It’s been quite a sight watching Stephen Harper contort himselfinto a sheep costume these last few months, and despite a few hiccupsalong the way, he’s done a remarkably good job transforming into thesort of placid political farm animal that Conservative strategists hopewill win over the Canadian public.

He’s got a new haircut, a new wardrobe and a sudden affinityfor photo-ops with 14-year-olds. If he isn’t flipping burgers insummertime, then he’s cracking wise in the winter, all his fangs tuckedaway, a peaceful, caring man who has found his heart along with thecentre line of Canadian politics.

He’s done such a good job that youalmost forget who’s still inside the costume.

Not that the Liberals haven’t tried to remind us.

More worried about job security than actually doing the job athand, they’ve turned the last two election campaigns into fear festsright out of a David Cronenberg horror movie, replete with ogres andmonsters and tales of the apocalypse should we do anything other thanvote for our local Grit.

It’s the sort of divisive, negative politics that has made manygrow weary of the electoral process. But with another of Harper’sskeletons clattering out of the closet last earlier this month, one wonderswhether it’s more than just Liberal smoke and mirrors when it comes tothe right-wing bogeyman.

In an eight-year-old speech (which received very little coverage or commentary in the corporate media) that Conservative Party strategistTim Powers tried to spin as nothing more than a tongue-in-cheek laugheron par with the sort of wit displayed at the annual press gallerydinners, Harper expressed a side of himself recently forgotten.

Aside from the undesirability of ever subjecting people to thesort of wit expressed at such dinners and the need to leave humour inthe hands of comedians and not stilted politicians who chuckle at amoderately well-turned pun, this speech was not humour, nor jest, but apublic expression of a man enamored with a political movement and socialfocus that would appall most Canadians.

Speaking to a crowd whose members would make even the mostradical of Conservatives and former Reformers seem like mild-manneredCommunists, Harper comes across as a man not terribly proud of his owncountry; in fact, he seems disdainful of much that it represents.

Hecalls us a welfare state, second tier, a land where unemployed peoplehappily live on the public dole. We are “basically an English-speakingcountry,” with a French-speaking minority throwing dirt in the gears ofgovernment. We consider things like universal health care and women’srights fundamental, ideas that apparently would horrify his audiencewhom he calls “a light and an inspiration to people in this country andacross the world.”

I would be very surprised if many in this country would everconsider the Council for National Policy an inspiration, save for a fewevangelicals who might like to see church and state find their way backinto the same room.

Referred to by some as a “think tank,” the CNP is a collectionof diehard conservatives and religious fundamentalists who are alreadymaking many Americans fear for their First Amendment rights. Expressingand financially supporting views that have been at the heart of aresurgence of Republican power in the U.S., this group represents muchthat is right (forgive the pun), if you’re Stephen Harper, but much thatis very wrong if you have an ounce of social compassion.

Since Harper’s speech in 1997, the United States has movedsteadily towards a policy of tax cuts, and more tax cuts. The idea hasalways been an unproven one: that putting money in the hands of themiddle class will lead to prosperity for all. The sad fact is, it hasgone quite the other way in the U.S., with an increased stratification ofrich and poor, spiraling debt, and a devalued dollar, along with socialand foreign policies that few in Canada would ever consider “aninspiration.”

Stephen Harper quipped that the NDP is “proof that the Devillives and interferes in the affairs of men.” It’s hard to imagine aDevil promoting affordable housing, education, social conscience,women’s rights, gay rights, minority rights, daycare or health care.

The Devil may be in the details, but not in the policies.It’s an observation that I suspect is still lost on the newHarper, or at least the Republican behind the costume.