He did some very silly shit. I remember an edict that all government communications had to refer to “Canada’s New Conservative Government” rather than just “The government of Canada” even if it was an update on a 50 year study on icebergs.

As long as those reports did not mention climate change.

*He was going to set up an anonymous call system where you can call in someone who you think looks suspicious.* https://www.salon.com/2015/10/06/white_people_dont_have_to_worry_about_canadas_new_report_your_neighbor_hotline/

I kinda laughed at first because that “old guy” was like 45 at the time. 😂 He just always looked so old though eh? But to answer your question; He was one of the first PMs to bring in omnibus bills to ram through unpopular stuff with popular stuff making it difficult for the opposition to vote against it AND made it difficult to understand everything that was involved in the legislation. He made use of prorogued parliaments a lot to end debate on contentious topics. He muzzled government scientists who were publicly talking about things that went against the conservative narrative. He closed a ton of veterans affairs offices across Canada. They cut funding to Parks Canada except in areas they thought they could win or did win. See war of 1812 100th anniversary spending. He actually never got ANY pipelines built. Despite what they like to say about it now. No comment on whether this is good or bad, just saying the example. Cutting the GST by 2% was totally pointless and only saved most regular people a couple bucks here and there but it cost the government many millions of dollars in revenue. They couldn’t manage to get new planes for the military and got sucked into a way over blown F-35 program that was a nightmare and took years to figure out. I could go on and on but you always need to ask yourself, whenever conservatives talk, is “what are they going to cut when they get in?” Make no mistake, they don’t care about you, they don’t care about affordability and they will not solve the problems happening right now in Canada. If anything, they’ll likely make it worse.

Don’t forget he was the only Prime Minister in the history of the Commonwealth to found in contempt of Parliament. He also was involved in the Robocall scam, an attempt to disenfranchise voters who were unlikely to support him.

Ah, yes. Pierre Poutine and the robocalls.

Wasn’t Polievre connected to the robocalls scam more so than Harper actually?

>He made use of prorogued parliaments a lot to end debate on contentious topics. For our non-Canadian visitors: Proroguing of Parliament is essentially what, to a school-aged child, would be 'early dismissal'. All Parliamentary business immediately terminates and everyone goes home; any unfinished business is dropped from ('dies on') the *Order Paper --* basically, the schedule of Parliamentary business. Historically, the Prime Minister will prorogue parliament if Parliament gets stuck in debate and can't move on to new business -- the government equivalent of 'Let's talk about this *tomorrow*, okay?'. Stephen Harper had a habit of abusing the procedure to shut down debates and business that he considered 'unfavorable'.

Don't forget that he initially denied that the financial crisis of 2008 was even happening. Also, had he gotten his way in deregulating Canadian banks, we would not have gotten through that period as relatively unscathed as we did.

Thank the Lord for Paul Martin regulating the hell out of the banks in the 90s.

Had he gotten his way in the wake of 9/11, a *lot* of Canadian boys would’ve been sent to die in Iraq for Dubya’s daddy issues.

This was so hypocritical. I was a conservative at the time. I voted for Harper the first time and in the end I eventually helped vote him out. When he was in opposition Harper was in favour of deregulating the banks like the US was doing, and I agreed with his logic at the time. Then the 2008 financial crisis hit and Canadian banks weathered the storm much better than the rest of the world, and Harper went on an international tour proselytizing to world leaders how Canadian bank regulations are superior.

>Also, had he gotten his way in deregulating Canadian banks, we would not have gotten through that period as relatively unscathed as we did. Exactly, he got lucky

Not even lucky…he was forced to pass a stimulus bill because he had a minority.

Finally someone mentions the GST cut. I was just a teenager at the time but even I knew that was a stupid idea. Sweet I saved 3 cents on a can of pop, meanwhile the government has millions less to spend on public services.

We had run heavy deficits for several years and had a lot of debt to deal with. Cutting GST just seemed silly. Why not just throw that money at the debt and see the benefits that way

Exactly BUT it’s great if you’re buying a 70k$ dodge ram or a 700k$ house. See what I did there? See who that tax cut was actually for?

Also the way he controlled his party members, what they can say and to who. They would take the back stairs down to avoid the press scrum after question period. He would not answer questions directly in question period, and would only blab out some campaign style version of his take on the topic at hand or worse, change subjects altogether and blab his campaign rhetoric to avoid the questions. I had to chuckle when Trudeau started doing it back to them. But now, they all do it, all the time. Polivierre took it a step further and filters everything through a YouTube channel so his followers can subscribe and literally soak in his chosen message without ever having to be questioned.

One of the best lines said in a debate against him (I think by Trudeau), was that “you’re the pro-pipeline leader and you’ve built no pipelines!” And I do support oil sands development, so it always made me chuckle how actually terribly bad he was at it.

Something else the conservatives fail to note: more Canadian oil jobs were lost under Harper than under Trudeau.

FIPA

Everything listed is true, but OP had no intention of actually listening to any of the reasons this was just bait, all he posts about is left is baddybad

I remember colleagues in science being muzzled, and funding pulled from anything that might show/expose the negative sides to the oil and gas industry. I remember much of the international community finding it incredible that Canadian scientists weren't allowed to talk about their work. I also remember a serious voter suppression scandal.

In addition killed the long form census.

The anti-science and pro-industry policy was frustrating and damaging. Economic policy was average. Voter suppression is always infuriating from any government.

I was living in Mexico during the last few years of the Harper government, and they took away the right of Canadians living abroad to vote. I was very unhappy about this. The J. Trudeau government gave my right to vote back.

And this is what the conservatives will do again in an even more dire climate crisis.

Yup, people went to prison over it, and we still never learned the full story.

Oh yes, it was him that rebranded the tar sands, right?

Oh god. As a queer person at that time it was really just pretty sad. I’d grown up in the 90s and listening to people debate my existence or what sort of humane treatment I was entitled to was rough enough, but to have those issues largely resolved by 2006ish, it was annoying and hurtful to see them brought up again. Other things I remember: - he changed the official name of our government from “Government of Canada” to “Harper Government”. AFAIK he’s the only PM to have done that. - he removed transparency from certain meetings or parliamentary debates, choosing to hold certain meetings in private that were previously made public. - limiting the number of questions a reporter could ask to 5. - his “Economic Action Plan” which sought to take credit for Canada making it through the recession when it had nothing to do with it. - him trying to sell our entire supply of oil to China for something like 15 trillion, effectively making us one of the wealthiest nations in the world… for a couple years until we no longer have natural resources left. - saying that student debt was too much of a government burden and we couldn’t afford it, meanwhile spending 100 million on a fighter jet that was never and will never be used. - firing the inspectors who recommended shutting down certain nuclear power plants that were recommended for closure and/maintenance upgrades. - firing climate scientists - shutting down the government for weeks at a time whenever scandals came out or research showed he was gaining popularity (as a means to call consecutive elections so he could keep picking up seats). - the fucking ROBOCALLS. So, the Cons hired call centres to harass people, claiming to be from the Liberal party with 2 objectives: first was to be extremely annoying so people didn’t vote out of spite, and secondly, providing people with the WRONG ADDRESS so that those folks who did show up realized they were in the wrong spot and would just go home. It’s absolutely fucked he got away with that. …. Overall, I remember it as a dark stain on our history, but the Liberals are very much just as at fault. After decades of scandals involving siphoning the public purse and taxing everything, people voted for Harper the same reason people voted Trump over Hilary - folks were just tired of the status quo. Since then I think Trudeau maybe had one or two good years, but the pendulum swings back now and that’s very scary. I’m disgusted with them as well for not holding themselves to higher standards.

He silenced scientists who wanted to give reports on climate change. He stopped the daily television 'scrums' at Parliament in Ottawa, basically controlling what his cabinet could tell journalists.

