding insult to injury, he turned on Canadian businessmen saying they weren’t innovative enough and they weren’t doing their fare share. These comments were unnecessary, mean-spirited and, to put it very conservatively, totally un-Canadian.

We can expect more of this abrasive behavior as the PM uses his beloved majority to put his personal stamp on the country. 

It will continue until either the opposition can stop him, he shoots himself in the foot (a distinct possibility) or until Canadians get fed up and take matters into their own hands.