The Harper Government

The Harper government, elected in 2006 and defeated in 2015, was one of the longest serving governments in Canadian history. Starting as the smallest minority government to ever be formed in Canada, it expanded, becoming a powerful majority serving nine years. The Harper government ended with the loss of 67 seats for the Conservative government and the gain of 150 seats for the Liberals. This rapid change was not surprising, as the Harper government alienated many. Harper himself was known to be temperamental and a control freak. While Harper was disliked by many, however, his government led Canada through a period of change and created many of those changes. Some of those changes were extremely controversial, such as the tough-on-crime agenda

However, the majority of the policies that caused criticism all had one thing in common: it was done to balance the budget. An economist by trade, Harper knew how to be fiscally responsible. However, the means by which his government did this had a negative impact on Canada.

The Harper government had policies that marginalized Canada’s most harassed people, the First Nations. Of course, Harper did apologize for the injustice of the residential schools, but there was little action to prove he wanted better relations with the thousands of people who were so willing to put their maltreatment behind them.1 In 2005, the Paul Martin government worked with provincial and territorial governments to develop the Kelowna Accord. The idea was to close the gap between the standards of living of Aboriginals and non Aboriginals. The agreement was a major step forward for partnership between the First Nations and the government. Even so, when the Harper government replaced them and outlined their 2006 budget as a minority government, there was significantly less funding towards the Accord.2 The Harper

It was also said to be flawed, ignoring what has been proven to reduce crime. As a minority government, they promised harsher sentences. Some of these included mandatory minimum sentences, higher incarceration rates, and a transformative policy to corrections.4 There were many concerns with these policies. Experts said that the higher incarceration rates were unfair, sending the wrong type of people to jail. The people who were being targeted, it was argued, were either substance abusers who would be better off sent to detoxification facilities or mentally ill.5 The Harper government ignored these concerns, showing their unwillingness to take advice. Furthermore, crime had been declining in Canada for decades. Over the years, according to experts, our policing strategies had become more effective, sociological and economic conditions had changed, and there had been a demographic change.6 Even with these changes, the policies enacted under Bill C-10 had put more people in prison. This was an issue because studies had been done showing that other methods such as addressing poverty and providing services for mentally ill had been more effective than the tough on crime agenda imposed by the Harper government.7 The Harper government’s laws were overly punitive. The conservative government, during their time, made it extremely difficult to obtain pardons. Offenders had to wait