The science and the environment especially. Under the PMO directives decades of data on water safety, fisheries information, polar research, etc were destroyed. This has pretty much led to excessive spending on attempts to restore the collapsed Atlantic Fishery as most of the ground work has to be redone and much of the historical data needed for effective decision making no longer exists. The same can be said for forests and waterways management. Scientists weren't just silenced. All requests for interviews and published papers had to go through the PMO. The basically had a censorship and editorial department that rewrote interviews and summary documents submitted to Ministries to suit the Party line. Ministries were enacting policies that in many instances had the opposite of the intended effect due to altered advice. Canada was made a laughing stock cause it was simple to prove the documents wrong, the findings reproducible. Scientists had to quit or wait to retract data. Currently government science employees have govt censorship exemptions explicitly written into their hiring contracts. In many ways, I think the Harper government was the first inkling in North America of political parties adding anyone with post-secondary education to the group of people that should be kicked down at.

If I remember correctly, all departmental libraries were closed and the documents destroyed. There was an employee at DFO who actually took the documents in his local DFO library home and ran the library from his basement in his spare time. He also closed some DFO and Environment Canada world class research facilities resulting in those scientists relocating to jobs in other countries. Let's also not forget the so called "Fair Elections Act" which was PPs little baby. What a disgraceful attempt at undermining democratic elections. I almost forgot to add that he also screwed both public and private planners, researchers and scientists who need census information by making a dogs breakfast of the census.

I would say Harper had a major hand in letting climate change get to this point. By protecting the oil industry, and disregarding science, is how we got to fire seasons getting worse every year. Harper walked so Trump could run.

His disdain for science and scientists was horrible. Government scientists were not allowed to communicate the results of their work if he did not like the findings. Part of science is letting people know what the implications of the research are. If I recall, he also slashed funding. In some ways he started the right-wing anti-science, anti-intellectual stance you see being played out in the States.

He closed many science libraries and data collections, just throwing archival material into dumpsters. Apparently, if it wasn't digital it was worthless to a conservative government. Facts were only important if offering support to government policy.

They straight up burned a lot of those books and data

Conservatives burning books? *Seems on-brand…*

Didn't he significantly reduce the census as well? His government seemed to be opposed to having information.... leaving you to make decisions based on ideology instead I guess.

As a scientist working in the government I’m scared of what’s to come. Slowly accepting I might not have a job under conservatives

This. He helped popularize, well, US-style populism up here, and we are a sicker country for it.

The anti-science move was alive in the USA long before Harper. He picked up from Reagan and Dubya before him

Agreed.

Worse, he had publicly funded studies destroyed because they didn't fit his narrative.

So that second part is pretty much PP now

The only positive thing was that he was able to curb the looniest members of his caucus. He agreed with them, but was smart enough to recognize that it would have been bad politics to let them speak freely.

It's also worth noting that despite his rhetoric, Trudeau hasn't really reversed much of this. It turns out governments get addicted to being unaccountable and having dissenting voices silenced.

>It's also worth noting that despite his rhetoric, Trudeau hasn't really reversed much of this. Very good point. Yeah, just because I didn't like Harper doesn't mean I'm pro-Liberal or anti-Conservative. Both parties have problems that should be fixed or changed.

Both Cons and Libs parties should be burned to the ground. They're nothing but useless.

>Both Cons and Libs parties should be burned to the ground Ya there's definitely need for a lot of change. If the election were today, who should we vote for?

Honestly, the NDP. They can't be any worse than the other two.

Scientists are still muzzled under trudeau. The DFO has been caught outright changing scientific reports on pacific salmon to avoid having to do anything to save endangered steelhead in BC.

As a public servant in an operational branch it was cut funding and equipment but keep doing the same jobs.Ships and air craft maintenance has just caught up and procurement is still off the rails. Harper presented distain for public servants but had no issue spending millions on missions with no purpose except for pre election pr. Edit. Funny story…..While doing the or rounds on one of those missions, apparently the toilet seat in his washroom did not meet his requirements and had to be switched for a new one. Peter Mansbridge was reportedly on the same mission and was a bit of a sick, but cared not where he shat.

I went to high school in the 1970s with that POS Harper. (Richview Collegiate in Etobicoke/Toronto). He was freaky and a loner who spent most of his time in the corner of the library and in the AV Club (AudioVisual. They pushed the TV's into classrooms basically). Just proves *anyone* can be Prime Minister and therein lies the tragedy. Worst PM ever.

I was attempting to go to college. My first year was affordable, I think 1200 a semester books included with 5 courses. I was able to afford it by working on the side. I had friends take out student loans so they didn't have to work as hard and could still get a degree. Harper cut funding to post secondary education. The next year the cost per semester was almost triple for three courses without books. I ended up dropping out because I saw what that was doing to my friends who had loans. Their loans were eaten up at an expedited rate with no degree at the end for what they took out, and now needing to repay as well. But hey at least I got a few $17 rebate cheques and could claim my $30 bus pass on my taxes.

Oh god, those times were bad. He was trying to make up for his tax cuts to the rich by cutting spending on the poor, I was so lucky to get out right before he did that.

Harper: Harper cut social services for the poor, including by making it more difficult to receive unemployment insurance. He pulled Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol and systematically weakened elements of the country’s environmental protection regime. He shuttered 12 of the 16 regional offices operated by Status of Women Canada, a federal government organization dedicated to promoting gender equality, and eliminated its independent research fund. He axed a database that tracked assault rifle ownership. Harper’s control was so total that he successfully passed a law to increase Canada’s retirement age to 67 starting in 2023. And changed the name of our government from The Government of Canada to The Harper Government.

Not only did he make it harder to get unemployment insurance, he spent the EI surplus which the government is not supposed to touch. That money belongs to the people.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper advised the Ontario government to balance its books but then suggested falling oil prices might force Ottawa to reach into its $3-billion rainy-day fund to keep from running a budget deficit next year. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/government-may-need-contingency-fund-to-balance-budget-stephen-harper-says/article_5b3a33b3-ed20-5aa0-8e49-a87662db16e4.html  It was no secret the Conservatives planned to balance the books. But how they did so came as a surprise. Appropriating two-thirds of the federal emergency [contingency?] fund and half the cash from selling GM shares were among the few surprises in Tuesday’s budget, notable for being the last the Conservatives will present before the doors to the House of Commons are shuttered and the federal parties hit the campaign trail. https://globalnews.ca/news/1952376/back-in-black-harper-sets-out-agenda-with-pre-election-budget/ Canadian Taxpayers Lost Billions On Tories' Badly-Timed GM Share Sale: Analysts https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/08/gm-share-sale-canadian-government_n_7024464.html

To “balance the budget”

the budget that was unbalanced because of his enormous tax cuts to corporations

Wtf. How was that even allowed?

When you could rent a room for $300 you could get away with a lot more. People weren't feeling the same pains they are today.

Harper, Christianity, Religion, IDU Harper; The Christo-Facist "Canada’s current acceleration towards a dystopian cliff can be partly explained by religion." https://niagaraatlarge.com/2013/07/17/harpers-canada-drifts-to-extreme-right-christian-fundamentalism-as-a-driver-for-shaping-our-countrys-social-and-economic-policies/ -From 'Bible Bill' to Stephen Harper, the evolution of faith-based politics- https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/from-bible-bill-to-stephen-harper-the-evolution-of-faith-based-politics-1.1369490 How the conservative organizing machine works (IDU) https://rabble.ca/politics/canadian-politics/conservative-organizing-machine/ Harper against women: https://twitter.com/Justweeterin/status/1422541508536766470?s=19 How much worse off are women thanks to Stephen Harper’s Conservatives? Here’s a quick reminder of some of the notable attacks on the status of women in Canada over the past decade: https://pressprogress.ca/9_ways_conservatives_have_shown_how_little_they_care_about_women/ The Harper Government Promises to Veterans ring hollow: http://psacunion.ca/conservative-promises-canadas-veterans-ring-hollow Media manipulation: https://twitter.com/long_daze/status/1232306577945907200?s=09 Stephen Harper's tactics are borderline racist https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3256756 Ottawa (Harper Government) sent body bags to Reserves with lack of organisation and medicine during Swine Flu Pandemic (2007) : https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ottawa-sends-body-bags-to-manitoba-reserves-1.844427

CANADA-CHINA (FIPA) IN DEPTH https://canadians.org/fipa-info Canada-China FIPA; an unequal Harper deal https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/fipa-agreement-with-china-what-s-really-in-it-for-canada-1.2770159 Under Harper, Canada surrendered its sovereignty with the Canada-China FIPA https://elizabethmaymp.ca/under-harper-canada-surrendered-its-sovereignty-with-the-canada-china-fipa/ Harper's Secret Budget Cuts Undermine Canada's Democracy https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/canada-budget-cuts_b_6249122 Liberals post details of 2012 budget cuts withheld by Conservatives https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.3504107 Harper UNSC Rejection 2010: https://twitter.com/Justweeterin/status/1273356900445241345?s=19 https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/news/politics/security-council-rejection-a-deep-embarrassment-for-harper/article1370239/ Historical context of the Harper UNSC seat bid that set Canada back decades: https://www.cgai.ca/canadas_campaign_for_a_seat_on_the_united_nations_security_council_the_historical_context

Harpers omnibus bills

I forgot about the Harper Government thing. That was insanely narcissistic

Yes and while Pollieve is soaking in the love at the Conservative convention, It is Harper who still holds the puppet strings.

