Party of One: Stephen Harper And Canada’s Radical Makeover

In time for the federal election that promises to be a referendum on Stephen Harper’s tenure, Party of One is a scathing look at the majority government of a prime minister determined to remake Canada.

In Party of One, investigative journalist Michael Harris closely examines the majority government of a prime minister essentially unchecked by the opposition and empowered by the general election victory of May 2011. Harris looks at Stephen Harper’s policies, instincts, and the often breathtaking gap between his stated political principles and his practices.

He argues that Harper is more than a master of controlling information; he is a profoundly anti-democratic figure. In the F-35 debacle, the government’s sin wasn’t only in keeping the facts from Canadians, it was in inventing them. He illustrates how Harper has made war on every independent source of information in Canada since coming to power. Here is a man with a well-defined and growing list of enemies: union members, scientists, diplomats, environmentalists, First Nations peoples, and journalists.

With the Conservative majority in Parliament, the law is simple: What one man, the PM, says, goes.

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