Party of One

Stephen Harper and Canada's Radical Makeover

By: Michael Harris

Narrated by: Michael Puttonen

A timely indictment of a prime minister determined to remake Canada.

In Party of One, Investigative journalist Michael Harris gives us an intimate look at Stephen Harper and draws a portrait of a prime minister whose policies and instincts, Harris believes, are a clear and present danger to Canada's democracy. Fueled by the election victory of May 2011, unchecked by the opposition, the staggering gap between Stephen Harper's stated political principles and his practices starkly drive Harris' arguments home. Harper, an acknowledged master at controlling information is, Harris argues, profoundly antidemocratic. The Harper government's sins include keeping facts from Canadians and an inclination to invent them (as it did in the F-35 debacle). Since coming to power, Harper has made war on every independent source of information in Canada. Harris recounts Stephen Harper's well-defined and growing list of enemies, whose perspectives are unwelcome and whose voices are to be suppressed: scientists, diplomats, union members, environmentalists, First Nations peoples, and journalists.

Counter to the backdrop of a Conservative commitment to transparency and accountability, Harris exposes a regime of ultra-secrecy, noncompliance, and dismissiveness. With this Conservative majority in Parliament, the law is simple: What one man, Stephen Harper, says, goes.

©2014 Michael Harris (P)2015 Post Hypnotic Press

Critic reviews

"This work, Party of One, should be the political work of the year, and perhaps should stand as the best for this century. It is one of the most powerful books I have read and it should be read by everyone. Anyone entertaining the idea of argument with Harris' solid base of research (through documents and personal interviews) will need to stifle all independent thought and critical analysis abilities. Such however are the very abilities of the Conservative caucus in face of their dear one and only leader, Stephen Harper." (Jim Miles, Foreign Policy Journal)

"First things first: I'd personally encourage every Canadian before they exercise their democratic franchise on October 19, 2015, the fixed date of the next federal election, to read Harris's new book on the consequences of eight years of Stephen Harper's leadership of this country. Party of One is bracing reading." (Robert Collison, special to The Star)