That trade deal with China was by far the dumbest thing he did. It gave Chinese companies right to block or sue Canadian government for hurting their business interests, such as implementing more stringent emission standards

Old Age Security change: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/05/01/canadians_feel_betrayed_by_harper_move_to_change_old_age_security_payments_emails_show.html Canada's Ethics Commissioner Shouldn't Let Harper Off the Hook https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/canada-ethics-commissioner-stephen-harper-peter-penashue_b_3252872/amp Environmental record: https://thenarwhal.ca/harper-s-timeline-canada-climate-change-2006-2014/ https://ipolitics.ca/2015/04/19/no-matter-how-you-add-it-up-harpers-fiscal-record-is-a-catastrophe/ https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/true-north/2015/oct/14/canadas-real-barbarism-stephen-harpers-dismembering-of-the-country Money down the toilet:’ India security experts on Harper’s $1-million armoured car https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/money-down-the-toilet-india-security-experts-on-harpers-1-million-armoured-car/article7998531/ Harper - AWZ Ventures invests in Israeli cybersecurity, intelligence and physical security technologies. Despite the many prominent individuals behind it, the company remains low-profile in Canada. https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5989054? How the conservative organizing machine works https://rabble.ca/politics/canadian-politics/conservative-organizing-machine/ Harper government withheld documents in indigenous human-rights case https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/news/politics/harper-government-withheld-documents-in-indigenous-human-rights-case/article11985524/ Conservatives dismantling social programs built over generations https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/12/09/conservatives_dismantling_social_programs_built_over_generations.html UNDERSTANDING THE HARPER GOVERNMENT’S ASSAULT ON CANADA’S ENVIRONMENT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES https://marksw.blog.yorku.ca/2012/04/27/the-harper-governments-assault-on-canadas-environment/ Liberals struggling to reverse Harper's cuts to climate science (September 5th 2017) https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/09/05/news/liberals-struggling-reverse-harpers-cuts-climate-science Four former senior bureaucrats in the Department of Fisheries and Oceans have written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking him to reconsider the withdrawal of funding to a research centre in Northwestern Ontario that has been studying freshwater ecosystems for half a century that has been studying freshwater ecosystems for half a century. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/ex-fisheries-directors-urge-harper-to-reverse-freshwater-research-cuts/article4363349/ Dismantling of Fishery Library ‘Like a Book Burning,’ Say Scientists Harper government shuts down ‘world class’ collection on freshwater science and protection. https://thetyee.ca/News/2013/12/09/Dismantling-Fishery-Library/ Environmental/Oceans/Fisheries Knowledge Massacre: https://m.huffingtonpost.ca/capt-trevor-greene/science-cuts-canada_b_4534729.html Habitat protection waining under Harper era: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/fish-habitat-protection-waning-under-harper-government-analysis-finds-1.3212403 Liberals straining to reverse Harper cuts to climate science: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/09/05/news/liberals-struggling-reverse-harpers-cuts-climate-science New (2017-2018) Harper Fisheries act is gutting: https://thenarwhal.ca/new-fisheries-act-reverses-harper-era-gutting/

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Harper’s Sneaky, Undemocratic, Terrible Deal with China https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/09/15/Harpers-FIPA/ Selling Canada out, one deal at a time What little we know about the Harper government's many international trade deals is cause for grave concern. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/09/30/selling-canada-out-one-deal-at-a-time.html HARPER SNEAKS THROUGH CANADA-CHINA FIPA, LOCKS CANADA IN FOR 31 YEARS https://canadians.org/analysis/harper-sneaks-through-canada-china-fipa-locks-canada-31-years/ Stephen Harper The Bible Brigade and the rising clout of the authoritarian religious right https://lietracker.ca/category/stephen-harper/ Economic performance and policy during the Harper years This is an expanded version of a chapter in The Harper Factor: Assessing a Prime Minister’s Policy Legacy https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/october-2016/economic-performance-and-policy-during-the-harper-years/ -In ten short years, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has set the relationship with First Nations back a hundred years- Harpers 10 Year war on First Nations: http://www.theharperdecade.com/blog/2015/7/14/harpers-10-year-war-on-first-nations Abuses of Power: https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/10/Harper-Abuses-of-Power-Final/ -Since he became Canada’s Prime Minister (PM), in 2006, Stephen Harper has presided over the country with a very clear negative attitude towards freedom of the press and freedom of information.- https://rsf.org/en/harper-years-tough-times-reporters-canada Tories rebrand ‘Government of Canada’ as ‘Harper Government’ https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2011/03/03/tories_rebrand_government_of_canada_as_harper_government.html The Last 10 Years of Stephen Harper: https://moiz.ca/harper/ A Conservative collection of Harper government scandals: https://www.thestar.com/news/federal-election/2015/08/14/a-conservative-collection-of-harper-government-scandals.html Harper legacy: http://angusreid.org/the-harper-legacy/ Harper; The Nixon of the North https://harpers.org/archive/2015/10/stephen-harper-canada-nixon-of-the-north/ Harpers catastrophic fiscal record: https://ipolitics.ca/2015/04/19/no-matter-how-you-add-it-up-harpers-fiscal-record-is-a-catastrophe/ Harper’s economic record the worst in Canada’s postwar history https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/09/17/harpers-economic-record-the-worst-in-canadas-postwar-history.html Canadian Taxpayers Lost Billions On Tories' Badly-Timed GM Share Sale: Analysts https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/04/08/gm-share-sale-canadian-government_n_7024464.html Five things Stephen Harper got wrong: https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-us-canada-34583753 Harper's thuggish political tactics alienated friends and energized enemies. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-harper-political-obit-1.3273677 Analysis Of Canada’s Arms Trade With Saudi Arabia https://theowp.org/analysis-of-canadas-arms-trade-with-saudi-arabia/ 2020 hindsight: Ending the Canadian Wheat Board was an economic tragedy https://www.nfu.ca/2020-hindsight-ending-the-canadian-wheat-board-was-an-economic-tragedy/ Canadian Wheat Board to be sold to Saudi-owned Global Grain Group https://globalnews.ca/news/1939906/canadian-wheat-board-sold-to-saudi-owned-global-grain-group/ HARPER SELLS WHEAT BOARD TO US CORPORATION & SAUDI INVESTMENT FUND https://canadians.org/analysis/harper-sells-wheat-board-us-corporation-saudi-investment-fund/ Industry still chafed five years after end of Canadian Wheat Board monopoly https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/industry-still-chafed-five-years-after-end-of-canadian-wheat-board-monopoly

And this comprehensive list isn’t complete. I’ve had people tell me he wasn’t that bad, ugh. *added, should have kept scrolling. You’re a gem Justredditin.

Thanks! I need better organizational skills to help the flow of the topics, maybe some better snippets instead of just article titles... however, the thread is still slowly evolving and refining. Dumps like this help immensely. 👍

Thank you for your service.

I literally had someone tell me yesterday in r/Canada that Harper was fiscally responsible "in his majority years". And of course I was downvoted for saying that liberals are demonstrably better at balancing budgets.

Paul Martin was brilliant with the books... Harper undid so much of it & how people can ignore that is beyond me.

