Harper’s Ghost Is Back And It’s Wearing a Pierre Poilievre Mask

Monday, April 7- Just south of Edmonton, Pierre Poilievre is holding a political rally and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to take the stage to introduce him. For many, it’s not just a passing of the torch; it’s a chilling reminder of what Harper’s Canada looked like, and a warning of what could be coming.

Poilievre often invokes Harper’s name with reverence. He served under him. He imitates him. He channels his style tight control of messaging, disdain for the press, and authoritarian tendencies masked as “discipline.” But Canadians who remember Harper’s years in office know how dangerous that legacy truly was.

Harper’s government was infamous for its aggressive control over the media. He only granted access to select outlets and required every question to be pre-screened in advance, effectively silencing any form of real accountability. That same iron grip extended to federal scientists, who were barred from speaking publicly or publishing their work without direct political approval. Entire research programs particularly those related to conservation and climate were gutted. Data libraries, housing decades of environmental research, were destroyed. In a country that prides itself on evidence-based policy, Harper waged war on science.

His politics often veered into racial dog-whistle territory. During a 2015 federal debate, Harper referred to some citizens as “old stock Canadians” a phrase widely condemned as a subtle but unmistakable nod to white nationalism. It implied that white, settler-descended Canadians were somehow more authentically Canadian than immigrants or racial minorities. He never apologized for it. He doubled down.

The same year, his government proposed a “barbaric cultural practices” tip line a dystopian, fear-fueled plan that encouraged Canadians to report their neighbours to the police if they suspected cultural or religious activity they didn’t understand. It was framed as a public safety initiative, but it was little more than state-sanctioned Islamophobia. It turned Muslim Canadians and anyone who “looked” different into potential suspects in their own communities.

Even more terrifying was Harper’s Anti-Terrorism Act, Bill C-51, which gave Canada’s intelligence agency, CSIS, sweeping new powers. Under this law, people could be detained without cause, surveilled without a warrant, and monitored simply for being suspected of “promoting terrorism in general.” The language was vague on purpose. It was designed to criminalize dissent. Activists, journalists, Indigenous land defenders anyone who posed a threat to Harper’s vision of the state suddenly found themselves under watch. If Harper were Prime Minister today, it's not hard to imagine pro-Palestinian protesters being rounded up under this law.

And Harper’s authoritarian leanings weren’t limited to Canada. He maintains close ties with far-right figures like Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, who has been widely condemned for dismantling democratic institutions, jailing political opponents, eroding judicial independence, and turning his country into what many describe as a soft dictatorship. Harper hasn’t just stayed silent he’s praised him.

One of Harper’s most dangerous moves came in 2012, when he secretly signed the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement FIPA while in Russia. There was no public debate, no parliamentary discussion, and no transparency. The deal locked Canada into a 31-year agreement that allows Chinese corporations to sue the Canadian government in secret tribunals if any law, environmental, Indigenous, or otherwise threatens their profits. Canadians would never even know the lawsuits were happening. There is no exit clause. It’s widely regarded as one of the greatest threats to Canadian sovereignty ever signed.

Meanwhile, Harper floated dismantling the Senate and pushed through voter suppression legislation with Pierre Poilievre laws that were condemned around the world for limiting access to the ballot box and weakening Canadian democracy.

So when Stephen Harper takes the stage tonight to endorse Pierre Poilievre, we should all pay close attention. This is not just a reunion. It’s not nostalgia. It’s a warning. Poilievre doesn’t just admire Harper he is Harper, reborn and repackaged for a new era. But the agenda remains the same: control the press, silence dissent, demonize outsiders, and hollow out the democratic institutions that protect us all.

Harper’s return to the spotlight is not ceremonial. It’s strategic. And if Canadians aren’t careful, it may be the beginning of something much darker.