Review of The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006---

The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006- by Paul Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First a reader alert: do not read this book, The Longer I'm Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canada 2006 just before sleeping. I usually love reading myself to sleep with a good book but this one gave me nightmares. This may not apply to you if you tend to believe Daddy Knows Best and that someone with stony, empty eyes is a Strong Leader who should Take Charge while Canadian citizens pass out for three decades.

That said, Paul Wells is a terrific journalist and writer who has a great sense of humour (considering his beat for MacLean's magazine, federal politics, it's either that or leap off the Bell Tower) and the ability to synthesize a staggering amount of research while moving the narrative forward in a compulsively readable fashion. The reader isn't weighed down with every documented conversation or pelted with a dizzying array of names dropping from great heights.

It's best read in the clear light of day and will confirm what most political junkies already know, that the Prime Minister is overly-controlling about all aspects of governance and especially his contact with media, and that his aim is, above all, to hang on to majority government power (which he currently does with only 39% of the vote). This means curtailing the colourful outbursts of wing-nuts from the Reform Party in the merged ranks of Red Tories, fusty regular Tories and Reformers who line-danced their way into power by peddling right-wing umbrage on everything that was was immoral and/or involved paying too many taxes during the 20th century. I was counting on them reminding the four minute voters, the ones who managed to get to the polls with the latest political ad in their uncritical minds, that the quality of federal legislation was dependent on a lot of whack-job seat-warmers on the Conservative side of the house. But that's lazy, if hopeful, thinking on my part. What's even more sickening is the account of smear tactics used against NDP leader, Jack Layton, and the Robo-calling fiasco which directed dithering voters to the wrong polling station in hopes of nullifying their vote. There are an awful lot of unethical mean little trolls working for the Conservatives in this country at all levels. And that goes for the "Liberals" in British Columbia as well, an unholy assortment of opportunists from God-only knows what political beliefs spectrum.

The recent announcement of a bunch of gerrymandered ridings (at least, I assume they are ridings with much-studied borders and prior voting patterns with this micro-managing PM in charge)will undoubtedly bear even more Conservative fruit. The progressives on the left'ish side of the House seriously need to consider strategic voting or else we citizens will not recognize this country as our home within a decade or two. This PM and our country will continue to be international pariahs where once we were honorable world citizens and some us wish to be a great deal more honorable than we ever were before in the areas of aboriginal, environmental, chronic homelessness/poverty, immigration criteria, and women's issues in this country.

Now I'm going to read some murder mysteries just to recover from the trauma of reading this book...I comfort myself by knowing that when Stephen Harper dies, and he will someday, as we all will, there will never be a funeral for him like the one Jack Layton had. I'm sure the PM was taking notes while he attended, stoney-eyed as ever, but even the Master Micro-Manager will never be able to command an outpouring of genuine affection, admiration and love. Consider the way that he/his underlings botched the G-8 meeting in Toronto several years ago, the one with police brutality and a fake lighthouse and lake? The one where those of us watching television could not believe we were watching Canadians being corralled in our own civilized streets? There are certain issues of finesse far beyond the pedestrian power-hungry mind.

That he is highly disciplined, hard-working and true to his own beliefs is also undoubtedly true and this book is balanced in that the pros and cons of the PM's mind-set and approach are all handled in a transparently, even-handed way. I may not like what I read because I am a left-wing-leaning citizen but I feel I've read an entertaining, well-documented and honest appraisal.

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Vote Early, Vote Often & Vote Smart!

Rachel Carson has said, "There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature---the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter." This comforts me in times of crisis and yet, and yet....
Like the tax deadline (see previous post), which is today, election times rolls around for us all and I have launched my appeal, my rant, my call to action, sending out a blind cc to about sixty people on my email list. I was in full gallop, full throttle, full flight (all terms I heard applied to me from those friends who thanked me for sending it out) and so I'm emboldened to go public in this forum. 
Please go to www.avaaz.org to check on what is happening in your riding so that the many millions of progressive, decent people in Canada can actually be fully represented in our federal parliament. I so loathe bullies, big and small, and Carson's gentle words do not lull me to sleep, not in the least. There is another way of being in this world and there is wisdom in changing paths and approaches when something is very wrong, when something is not working well as is the case with our parliament. 
I have been so heartened by friends who have responded to my plea, telling me that they are sitting down with or phoning and speaking with their adult children and imploring them to research the parties and to vote, no matter what. It's just too important to ignore, to play cynic or to be just plain stupid and then to complain after the fact that 'all politicians are crooked' and 'it'll never change', meaning the way things are run by 'other' people. 
Nobody is perfect and democracy is imperfect, especially the current first past the post method which does not represent many, many citizens in this country. We need to work together in good faith at all levels and to think our way through obnoxious fear-based ads and glossy ads with waterfalls and mountains and Stephen Harper waddling out into a crowd while the voice-over intones: We need courageous warriors. Oh, give me strength & consider the alternatives to democracy around this planet... here goes.
Hello friends, all thoughtful Canadians,
Please take 30 seconds to check out your own postal code as well as the handy map below in the Avaaz.org email, riding by riding across Canada, okay, make that 2 minutes.... I'm certainly not telling you or anyone how to vote but just please do vote and, I beg of you, and I apologize in advance but this is truly necessary: please, on your unfettered way to your neighbourhood ballot box, please visualize Stephen Harper's smug, sneering face and hear his carefully coached, modulated new voice, topped off with that ghastly coif sprayed into submission (his preferred posture for all subjects, and objects, for that matter), ever on the lookout for ways and means to suppress dissenting opinions. Or to just take his toys from the sandbox, shut down the sandbox entirely, surround it with armed personnel and proceed to govern based on ideology rather than facts, gained from a proper national census or by genuine consultation in good faith with other democratically elected representatives, for example.
& just think what this fellow would do with a parliamentary majority to bully the House and the country, not to mention his clodhopper performance continuing on the international stage! Oh wait, he quashed funding for Canadian performance tours overseas or even just across the border for fear that artists, when beyond his control, might say or do something he might not approve of. Royal Winnipeg Ballet, be warned not to deviate from the choreography of Giselle! Although this Prime Minister with dictatorial tendencies gives me the Willies, straight out of that classic dance, so you see, it's all connected! Perhaps I should explain how I really feel.
I am such an amiable sort of gal, really, except when I'm furious with sneaky, bullying power-mongers and those bastards are everywhere, it seems. Time to stand up, be counted and to endure some flack for it, no big deal. I have two succinct words for flack-throwers at the sincere intent of this email and the second word is, with feeling, YOU!
The main thing is to vote in this crucial election. We need to rewrite the rules so that the antiquated first past the post system is not the only measurement of the will of the people, for starters, but vote now, as you see fit, perhaps for the party which has pledged true representation if elected. This is no time to be cynical (=stupidly snooty) or too busy (=self-absorbed). Do not ignore history-- recent parliamentary Canadian history or WW2 or the current upheavals in Africa and the Middle East where fed-up citizens are shedding blood just to get past longtime dictators to a ballot box! Vote smart, if possible, hold your nose if you must, but just vote. Apathy is the indulgence of the privileged and/or the blissfully ignorant and it is certainly not a reasonable response at this juncture.
Think of it as contributing to an underground citizen's coalition so that the tolerant and civilized values of the Canadian majority are not tromped on by a pack (less than 33% as of today, apparently) of retrograde individuals apparently itching to build more prisons and simultaneously cut programs for poor people and children, which might keep them out of prisons in the long run, of course.  To name but one topsy-turvy example of punitive righteousness run amuck.
Onwords! Upwords!
Caroline, now calmly heading for the garden
 