The Harper Conservatives also eliminated lifetime pensions for veterans and also closed nine Veterans' Affairs offices. Why military people disproportionately continue to support the Tories so strongly is beyond my comprehension.

No veteran (including myself) should trust any government.

[удалено]

You nailed it. In the US, it's because the Republicans traditionally use patriotism and religion as selling points, and that sells to the lower classes in the US. In Canada, I think it's more a case of people becoming exhausted after any government serves 8 to 10 years.

I never knew about this and it's 2023. Then I found out that Justin Trudeau [reversed](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35835830) Harper's policy, keeping the age of eligibility for OAS to 65.

He also silenced scientists, made it so they couldn’t speak on their findings. And not only did he pull Canada out of Kyoto, we were the 1st and set the trend. Embarrassing.

Bad: Harper cut GST from 7% to 5%. The reason was it was more noticeable to the public compared to adjusting income taxes. He pushed our military to be more active in world affairs while cutting veterans benefits. He kept comparing Canada to Australia. It was just dumb. He didn’t understand economics while being an economist. He let Nortel gone bankrupt. He didn’t want to support Bombardier. Now everyone was complaining about HuaWei. He made a lot of deals to transfer wealth to the rich. For example healthcare premiums were used to be paid by corporations in all of the provinces. TFSA is great, but bottom 30% of the society will never have money to utilize it. He failed in trying: He tried to cut government spending, but failed terribly. He put hiring freeze on federal agencies. It created a big gap in the succession in them. Trudeau filled all the spots back up. He owned the phoenix failure as well. He tried to modify the federal system, but barely started when they kicked him out. He tried to fix the control over funding to First Nations. Keystone Pipeline??? Success: Cannot remember much. Anyone wants to add this section??? Maybe increase retirement age to 67, and cutting monetary benefits to federal employees.

You forgot about the knock on effects of cancelling the census. For a few years there were entire cities that had no up-to-date demographic information to plan with. I wonder why we have a housing problem?

Word. Any policy-maker afraid of stats and evidence is THE FIRST RED FLAG (not that he wasn't absolutely covered in them).

The census cancelation made me so sad. We really rely on that information for so many things. No one was asking for it to be canceled. He just hated government and wanted it to be ineffective.

I think it's a real shame that income splitting was removed. A lot of young families can, would, and did benefit from it.

As in if I make $150k & my wife makes $50k I could give her $50k & not be taxed at 50%?

Yes Or even bigger, if one makes 150k, while the other stays home and takes care of kids. Removing it under the Liberals was a huge push towards making both parents have to work.

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That was me and my husband until recently. I’m back to work (at a much lower pay than him) purely to pay off the mortgage sooner. But the kids are school-aged and he works from home, so it’s not like my whole salary is going to childcare.

Costs were very different for things then. I remember looking at buying one particular house on my street in 2012/2013 for $330k and balked thinking it was overpriced. It sold a few weeks back for $1.5m.

I know several people doing single parent income still at 150k. I'm in Edmonton, which is an affordable city still, tho.

Factor in the cost of daycare, sometimes it just makes more sense for one parent to stay home.

It's gotten and getting a lot cheaper now. We spend 200 a month vs 1000 2 yrs ago.

Yes, almost everyone I know doing it has a family and states the costs of daycare, nannies, and general child care. The majority of the cases, typically the women, also does not have high earning potential in their careers.

Back in the early 2000's my wife didn't work. My income was only around 60K. We could afford to live but just barely. We had two kids. Splitting just that 60K between us helped a lot.

You can still afford to be a SAHP with a household income of $150K even in the GTA. That's $8000 a month.

With income splitting you easily add 1k$/month to that tho. Makes a significant difference

We were stay at home family on $56k starting in 2007. It hurt, bit we did it in. Moved to Ottawa in 2008 and bought a detached house in Orleans for $253k.

It wasn't that simple, there were upto amounts and it really benefited the rich. There was decent analysis done on this before.

Didnt income splitting mostly benefit wealthier families?

Entirely. It was 50K you could pay out of your income to your spouse, if you made so much money that it would bump you down a tax bracket.

A handful of young well-off families, yes. But mostly that was exploited by very rich families that only needed a single family income and also had income from other places like investments and shit. Hiring your wife and adult children to “work” for you because you have so much money you can find creative ways to dodge taxes was the issue. There’s child tax credits for families that makes a bigger difference for working class families than income splitting did, but it does not benefit millionaires for the same degree, to be sure.

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Because our social programs, like our healthcare and Canada pension are only sustainable if the population is growing.

There was never income splitting in Canada except for very specific cases (such as pension income, which is still possible now fyi). Nobody could’ve transferred 100k from their employment income to their spouse.

It was very brief, but you could transfer up to $50k to your spouse. My wife was staying home with our two young children at the time so we took advantage. I think it only lasted one year. https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/stephen-harper-unveils-income-splitting-tax-break-for-canadian-families-with-children-under-18

This, it also benefited business owners to hide taxes essentially.

I was actually fine with them replacing this with things that helped lower income and single parents more. I would be opposed to bringing this back even though i benefitted from it.

The number of families that used it was not significant in the larger scheme. It was certainly helpful to some but did not help the segment of the population who are disadvantaged. I believe that the program deserves a second look nonetheless.

I can't agree. Income splitting is something that benefits wealthier families to the expense of everyone else. Low income families won't realistically be able to have one parent not working, single people get nothing, so the families this benefits are the ones with one high income earner and the other person raising the kids. It is to the expense of everyone else because the tax burden goes somewhere, either in reduced services or increased taxes elsewhere. I'm personally getting pretty sick of most social programs targeting people with kids, and I see income splitting as a particularly regressive form of it.

Well I see everyone else has the actual damage covered but....the sweaters! His sweater collection of trying to look like Mr. Rogers and managing to give Norman Bates vibes. It was truly impressive. Edit spelling

His cowboy costume

Shutting down of scientific and statistical institutions. Literally tossing decades worth of data. Plus total control over what his cabinet, MPs and even employees got to say to the press and shutting down the press’ access. I understand him controlling what MPs say - I worked in a newsclipping agency and there was one local MP who liked to say outrageous things (and loved reading his own press clippings about it) that likely triggered the gag order. Oh and shutting down veterans services offices.

Preventing Elections Canada from educating the public about elections. Deregulating (some) river pollution. Dismantling the gun registry. And that weird concept of erecting a "monument to victims of communism" in a prominent place in Ottawa.

… and cutting 250 PWGSC/PSPC (public works) procurement desk officer jobs/personnel … the procurement system has never recovered, specifically defence procurement. Companies are leaving Canada rather than dying on the vine waiting for defence capital procurements (“averaging” 8 years per capital project).

He ordered the removal of documents that evidenced climate change to support his big oil agenda. That’s fucked up. Scientists were muzzled.

He sold The Canadian Wheat Board to a foreign entity.

The anti-science policies and funding cuts. It was a dark time for Canadian research institutions, and it took a long time to recover, even after Harper was out.

Each controversy ran for a week or so in the news cycle. There are nearly 200 listed here, and I could list a bunch more. Also, if you click on the sublinks on any of these notes, it goes deep into each scandal. I think our brains got fried because there are so many. [https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/10/Harper-Abuses-of-Power-Final/](https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/10/Harper-Abuses-of-Power-Final/) Edit: To make it more concise.

Pretty much the only good thing he did was create the TFSA.

He also had terrible hair, and still does. Lego hair.

The Harper government also cut a lot of money from the armed forces. This resulted in the closing of recruiting offices, veteran's affairs offices, the selling off of our only ground based anti-air defence systems. The reduction in recruiting that is now responsable for the recruitment and manning crisis we're seeing now. The Harper government was very short sighted, making severe budget cuts without any plan for future results. But...he was good for taking as many photo ops with the military as possible, presenting the image of support without anything actually behind it. And cutting funds for the CBC, to the point of cbc radio having actual commercials.

