Enemygate: Harper's divisive politics

Margaret Atwood has dubbed it 'Enemygate'. ForestEthics whistleblower Andrew Frank accuses Harper of bullying tactics. John Bennett of the Sierra Club frets that this is “a scary time for Canadian democracy”. With the Prime Minister calling any opposition to his pet Keystone project, "enemy of the Government of Canada", the lines have been drawn. The Conservatives will do anything to bully, lie or cheat to get its way.

Bennett describes the current situation as very “McCarthy-esque”, with the addition of what he calls a “new wrinkle” that involves creating surrogate or “pretend” grassroots organizations that support federal policies. “They test the lines with these surrogate organizations and then the politicians start to repeat them. So we have Ethical Oil talking about ethical oil, but then the Prime Minister’s saying exactly the same thing,” Bennett said.

While the phony 'foreign interests' meme fades away, except on the public access Sun News Network or the by now disgraced Ethical Oil ruse, Harper is left to his own devices. By using terms like 'enemy', 'radicals' and 'hijacking', the Conservatives are looking more and more desperate. What have they got left in the tank? It seems they are running on empty. Obama's not that interested, at least for now, in the Keystone XL pipeline. The Northern Gateway looks 'deader than Keystone'.

So, what's next for Harper and Enemygate? He's lost all credibility with Kathryn Marshall and Ethical Oil's comical blunders. The media, so faithful so far in promoting the pipelines, will surely be shamed into a more balanced reportage. That leaves the party faithful, big oil and Alberta.

The rest of Canada is becoming increasingly divided from this batch. It will be interesting to see how this whole deal is settled. Obama's successfully delayed any decision on Keystone until well into his second term. The Northern Gateway looks like its a dead end.

But Harper doesn't give up easily. Expect more ugliness and accusations. With that comes a more educated public thanks to a perhaps more skeptical media. Harper will have his hands full. As time goes on, the truth comes out and the lies harder to propagate.