Writers & Income Tax Time

I have the fondest memory of my Dad holing up in the basement, from which a cloud of blue smoke and colourful profanities wafted up for several days. It was income tax time and Dad went head to head with the Prime Minister of the day, determined not to pay “that bloody ......” or “that smarmy ....” a cent more than absolutely necessary to keep the Canadian safety net shipshape.

          Since 1981, I’ve filed my income taxes as a writer, thanks to hopping off the career ladder and lugging home 1500 rice paper fables I’d had made in Kathmandu, Nepal. Writers are allowed three to five years to produce a novel and to earn zero income while racking up research and travel expenses. I am proud to say I managed to earn more than zero from selling my writing every single year since 1981 but some years, especially those fifteen years when we ran a bookstore and then I worked as a publishers’ rep, it was a minor miracle for me to write a grocery list let alone a haiku or to sell a single bon mot.

          But if we writers don’t take our work seriously, then we will be hobbyists forever more and the fact is, a great many of us donate hundreds of hours and dollars to our communities and the causes of the world annually. You can be very sure that the Prime Minister’s minions will seek you out and pick your pockets when your next book is a bestseller and that they don’t much care if you took an eighteen year apprenticeship at very low ‘wages’ to become an overnight success.

          I’ve used the same one-page format to report my writing expenses and income since 1981. I ignore the reams of forms provided for professional and small business people and so far, the Prime Minister has merely sighed and accepted my puny efforts.

2010 Writing Income & Expenses

Caroline Hendrika Woodward

Social Insurance Number

Expenses

1. Advertising/Promotion…………………….$x (website, author photos, schmoozing costs at ½ the meal or pub bill. Sadly, not for new shoes to wear when launching your latest book)
2. Automobile Expenses………………………$y (getting yourself to reading tours, workshops, etc. Fuel, repairs, insurance, parking. Keep a mileage log & yes, claim every trip to and from the Post Office)
3. Office Expenses-ph/fx/internet………… $z (straightforward)
4. Other Office Expenses & Materials……  $x (magazine subscriptions, stationery, books, a decent chair, bookshelves, computer)
5. Light/Heat/Water…………………………… $y (if you live in a 5 room house with a one room office, claim 1/5 your annual costs)
6. Travel, excluding auto………………………$z (bus, plane, hotel & meals for writing gigs not covered by publisher or hosts) 
7. Office Rent…………………………………… $x (if you rent a separate office, otherwise, claim 1/5 (or whatever) of your household rent or mortgage payments)
8. Capital Cost Allowance………………………$y (see guide, I used this once in the 80’s to depreciate the cost of a new computer but am no longer a reliable guide to this category)

                                                   TOTAL…$xyz

2010 Writing Income……………………………$not nearly enough

Net Loss………………………………………… (-$sigh, net loss again-bonus, it can be applied to reduce your respectable income as a bricklayer, lightkeeper, ranch hand or writing teacher)

ALL RECEIPTS HELD.

_________________________                     _________________

Caroline H. Woodward                           Date

During this humbling process, I offer up thanks to the determined writers who lobbied for the Public Lending Right so that the library usage of our books is compensated for, ditto for the Canadian Access Copyright group who pay us for our work being used in schools and universities and elsewhere. In memory of Dad, I curse Stephen Harper with gusto and with good reason.

Every year, I look long and hard at the description of the Vow of Perpetual Poverty. There but for the wimple, go I.

Two things: keep every receipt in tidy envelopes for seven years and be scrupulously honest (the karma thing). Also, try filing online. I just got my 2010 return deposited in my Credit Union in seven business days flat. Hurrah for newfangled thingeybobs!

This blog can also be viewed as a guest blog at my friend and writing buddy Paula Wild's site: http://www.paulawild.ca/ very soon!