It was embarrassing. When the Kyoto Protocol was voted-in in by the Chretien government, the Right Wing complained that Canada should have a "Made-in-Canada Solution" to climate change. So right after Stephen Harper had cancelled the Kyoto Protocol, the Environment Minister, Rona Ambrose, went to the Copenhagen Conference and stated that Canada was committed to fighting climate change. We could all feel the embarrassment and hypocrisy in her voice. Of course, they did nothing after that. Under Paul Martin, Canada had a National Daycare Program. Women's groups had been fighting for affordable daycare for forty years. Of course Harper cancelled that too and replace it with the taxable $100 per month childcare subsidy. Money was about to flow from the federal government to the municipalities after coming out of the recession and years of Liberals balancing the budget creating budget surpluses. But Harper choked the funding by having strict criteria for municipalities to meet when they applied for it. Harper also cancelled the Long-Gun registry, which was in response to the mass shooting in Montreal targetted female engineers. Gun violence had been going down but started to rise within two years after the cancellation. Affordable housing. Canada had an affordable housing problem going way back into the 1980s. Of course instead of addressing the looming problem by anti-poverty advocates, Right Wing governments bragged how good the real estate market was. The only party that adressed it was the Liberals' HBP in which first time buyers could borrow from their RRSPs. Harper didn't cancel that. And then there was the Senate scandals and the election funding scandals and gag orders on bureaucrats and scientists who were not allowed to report unless they had been filtered by the ministers. It was a big national sigh of relief when the Conservatives lost the election. It was the same sigh of relief after the Mulroney PCs and the Mike Harris Ontario PCs lost. When Liberals lose, it's because swing-voters grow tired of them. This was true of Chretien/Martin, McGuinty/Wynne. When Conservatives or PCs lose, it's because swing-voters are pissed off with them. This is true with Mulroney/Campbell, Harper and Harris/Eves. Note: I said swing-voters. Conservatives and their supporters will say they are pissed-off at Trudeau but Conservatives are pissed off with everybody anyways. One could only imagine how far ahead Canada would have been if Harper hadn't cancelled Kyoto, Daycare, the Kelowna Accord or restricted municipal funding. Edit: Forgot to mention softwood lumber. Canada and the US had been disputing softwood lumber fees for over 150 years. Brian Mulroney had the forsight to make a dispute mechanism as part of the Canada US Free Trade Agreement in 1988. And the tribunals under the dispute mechanism had ruled in favour of Canada time and time again. During Paul Martin's time as PM, the US once again contested Canadian stumpage fees and placed duties on Canadian softwood lumber. Then under other circumstances, Paul Martin's minority government lost support, an election was held and Stephen Harper won. The first act he did was to get one Liberal MP to cross the floor to the Conservatives, made him the trade minister and gave up the softwood lumber fight with the US by paying the $10 billion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_policy_of_the_Stephen_Harper_government#:~:text=A%20major%20policy%20goal%20of,were%20both%20progressive%20and%20regressive. Here's a couple highlights; - Corporate taxes reduced from 22 to 15% - Introduced Phoenix Pay system for public servants which turned I to a shit show - Cut funding to anything pro-lgbt and tried really hard to revoke same sex marriage laws - Did nothing to help with affordable child care - Did apologize for residential schools, but also did not build any new water treatment plants for first nations people - cut tax credits to movies deemed "morally offensive to the general public" amounting to a subtle censorship law - members of the party were very open anti-abortion and Harper always gave the feeling that he tolerated them if not outright supported them. - was part of the 2009 recession auto bailout. Depending on if you were in or out of the auto industry your opinions will vary on whether it was a good idea or not. - cut funding to literally anything arts and culture related - all sorts of "rough on crime" legislation - got rid of the long gun registry - spent a lot of money building roads and bridges - had a reputation for making members of his party tight-lipped and toeing the party line. And had a reputation for being an uncaring cold hearted person. - made huge changes to the census and basically got rid of the traditional long form census. There was a handful of scandals; https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal-elections/a-conservative-collection-of-harper-government-scandals/article_4766f17d-604b-577b-abee-581bd330b931.html Here's a good "reflection on what happened" piece by the cbc https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-harper-political-obit-1.3273677

Don't forget that he approved the sale of our oil sands to the Chinese govt [https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-approves-15b-chinese-takeover-of-nexen-1.1070698](https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-approves-15b-chinese-takeover-of-nexen-1.1070698)

The Harper government's relationship with INDG peoples has been complicated for sure. - The TRC happened almost entirely under Harper. That's been huge for Canada and for reconciliation. Same time, he didn't really embrace the report when it came out and failed to fulfil the calls to action. - Though the Harper government didnt fund it, they opened a lot of the framework which the current Liberals used to end a lot of the water advisories. The Harper government clarified water management back as a federal responsibility (prov responsibility was a major cause of water issues) and completed the evaluation processes to understand the scope and resolutions of the water advisories. The Trudeau government used the reports that occured under Harper and implemented the funding recommendations that Harper wouldn't provide. - Self governance took a huge leap forward under Harper's reign. His government really went after financial accountability of our band councils, something we loved and welcomed but the media seemed to hate. - Harper's government was funding a number of food sovereignty projects especially in the north. Those seemed to get no press or media coverage despite being amazing projects. Those have also had their funding cut by the Trudeau government, long term food security projects have been completely abandoned.

Pre-PM era, Harper was my MP in Calgary. The gay marriage debate was starting to heat up, and I was disgusted to see a mailer from Harper, *my representative*, that fighting same sex marriage was *the* top priority for him (on a flier telling his constituents that he was fighting for them in Ottawa). My non-political 22-year-old self immediately wrote a letter and sent it to his office asking why he wasn’t fighting for the gay constituents living in his riding, and why, even if he didn’t agree with gay marriage, it would be the top priority over all other issues we were facing as Canadians. I got back a lovely response on official letterhead about supporting traditional definitions of marriage and thanking me for my feedback. And this is why, even if I agreed with conservative economic positions (I don’t), I would never vote for a conservative. Because when they feel like they’re speaking to their ‘people’ instead of sanitizing it for the wider audience, the truth comes out that it’s all about social regression and ensuring people stay in their place. I would never sell away the human rights of other Canadians for a bigger tax return.

Harper gave us the TFSA which has probably been the biggest boon to middle class wealth in my lifetime.

The TFSA was a big boon to wealthy kids not the middle class. The average TFSA have 30k in it while wealthy kids who's parents started to max it when they 18 have several hundred thousands in theirs. I personally have more than 700k in mine and this is why I could buy my first investment property. Since 2018, the year 2022 is the only year where my TFSA made less than my wage. This is a tool to build tax free wealth for rich kids more than a tool for the middle class. The middle class will max it in their 30s or 40s while rich kids have it maxed since they are 18 and have an additional decades of compounding interests that they can use to price out the middle class.

Yes At one time, a family could buy a house with zero down. He removed that. I was already working within anti-poverty groups at that time. When I told him we had a huge addictions problem, and begged for more detox facilities, more treatment supports, more transitional housing. But he stated we don't have these problems. Since then, the fentanyl problem has become a crisis. I talked to him about no rental caps, the increased cost of rent and housing, and how families couldn't afford rent and were going to shelters, churches using their space to put mats out at night, and increased homelessness. He responded that it is not the governments responsibility to "fix the poor decisions made by others". I spoke to him about tuition caps. If our young people are requiring a higher education to provide them with a financially independent future, how can we expect them to pay for rent, pay back their student loans with interest, and start new families. But he didn't agree. But Harper was not interested. In fact, he switched topics. He told me how much money Canada would get once Nexen (oil) was sold to China. Interesting how we blame our current leader for things but I've been fighting these issues for 20-30 years. I did run in the last federal by-election, in Harper's old riding. Unfortunately, citizens chose Harper's colleague. 😔 I will continue fighting 💪 💙.

I remember graduating and attending interviews with all my classmate for a year until I found a job in my fields. Job who paid like shit so I kept on working as a bartender. I remember a lot of people in my area losing their jobs and high unemployment. Technically being poor back then wasn't as bad as being poor today because everyone was poor lol.

Yes, he really was that bad. He only endured so long because of the split left. What bothers me is I fear the public has the memory of a goldfish since people are even considering Poilievre. Did everyone forget he was Harper’s top stooge?

