Michael Harris > Quotes

“Elections Canada is now banned from campaigning to boost voter turnout. The position of elections commissioner has been moved from Elections Canada to the office of Canada’s director of public prosecutions. Tellingly, the new law does not change the rules to ensure that people are required to cooperate with Elections Canada investigations.”
― Michael Harris, Party of One: Stephen Harper And Canada's Radical Makeover

“Harper would rather join a NATO mission than a peace mission.”
― Michael Harris

“Canada’s diplomacy is hugely different under Harper,” Heinbecker responds. “The neo-conservative idea of foreign policy is about flexing military muscle. It’s about free-trade deals. It is a reversal of our history. We used to be advocates of constructive internationalism, we used to work hard to make that work. That’s why our advice and our particular insight were so sought after by other countries. Now we are a country with baggage. Those invitations to counsel others and to take part in that international meeting of the minds don’t get issued.1 We have become outliers. We are seen as more American than the Americans, more Israeli than Likud.”
― Michael Harris, Party of One: Stephen Harper And Canada's Radical Makeover

“he frightened his audience by talking about other changes on the table that “would just horrify you,” such as “putting universal Medicare in our Constitution, and feminist rights and a whole bunch of other things.”
― Michael Harris, Party of One: Stephen Harper And Canada's Radical Makeover

“Until that moment, Canada had been a secular and progressive nation that believed in transfer payments to better distribute the country’s wealth, the Westminster model of governance, a national medicare program, a peacekeeping role for the armed forces, an arm’s-length public service, the separation of church and state, and solid support for the United Nations. Stephen Harper believed in none of these things.”
― Michael Harris