It could be the song that blasts out at Harper rallies in the next election. There’s hardly a program or plan he won’t say “nay” to.

He began by cancelling aid to aboriginals, women, minority legal challenges, and skipping the world AIDS conference. He sent off public servants like the head of the nuclear safety body.

Lately, it’s been no to a safe-injection site in Vancouver; provincial climate plans; Ontario’s budget; an inquiry into the Bernier case; letting U.S. war resisters stay. For a government, the Conservatives are uniquely, bizarrely litigious, the sign of a mentality that loves to fight. They sue the Liberals on the Cadman affair. They sue Elections Canada. Now they’re in court to suppress the Cadman tape.

There’s a philosophy behind it: Grover Norquist’s notion of starving government by cutting taxes till it can’t afford to do anything, then you “drown it in the bathtub.” But it’s years out of date. The U.K. Tories are now running to the left of Labour, and leading. The Harperites haven’t heard. And since you must appear positive about something, they settle on fighting and killing: Enhance the military, dig in in Afghanistan, death to scumbags! Sadly, the killing often means, as it did this week, Canadian soldiers.

There’s another element. This government only seems vital when it’s negative. There are individuals like that, who thrive in the grip of anger or rage. It’s not that there isn’t lots to be negative about; there is. But some people, and I’ve been among them, only seem to come fully alive when angry. The same goes for governments. Look at Health Minister Tony Clement’s energetic letter in yesterday’s Globe on closing Insite. Look at Environment Minister John Baird, with his cuddly, cowardly lion air. He seemed thrilled when he got to denounce the Ontario-Quebec plan on climate change. It invigorated him. He glowed. By their glows and their no’s, shall ye know them.

Indiana Jones and the war on terror: The new Indy flick is set in the U.S. of the 1950s. It depicts the irrational dread of the Red Menace then. Units of the Russian army cruise around Nevada unimpeded; KGB agents with thick accents enter Midwest college pubs and harass Indy. This is how the Russian threat was portrayed: TV series like I Led Three Lives showed cells of the puny U.S. Communist Party as far more potent and perilous than the entire U.S. police and military.

It is exactly how Islamic terror is now slotted: They’re here, they’re under the beds, we cower in fear of them. At a commencement speech, George Bush said “the enemy” is now radical Islam. For the record, I think terror is a genuine problem and should be dealt with by police agencies, but not elevated into an equal and official state enemy, justifying suspension of rights and mass panic. Look, for instance, at the Canadian dread of Omar Khadr, the only Western detainee still held at Guantanamo. Even his U.S. jailers say he’s a “good kid,” but Canada won’t bring him home for trial. One reason is that he’s said to be “capable of exacting revenge” if he’s ever set free. And the Harper people still fixate on the former official enemy, too. Last week, House Leader Peter Van Loan accused Liberals of “cozying up to Communists,” a true golden oldie. He even looked a bit like head G-man, J. Edgar Hoover. Maybe we’ll finally get our own FBI.

Sheela Basrur’s death: A rare thing in public life is the ability to salvage dignity while some on the same stage seem bent on denying it.

During Toronto’s 2003 SARS crisis, other public-health officials spread fear or shifted positions day to day without admitting it, smirking, preening, then scattering to foreign meetings where they praised their own success even as the disease returned. She did the opposite. She had a long, impressive career still before her.

Lucky for us, she had a long, impressive one behind her, too.

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Rick Salutin

Rick Salutin is a Canadian novelist, playwright and critic. He is a strong advocate of left wing causes and writes a regular column in the Toronto Star.