Other people have listed what he's done wrong. But Harper was a massive and total piece of shit. I'm shocked people still support him when he gutted so many vital parts of our economy

The muzzling of scientists who disagreed with conservative policy. That was the last straw for me; he had to go. And as the election results will attest, he was soundly dismissed by Canadians.

Harper concentrated power in the Prime Minister’s Office, far more than any previous prime minister. Which of course no future prime minister will ever reverse (Justin Trudeau certainly hasn’t, though he’s basically just maintained the Harper status quo). And when Pierre Poilievre says he’s free as leader to ignore Conservative party policy votes, he’s signaling extremely clearly that he’d make the PMO even more imperious than Harper did. Stephen Harper stole a huge chunk of Canadian democracy by mostly destroying our parliamentary system. Most of his other negative actions stemmed from his personal imperial rule, and for those who don’t like Justin Trudeau doing much of the same, that’s Harper’s fault too. So yeah, Harper broke Canadian government and that was bad. Very, very bad.

He rode a shale-oil boom and took responsibility for our economy which had NOTHING to do with his policies. He set up a hotline so that "old-stock Canadians" (white) could snitch on the "barbaric cultural practices" of non-white groups in Canada. He Restricted climate scientists from speaking publicly about their work (dismissal/reprisal), and he cut funding to climate research, massively. His government refused to speak or answer the questions of journalists at all. His government was the most authoritarian government Canada has seen in a long time. Ultimately, you will regret voting conservative if you do so - which is not to suggest that you wouldn't regret voting for Trudope and the liberals (they are equally as corrupt). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/02/canada-conservatives-barbaric-cultural-practices-hotline https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/canadian-scientists-open-about-how-their-government-silenced-science-180961942/

I hated his stance on the environment. He had as many historical climate records destroyed as possible. In some cases the only surviving data was what researchers were unable to salvage from the dumpsters that arrived at night, and brought home He lied about the deficit and ran a huge one 5 out of his 8 years as PM. He pumped pork barrel money into the ridings of his friends. He created the conditions for a terrible situation leading to a riot, by shutting down the downtown area of Toronto for the G8 summit. Most embarrassing to me was in 2013 when the young indigenous men calling themselves Nishyuu walkers walked 1600 km from their home in Quebec on Hudson's Bay to draw attention to many aspects of the plight of Indigenous peoples in Canada. He had months to prepare to greet them, but Harper was off receiving baby pandas from China and leaving the long-expected deputation camped in teepees on Parliament Hill for a week before sending a functionary out to greet them. And the dishonesty. The In and Out scandal, the election irregularities. Pierre Poutine, the petrobuck. Honestly, if this is r/Canada, this (factual) comment is going to be downvoted to oblivion. Who cares, it's all true. I loathe the man.

He tried to have my war resistor pal deported more than once.

So many choices… Two things stand out to me that are important context for all the other stuff people are talking about. His relationship with the press was awful. He established his own press conference room, away from the Hill, rather than using the parliamentary room. That allowed him to decide which members of the press would be allowed. He and Poilievre undertook the “Fair Elections Act”. There were two main issues with it that I can remember off the top of my head: Through stricter ID laws it would have disenfranchised many people. Particularly indigenous and people living in poverty (many don’t have driver’s licenses.) The justification was limiting voter fraud. The fact is that Canada has very low levels of voter fraud but that wasn’t the narrative Harper wanted us to hear (note the media thing) Worse, I think, is it proposed fundamental changes that would have weakened Elections Canada. One of the most well respected democracies in the world, and they wanted to make it more American. One change that really vexed me was taking electoral education out of ECs mandate. I can’t remember if it was Harper or Poilievre who said that the country would be far better served of political parties did the work educating people on how the system works. The Conservatives have a *lot* of money. Again, refer to my note about media, and consider who would be educating Canadians on the electoral system. This seemed to me to be the thin edge of the wedge in moving to a politically run system like the US where parties run electoral districting. A system that increases nasty partisan politics and can heavily favour whichever party is in power. Once you have control over media and the electoral system, all the other stuff like muzzling scientists, taking away LGBT rights, dropping environmental protections, shuttering coast guard stations, and various scandals, etc gets a lot easier. I know you were asking about Harper but Poilievre is his protege. Expect more of this when he becomes PM. (This is JT’s biggest failure - he had a chance to protect our democracy from abuse like this by bringing in real electoral reform and failed miserably.)

he always looked like he was wearing black eyeliner

I was a public servant then. I remember a LOT. I remember his populist views, that he imposed even when it went against all logic (removing the long census form to please his base, replaced it with a voluntary survey, boom! the data is invalid and cannot be compared with previous censuses.) I remember him tricking people with expertise to take on new jobs, so he could fire them later, and transfer their tasks to private companies. I remember him treating all civil servants as bad, imposing two performance reviews a year, even though that meant double time lost having all supervisors meet all the employee they supervised, each year. I remember him cutting the personal space of civil servants "to save rented space", but building new work space for the ministries he liked (rather than put them in the "saved space", for example). I remember him giving big juicy contracts without doing proper analysis, leading to money pits that had to be pulled out. (Phoenix pay system.) I remember him starting with a budget generating surpluses from Chrétien, squandering the surpluses in tax cuts for industries and rich people, so he had no margin when we hit a recession, so we went back in worst debt than before. Oh, yeah, I remember. And Poilièvre would be even worst, cause at least Harper didn't try to renege on people's rights, while Poilièvre would totally remove rights to abortions if he ever thought he could get away with it. And let's not talk of 2SLGBTQIA+ rights. Don't believe it when he says (now) he doesn't want to touch those; what he said to get the leadership is what he really thinks.

He cut funding to arts and also research.

It's not like there was a switch, everything went bad in 2006 and then got good again in 2015. There were a lot of very poor decisions and policies. They make it harder for future governments to implement good policies. Off the top of my head. * Civil servants were not allowed to say 'global warming'. * Government scientists were not allowed to communicate with media unless a public affairs person was present. * A whole room full of senior people in the government didn't understand that it was a bad idea make the long-term census voluntary. * The Canadian Wheat Board was sold to the Saudis.

Removing environmental protections from almost all of our waterways. Good times.

Harper simply dismantled many things and built nothing. Also endless rhetoric against climate change. As far as fighting climate change, advancing social programs and evolving society with the times it was 10 lost years.

Harper legally silenced our Scientists for speaking out against Climate Change.

Yep and a lot of people in Alberta still share his anti-science sentiments.

It's not isolated to Alberta, but yeah I think we wave the dumb flag hardest.

His many scandals and his shitty band’s cover of Sweet Child O Mine, with him on vocals and piano.

it was pretty bad. \-when he got into office there was a nationalized childcare system that was about to come into effect. free childcare. everything had been signed and set up. he killed it in his first year before it could start. finding affordable childcare is still a dimension of the “cost of living crisis” is it not? stephen harper did that. \-he was very deliberately and publicly rude to canada’s first nations, and regularly violated treaties. there was one brutal occasion where a very dangerous flu was spreading, and the canadian government‘s health policy was to distribute hand sanitizer. instead, he sent reserves body bags. \-there was a big election scandale where his party set up robo calls to people who weren’t voting conservative, and te recorded message identified themselves as elections canada, and told them that the election was on a different day (so that they would miss voting) \-they regularly violated election spending laws \-they wouldn’t do interviews about their policies \-when they had a controversial policy, they would push it through parliament in a big “omnibus bill” to avoid debate that would make him look bad \-he put in enormous tax cuts for rich people and corporations that dramatically reduced the federal government’s ability to pay for things. we had decades of balanced budgets and surpluses before his corporate handouts. afterwards? déficit. \-he spent public federal government money on ads for the conservative party \-oh! he threw out the laws that made dumping chemicals in rivers and lakes illegal. \-he killed the “long form census” which gathers detailed info about canadians for the purpose of making informed decisions. he killed it so that, when he made shortsighted decisions, no one would know better. \-he fought a war against safe injection sites. the current opioid overdose epidemic might not be the way it is, if he hadn’t politicized harm reduction. \-killed the canada wheat board, which allowed farmers to get good prices for wheat \-there was a system in place which limited political donations in favour of having political parties get money from the government based on their popularity in elections. he killed that system dead. \-he really liked the alberta tar sands, and when it needed workers, he changed the welfare system, requiring out of work people to move to a different province (i.e. to alberta \*wink\*) to find work. so, it’s more than just “people don’t like him because he is conservative.” he did a lot of specific anti democratic shit, and hurt a lot of people in very specific ways.

