One of the perks of being prime minister is getting to use your power to settle old scores and crush opponents.

This sort of vindictive motivation appears to lie behind the announcement by Stephen Harper’s government last week that it’s cutting the $5 million funding of the Court Challenges Program. The program played a crucial role in defeating a legal case launched by Harper himself in 2000.

Harper was then head of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), an ultra-right, business-funded group. The NCC wanted to strike down a federal law limiting spending by groups like itself during election campaigns.

Democracy Watch, a citizens’ advocacy group, wanted to preserve the law, seeing spending limits as crucial in preventing well-heeled groups like the NCC from unduly influencing elections. But Democracy Watch lacked the resources to fight Harper’s rich business group.

Enter the Court Challenges Program, which was set up to counterbalance the advantage the wealthy enjoy in being able to finance costly legal battles.

The program provided funding to Democracy Watch and the National Anti-Poverty Organization, thereby empowering these groups representing ordinary citizens to challenge Harper’s rich business coalition in court.

The case, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, became known as “Harper vs. Canada“ — a prophetic name if ever there was one. In the end, the citizens groups, with funding from the Court Challenges Program, scored a stunning victory over Harper’s business crowd. Last week was apparently payback time.

The court program was just one of many programs axed last week as Harper cut spending by more than $1 billion — despite a huge federal surplus. While Harper’s personal animus toward the court program likely sealed its fate, many of the other cuts seemed aimed at satisfying the whims of other conservatives.

For instance, conservatives have long been annoyed by programs promoting progressive legal reform, medical marijuana and women’s equality. So they were no doubt delighted by Harper’s cuts to the Law Commission of Canada, medical-marijuana research and Status of Women Canada.

Even more regressive was the government’s accompanying announcement that the $13.2 billion federal surplus will go entirely into debt reduction.

This practice, encouraged by the business elite, has become so common in recent years it barely provokes a reaction, even though it’s unnecessary and severely limits Canadians’ choices about what kind of country we want.

It would be more sensible to do what Canada did in the early decades after World War II — simply allow the country’s debt burden (debt-to-GDP ratio) to shrink over time, as the economy grows.

But that would leave $13 billion on the table today, and ordinary citizens might demand to know why the money isn’t being used for things — like health care, education, child care, public transit, etc. — that could considerably enrich their lives.

And when ordinary citizens start challenging the plans of the business elite, things can get out of hand. Just ask Stephen Harper.

Linda McQuaig

Journalist and best-selling author Linda McQuaig has developed a reputation for challenging the establishment. As a reporter for The Globe and Mail, she won a National Newspaper Award in 1989...