"Every block of stone has a statue inside of it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." Michelangelo.
An apt description of sculpting by a master but sculpting is also a process of elimination.
Stone chips fly and once a stroke has been made, it can not be undone. You can't put the stone back in place. And it is just as easy to render a stone into chunks of gravel and rubbish as it is to reveal the statue of David.
Michelangelo was a great sculptor because he could see the image inside the stone and chip away all the unnecessary pieces to reveal the beauty within. He never chipped away more than was necessary.
When history judges Stephen Harper's legacy, will he be described as "sculptor" who chipped away at Canadian government until he created something of lasting beauty or as someone who just broke the government up into pieces of gravel?
I suspect how one answers that question depends a great deal on one's political leanings. Many Conservatives would describe Stephen Harper as the "greatest Prime Minister in Canadian history."
The majority of Canadians, on the other hand, would likely not provide such an effusive endorsement. Indeed, for many, he wouldn't be in the top ten.
One thing is clear, though, and that is by the next election he will be one of Canada's longest serving Prime Ministers, ahead of Brian Mulroney and just behind Jean Chretien.
But longevity isn't really the measure of a man. A legacy is not borne of endurance.
No. His most enduring legacy will likely be the shift he has brought about in government. He has moved us from a government concerned about the welfare of its weakest and most vulnerable members to a government concerned with law, order, and military action.
We will have moved from traditional Canadian political ground - a "nice country with strong with strong social program" - to a more American model - "take care of yourself because we won't."
The list of things that Mr. Harper and the Conservatives have done away with is quite long and some of the items don't even make sense.
Take the long form census. Gone but why? The reasons given range from "it costs too much" to "people could become criminals for not filling it in". Except neither is true and the cost to the Canada economy of not having the information is substantial. It is hard to make data-informed decisions when you don't have the data.
Or consider the Health Care accord. It is not gone but it has been gutted. The federal government is not going to live up to their end and give us our money back. And it is our money. The federal government collects taxes from all Canadians to be spent on all Canadians - either directly or through the provinces.
Ditto the National child care program that was cobbled together by provincial deals with Ottawa. Gone in favour of a $100-per-month cheque to parents. Sounds good except there is no income test which means the money is not necessarily going where it can do the most good.
Or consider the GST which I have personally always resented. It was supposed to shift taxes from manufacturers to consumers with the benefit of lower costs for the goods. Didn't happen.
That said, the GST has been a major player in the revenue stream for the federal government. Yet Mr. Harper cut the tax which, one could argue, helped plunge the Conservative government into a debt crisis from which it still hasn't recovered.
Indeed, tax cuts to corporations and rich people are definitely going to outlast Mr. Harper. The problem with such cuts is that you need to make up the revenue from somewhere else. Mr. Harper is missing that part of the equation.
After all, the Conservatives inherited a fiscally sound government. From 1997 to 2005, the Liberal government had budget surpluses. We paid down $92.7 billion of the national debt which freed up money to support programs. We were on the right track.
Since then our budgets have ballooned and we have had unprecedented deficits. The debt has increased by $171 billion. It is chomping a bigger and bigger portion of the federal budget. As anyone with a credit card knows, it is not the principal that gets you - it's the interest.
Our debt servicing costs are $29.3 billion per year or 11.1 per cent of the federal budget, according to the Fraser Institute. It is not often that I agree with the Fraser Institute but they, too, are worried about this government's ability to handle our finances.
At the rate things appear to be going we will soon have no government and all of our taxes will simply go to serving the national debt. Now that would be quite a legacy.