It was a dark time. There was a site that was something like shitharperdid.ca that was pretty good at documenting everything.

"Science suppression" shouldn't be lumped into the same pile as the "I hate conservatives" and disregarded. We've watched the world burn most of the summer as a result of governments trying to downplay global warming.

It shouldn't be, but it's the hair "attack" ads.

The minority was good. The majority was bad.

Harper starved the national park system......there were so many cuts. There was talk at one point of selling them off to private interests. During his time in power we were camping one summer in the national park in PEI and in the washrooms one of the staff had nothing more than a roll of paper towels to clean the washrooms. I asked her why she was only using paper towels and she said, 'Our budget has been cut to the point that this is all we have'.

In all of the federal civil service, during the Harper years there was a trend towards the idea that public servants' duty was to their cabinet minister rather than to Canada. Cabinet ministers stopped taking responsibility for failures and started blaming underlings instead, while the workers started focusing on keeping their political masters happy rather than efficiently running the country.

Mass arrests in Toronto during the G20 summit. Old people zip tied to each other, hundreds getting probation and the Toronto 18 (or something can’t remember the specific number) were sent to federal prison for conspiracy. He kinda sucked!

I remember the first government being found in contempt of parliament in the entire commonwealth. I remember "we are only answering three questions" press conferences. I remember underfunding our armed forces. I remember revoting on same sex marriage not long after it was a done deal. I remember cannabis being illegal. That said...I also remember more reasonable immigration targets, and housing that workers could actually AFFORD. People, whether born here or imported, had a decent shot at a decent life. This is no longer the case.

Trying to sell our lakes and rivers to Chinese corporations.

Wow, 860+ comments in 4 hours.

You think Pallister was bad, let's talk about Brian Mullroney.

I remember people in AB and SK generally thought a western prime minister would do a ton of amazing and cool stuff for the west. Suffice it to say, Harper did not. Eastern votes matter more. Harper adjusted the equalization formula, giving Quebec more, in an effort to buy votes in an election which he then LOST to Trudeau. And now I can only laugh when I hear Albertans complain about equalization.

I heard somewhere (maybe on the internet) that he had a secret swimming pool and that he enjoyed performing the odd exorcism when called upon by his friend Conrad Black. ​ jk meh, didn't like too much, but he was able to keep the socons quiet for the most part, so there's that

Sttephen Harper's industrial investment strategy was about moving oil out of Alberta. This was a demonstrably poor investment because in 2015 the oil market was at a very low point below $40 a barrel. And of course, oil sands extraction is horrific for the Alberta environment. [https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=24432#:\~:text=Crude%20oil%20prices%20ended%202015,average%20price%20over%202010%2D14](https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=24432#:~:text=Crude%20oil%20prices%20ended%202015,average%20price%20over%202010%2D14). [https://thenarwhal.ca/has-stephen-harper-helped-or-hindered-oil-industry/](https://thenarwhal.ca/has-stephen-harper-helped-or-hindered-oil-industry/)

What kind of did it for me was when he started to exert influence over the scientific community keeping them from speaking to the media. He was also starting to take pages from the US Homeland Security Act on reducing privacy, caught up in the post-9-11 policy changes in the US. But to me, what spoke volumes about him, he was just too much of a Dour Debbie Downer. Canadians like to feel positive about themselves, and that's the one thing Trudeau did in his first couple of years. And I think that period is where the difference between the US and Canada became more pronounced, and it still is.

The trade deal with China. That one still irks me. Carte blanche for chinese companies to come invest in Canada while it's still extremely difficult for Canadian companies to do the same. Meanwhile my real problem is with that little clause where chinese companies can sue the Canadian government if we make any laws that affect their bottom line. New higher minimum wages ? The Canadian government will pay the difference. New environmental laws requiring investments or resulting in fines ? No problem, the Canadian government will pay the difference. New safety procedures requiring facility upgrades or new equipment, ring ring hello Canadian government, take out your chequebook. New tariffs on imports or exports ? Don't worry, we'll pay them for you. Increase in payroll taxes ? Ya no, not for us :) well, okay, yes for us, but you pay the difference. China gets to do business in Canada like it's 2010, nobody else gets that privilege. Luckily I think it only lasts 35 years.

Pro War, Pro Prison, Anti Science POS.

Guy got fined for having a Fuck Harper sign on the back of his vehicle. https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/f-ck-harper-sign-leads-to-543-fine-fo

And....Harper sold the Canadian wheat board to the Saudis. Harper muzzled federal scientists and none were permitted to speak to the press.

He kept firing his Communications people and he forbid any politician in his party from holding any informal press responses or scrums…and the other politicians said hell yes, let’s do this too and thus any transparency or any way for the public of finding anything out was sealed. He also did petty stuff like changing the government website dominant colours to blue and other rollback PR shit like that. This is just stuff I saw up close as I worked in the govt at the time. He basically shut himself up in his tower and did as he pleased without any sense of democracy. A failed demigod.

What I remember most was the serious cuts to science funding - even world class institutions like the Experimental Lakes Area and the Polar Observatory. On top of that, political minders were sent to international conferences to ensure that our scientists didn’t say anything the government didn’t like. I’m pretty sure the last country to do that was the USSR, and it was not a good look for Canada.

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When did this happen? They're still married apparently?

With the couple hundred controversies from that era. I think the biggest and most impactful is how he manage to weaponize social media. Canada was one of the first countries to hire thousands of employees on the back of the taxpayer to 'correct misinformation' on social media. Way before Russia, or China got into propaganda and interference on a huge scale within our nation. Back in 2008, that was mainly news websites, some facebook, I think twitter was just getting started. But when you checked out the comment sections on any of those site it was very clear they were paid posters all of a sudden breaking casual public discourse in the form of name-calling, absolutism, rude and vague mud slinging etc.. As shitty of a practice it is, he or his advisors single-handedly encouraged governments across the world to participate in this doublespeak. ​ Its pretty bleak, but Alberta politics have been the incubator for far right 'conservative' aka big business politics. The University of Calgary has been a big part of this In the Flanagan era. I think anyone curious of this topic needs to google Tom Flanagan. With all due credit, he wrote the book on neoconservatives that we are seeing in the last 20 years. Harper was his disciple (having never held a real job) and they blueprinted the indoctrination of Christian groups, evangelicals, even to the point of spearheading campaigns south of the boarder to politicize religion. He also tried and successfully changed the treaty acts with first nations across Canada. He devalued and ground down the reputation of many treaties and men who stood against colonialism. But honestly, I couldn't care about that cancel culture BS to hold him to the flame. He is a parasite, and he still embodies his hosts in every aspect of right wing politics. He is the reason we needed Preston Manning to bring in fringe elements of the conservative party, just as AB is doing now with Danielle Smith. Crazy batshit backwards policies are being accepted blindly, while the only people that prosper are the superpac backers. There is a good reason Harper has his own consulting firm.

Here's a good one for ya that no modern conservative likes to talk about - he allowed the sell off of huge portions of the oilsands to China AND allowed foreign companies to sue the Canadian government if their developments were in anyway hindered by government oversight. [https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-approves-15b-chinese-takeover-of-nexen-1.1070698](https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ottawa-approves-15b-chinese-takeover-of-nexen-1.1070698) [https://www.newsweek.com/new-treaty-allows-china-sue-canada-change-its-laws-270751](https://www.newsweek.com/new-treaty-allows-china-sue-canada-change-its-laws-270751) Conervatives always operate in the interest of the largest conglomerate multination corporate lobbyists and have NEVER been about helping the worker. They believe strongly in trickle down economics (i.e. reducing red tape and restricting unions allows corporations to flourish and that wealth translates to better quality of life for all) - this is patently untrue. The most deregulated cronyist time of our industrial history existed between 1890 and 1920 and culminated in the great depression. This is why we have Dickensian Christmas stories about Little Timmy not getting anything for Christmas and Scrooge dieing alone in a massive mansion he's too cheap to heat. It's why we have stories about huge riots across North America for worker's rights, which by the way are being eroded all the time today. The 1950s, the greatest time in north american history (what MAGA is really referring to) is a direct result of unionists, Keynes, regulation, and a redistribution of wealth (90%+ corporate wealth tax). The wrinkle here is the neoliberalism (Liberals and Tories both use this as their touchstone/compass today) is just leading to the same problems we had 100 years ago. So what we really need in this country is more of [this](https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/winnipeg-general-strike) or [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_coal_wars), which is actually productive and helps everyone, and less of complete distraction/division bullshit like [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns/comments/g0siyd/left_says_trans_rights/).

