I Wouldn't Count Larry Zolf As A Neo-Con

And for that reason I was surprised when I read his assessment of Stephen Harper, not the politician, but the person........

LARRY ZOLF: POLITICS
Morality in politics
January 8, 2007

Stephen Harper is the most moral Canadian prime minister in Canadian history.

It is morality that motivates his stand against same-sex marriage and his support for the war in Afghanistan. It's morality that drives him to take on his Bay Street pals on the issue of income trusts.

If there were any doubt this prime minister is driven by morality rather than the almighty buck, his dealings with communist China should lay them to rest.

Harper has demanded, in public, the release of Huseyn Celil, a Canadian Uyghur now rotting in a Chinese cell, and turned a deaf ear to cries from Canadian business that his criticism of China's terrible record on human rights is alienating an important trading partner.

"I am deeply concerned about the Harper government's approach to China," national business spokesman Thomas D'Aquino said recently. "My concerns are shared by many in Canada's business and academic communities."

Harper's approach to morality in politics differs radically from the Liberal style that goes back to Lester Pearson and Mackenzie King — that Canada must always engage in a traditional, morally neutral, even-handed diplomacy, regardless of how godawful some of the regimes may be.

Harper sees the war in Afghanistan as a natural extension of Tory political morality that goes back to 1917, when the Tory government of the day made Canada's ties with Britain its moral base. The Tories called the 1917 election on the single issue of support for Britain through the invocation of conscription.

Quebec was outraged. Led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the province rejected conscription massively, and several people were killed during an anti-conscription riot in Quebec City. The crisis, which led to the Tories being shut out of Quebec until 1958, lingers today in Quebec's suspicion of Harper's militaristic approach in Afghanistan.

Morality politics has had a dark side in the history of the Liberal party. In the 1930s, the Liberals under Mackenzie King remained completely silent on the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany.

Of all Western countries, Canada had the worst record on Jewish refugees. That was underlined by the famous "voyage of the damned," when the SS St. Louis, loaded with thousands of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, was turned away from the port of Montreal.

This was the playing out of moral politics of the worst kind: The Liberals were literally playing with people's lives.

If Harper's political morality separates him from tradition of "almighty dollar" diplomacy in this country, it certainly separates him from the neutrality of the Liberals towards the Nazis and, under Jean Chrétien, the party's approach to China.

Harper is not a cynic in politics. He is a Christian moralist, first and foremost.

It was his Christian morality — not votes — that led him to declare Quebec a nation within a united Canada. He did so knowing his decision went contrary to his Western and rural base.

Harper's political morality recently led him to condemn the provocations of Iran's Holocaust-denying president — the prime minister was alone among party leaders to send that message to Iran — as well as Israel's threatening response.

Harper also believes in the two-nations solution for the Israeli-Palestinian nightmare, and says Hamas is a terrorist organization. That stance will give him even more Jewish votes than he now has.

The moral approach will play well for him in the next election. Canada's one million Chinese Canadians and 500,000 Jews may just agree that his stance on human rights in China and Iran is both moral and good politics.

It will also help Harper maintain his Western and rural base: Exalting Canada's middle class as he has done is playing morality politics at its best. And refusing to let trade with China trump morality when it comes to criticizing Beijing's human rights abuses makes Harper look strong and decisive.

I don't share the prime minister's social conservatism or economic views, but I thoroughly prefer his gutsy stand on issues like China to Liberal gamesmanship and nuanced neutrality on human rights abuses — anytime, anyplace.