VIDEO: Stephen Harper & Joe Lonsdale on over-reaction to the "pandemic and economic crisis" and the illiberalism of "wokeness"

When I began this blog in 2009, The Prez was (supposedly) running the Excited States of America, and Stephen Harper was Prime Minister of Canuckistan. The former was and is an extreme liberal. The latter held himself out as a conservative, but only just. I disliked both of them intensely, and started WWW to let my feelings be known to anyone who cared to read.

In retrospect, I was too hard on Mr Harper, whose general nastiness led me to call him "Steve Harpoon". Compared with his successor -- Blackie McBlackface, PM of Canuckistan -- I recognize that Mr Harpoon was an exemplar of good judgment [What about the appointment of Mike Puffy to the Senate? Ed.] whose thoughts on the current "pandemic and economic crisis" (his phrase) deserve to be listened to by both Canadians and Americans.

In this 39-minute episode of Joe Lonsdale's American Optimist podcast, Mr Harper accuses the Canadian government of spending irresponsibly in its attempt to fend off the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. "It's not a good reaction, it's been overkill. This is bad macroeconomic policy on an enormous scale." 

He touches on a wide range of topics, including Canada's response to the pandemic, the rise of "woke" culture and the dangers of an emboldened China on the world stage. Give a listen. 

 

If you skipped over the video link to keep reading, I urge you to go back and listen, especially to the part of the interview in which Mr Harper takes aim at the "woke university crowd" for its attempts to tear down American and Western values. "I'm just fascinated by this notion that is just everywhere now, the so-called woke notion that America is a fundamentally racist country. And yet what I see is all of these supposedly repressed races trying desperately to become Americans and to join the United States.  

"It's not that there aren't problems, historical and present, that are real, but the core of our countries are great, they have great futures and there is no alternative," said Mr Harper, explaining that the modern political left has become "entirely nihilist" and appears more interested in tearing down existing systems than in upholding and improving upon traditional democratic values. "There are elements in our own countries," he said, "which do not want us to succeed!"

Disclaimer: We should point out that Joe Lonsdale is the founder of 8VC, a venture capital firm of which Mr Harper has been a director since 2017.