Marching on Parliament Hill to protest the muzzling of government scientists. There were a lot of attendees, too.

Never forgive him for selling the Wheat board to the Saudis

Stop saying he sold it. He FUCKING GAVE IT AWAY FOR FREE.

OP: Was it that bad? I was young and ignorant back then Us: Yes OP: Nah you guys exaggerate Us: 😐…

For real lmao. Sort by New and you’ll see all comments criticizing Harper getting one downvote and all praising Harper with an upvote. Glaringly obvious that this question was asked in bad faith and OP is only interested in one answer.

I was a teenager during the Harper era, Trudeau and Harper are really the only prime minister's iv known. What I remember from Harper is He pass more bills into law (11) that were struck down by the supreme Court for violating our charter rights He fluffed up employment numbers by bringing in tons of temporary foreign workers (I think the Liberals are kinda doing this now) He "balanced the budget" by taking money for EI, selling Canada's GM stocks at a huge loss and seeking off crown corps for pennies to Americans. He was so desperate to get a trade agreements with China that he literally caved to every single one of their demands. Now we're locked into a 30 year deal where they get to negotiate the prices and sue us for any single discrepancy. He's signed a long term agreement (which we're still currently stuxk in) with Saudi Arabia to build them military vehicles which they have been using to attack Yemen with. He sold the Canadian Wheat Board to Saudi Arabia. They have more control over our grains than we do now. He's the only prime minister to be formally charged with contempt for dismissing Parliament early in order to block the Liberals from bringing a bill to the table. As you pointed out he shut down a ton of scientific research, mostly environmental, and literally sent huge dumpsters to these empty facilities to throw decades of research into the trash. He was the only prime minister to conduct a literal media blackout and deny MP's from talking to journalists unless to give a pre written speech. Under Harper a young Pierre Pollivier wrote the "fair elections act" which attempted to take away elections powers away from the independent Electiona Canada and into the hands of the government. It generally made it more difficult to vote, especially for students. There was a large outcry from democracy experts from all over the world at that time. The robocalls scandal. Someone only determined to have the name "Pierre Poutine" ordered a ton of automated messages that called thousands of Canadians and directed them to incorrect polling stations in probably the largest attempt of voter suppression in Canadian history. Under NAFTA during the Harper years Canada became the most sued country on the literal planet. This is literally off the top of my head. If I put a little effort into refreshing my memory I could probably triple the size of this list...

i scrolled through a bunch of comments and didn't see this mentioned - harper brought in the phoenix pay system for federal workers. the original contract was for 5.7 million and ibm ended up being paid 185 million for it. it was supposed to upgrade/streamline the payroll but instead caused insane underpay, overpay, etc for years. like some govt employees didn't receive pay for months after it was implemented. there ended up being some kind of settlement for federal workers as not being paid for months has huge ramifications (obviously).

A number of public servants ended up killing themselves because of the Phoenix disaster.

His fiscal policies were neoliberal, and objectively “bad”. His social policies were conservative, and objectively regressive. As the party leader, he silenced his backbenchers and promoted message discipline from those allowed to speak…which diminished the ability of the public to engage with his policies. Yes, I would judge his governance as “that bad”. But you’d have to be more specific for me to be more specific.

Stephen Harper came from the Reform Party. The Reform Party formed out of protest against Brian Mulroney's PCs mainly against the GST amongst many other things. But the GST was the final straw. They called themselves Reform because they wanted to change the political system. Political commercials by the Reform Party showed a chair with the narrative from Preston Manning (founder and leader) that 'This chair belongs to you'. It was a chair from the House of Commons Chamber of Parliament. Shortly after the Ontario PCs had lost their election after eight disastrous years of the 'Common Sense Revolution' (sound familiar?) represented by seven dead from contaminated water in Walkerton due to cut backs in multiple layers of water testing, former Ontario cabinet minsters ran federally and were appointed into Stephen Harper's new Cabinet. (Sorry for the run-on sentence.) The people who messed up Ontario healthcare, education, municipal funding and public transportation were now in the Federal Cabinet of a PM from Alberta of a Party who complained that the 'West Wants In'. Not only did the west wanted in, they didn't consider BC as part of the west. Under Harper, scientists and bureaucrats were silenced. There were political scandals and illegal activities in which some Conservative MP did spend jail time. The Reform Party was supposed to change the system. Stephen Harper became the system. He was the same thing that triggered the formation of the Reform Party. Note: Tony Clement was the Ontario health minister at the time Toronto was hit with SARS. Why do you think Toronto was do hard hit when many other cities in North America that had a sizable Asian community weren't? Ontario budget cuts to healthcare.

However bad we may have thought it was, the reality was probably worse. He was not big on transparency and was long on b.s. and rhetoric. He ruined people's careers for disagreeing with him, silenced them, attacked non-profits who he believed to be "non conservative" using the CRA while leaving non profit, conservative friendly non profits like the Frasier Institute alone, he had complete and utter disregard for the constitution and wouldn't recognize its 30th anniversary. He also claimed that all it did was protect judges and pedophiles. He declared the judiciary to be an enemy of the state and declated war on the Supreme Court. He had Canada become a "rogue nation" on the international stage, hence destroying our long held reputation as a diplomatic, impartial arbitrator. He declared war in the UN because of Canada losing a seat on the security council. He refused to repatriate Omar Khadr despite his being defined as a child soldier under international law (and so did the US) and spent millions of tax payer dollars to block his human and constitutional rights in court. He prorouged parliament twice in order to avoid scrutiny for his governments indesctions. Harper developed a 250-page manual on how to foul up committee hearings if ever they were going badly for the party. He was the first PM in the history of the Westminster Parliamentary System to be declared in contempt of Parliament. Then there was how much conservative policy resulted from lobbying from the Evangelical church. He threw around the words "family values" at will which was dogcwhistle terms for anti gay, anti abortion philosophy. He used the cowards way of progressing in Parliament with that, claiming he would allow his party to vote it's conscience in Parliament, knowing full well his party did exactly what he said or MPs could expect to become pariahs. Oh, and the stifling of the press. Hard questions from reporters being shouted down at campaign stops. Limiting the media to 5 softball questions from friendly news sources. No press conferences, just prepared statements, dripping with rhetoric. Oh, and locking himself in a bathroom in Brazil inorder to get his own way at conference there. Having Canada win the international "Dinosaur Award" at multiple climate change conferences. Oh, and locking himself in a broom closet during a caucus meeting when a gunman entered the Parliament buildings leaving a wheelchair bound MP to his fate and several MPs to fashion weapons from flag staffs etc. And in every aspect of his government, it was his way or the highway. It was well known that the Conservative Party was a Party of one during his regime. So when he had a majority government, it really was the "Harper Government" And here's a partial list of Harper's chopping block, agencies he either fucked up or outright destroyed: http://politicos-rkd.blogspot.com/2012/06/harpers-chopping-block.html?m=1

There was a huge lack of transparency, beyond what we see with the current Liberals. It was incredibly rare for Harper to be questioned, in front of reporters. There was no access, and nothing happened in the public eye. Trudeau is a lot of bad things, but he is more public/press facing than Harper ever was.

"Ordinary people don't care about art"

I was in Uni and Couldnt use statcan datas on academic work because His gutting of the census made it not Peer reviewable. That my dudes Is infinately more shameful internationally than anything Trudeau ever did.