My life may be unconventional, but my beliefs are simple, traditional.
My country matters a great deal, as do freedom and democracy. Twice I have felt the awe of walking onto the floor of the House of Commons.
Those steps came eighteen years apart. Between them, I learned much. Elected again in 2006, I returned to Ottawa as an MP no longer filled with ambition to run the country, but with a restless populism. Two decisions came easily: This time I would give my allegiance first to the people, then to a party. Second, I would use new media – blogging, webcasting – to open up the political process.
Both of those brought me into instant and intense conflict with the prime minister. Within a week of returning to Ottawa I was ordered to go offline. I refused. Ten difficult months later I watched myself on TV being thrown out of my job, on Stephen Harper’s instruction. His was a government which did not value either populism or transparency. I was a man who believed liberty is not possible without both.
No longer in politics, I decided to flesh this story out. Not to exact revenge on the prime minister, since anyone who achieves such an office deserves respect. Rather, it’s a tale about democracy slipping away. Never have fewer of us voted than in the election of six months ago. We are more cynical, disengaged and distant from our leaders than ever.
And why not? When was the last time your MP knocked on your door, or wrote a daily blog allowing you to comment and question? Has he or she ever asked to you vote online before a tally was taken in the Commons? Sent you a personal email? Shot and posted a vid on an emerging issue, and asked for feedback?
In a few days my new book, “Sheeple: Caucus confidential in Stephen Harper’s Ottawa” will be published. Undoubtedly, it will cause a ruckus. It takes Canadians where they haven’t been before – inside the PMO, into the caucus room, into the prime minister’s home. It traces the ascent to power of a group of people I came to see were more a cult than a party, and a government insisting MPs be a silent, pliant flock.
As I conclude in it: “The story that follows is not a successful one. There’s no way to polish it. I became a polarizing figure in Canadian politics after taking a key decision in the days following the election of 2006. Stephen Harper made a demand I could not accept, and the consequences flowed.
Some people thought I was an heroic figure for choosing the path I did. Lots more believed I was an idiot or, worse, dangerous. Entire web sites were dedicated to my demise and, as an opposition backbencher, I received far more attention from political operatives and the mainstream media than I deserved. Those people in my riding who voted for a Conservative, and ended up with a Liberal, hated my guts and ultimately were revenged. Those across the nation who supported Stephen Harper, himself a polarizer, piled on.
Not a day passed during time on Parliament Hill that was not bathed in controversy and criticism. The contrast with my first tour of duty as an MP under Mulroney and Campbell was stark. None of this, the failure nor the influence, would have occurred without a blog.
The decision to become a web-based MP, to turn my time in Ottawa into an open discussion board, to poll and engage and reveal, and to see if digital democracy could improve a system that was losing relevance, is central to this story. The decision, one would also conclude, was fated. Parties and leaders do not want what a growing legion of citizens ask. A blogger with a foot in both worlds was a dead man walking.”
This is my first book about politics. And my last. Do not assume though, my fight for freedom and democracy has ended.
Should you wish an advance copy, go here.
