You’ll have to forgive the flippancy of the of the header.

Actually, no, fuck it. Don’t forgive it.

You see, I have a theory.

It goes like this - Stephen Harper doesn’t give a shit what the media thinks.

Okay, that’s not really a theory. That’s well documented.

Try this - Stephen Harper doesn’t give a shit what the media thinks because the media has never been kind to him and he has trust issues.

Now we’re getting somewhere.

You see, my theory is that Stephen Harper is the first Prime Minister to be completely independent of the obsessive-compulsive sport of constantly stressing over what is on the front page of the Globe & Mail. One need only read Lawrence Martin's Harperland to see - he stopped caring long ago.

On this budget, as I pointed out in my last post, there has been no column inch spared in the quest to admonish Harper for his crusade against Canadian values or whatever.

You see, this whole thing stems back to 1993. The left-wing journalist intelligentsia from Toronto (i.e. all of the media) had decided that the Reform Party was unbecoming of Canada. Jean Chretien, they had decided, was the man to lead the country. Preston Manning was an American-styled whack-job.

Whatever truth may lie in that analysis is irrelevant. What is important is that a young Stephen Harper was fuming - undoubtedly scrunching his fists in balls of anger, banging them on desks and asking for the exile of various Communist agents.

His distrust for the media - stemming that far back - his chiseled the disgruntled leader we see before us. It’s a leader so indulging in his own communications machine that he gives not two flying fucks what the brianiack press has to say. The press, I think he would contend, is a mere offshoot of the Liberal/NDP liberal arts academia world that has been out to get him for decades.

And that’s why he doesn’t care what you say about his budget.

Previous to this month, Harper could do no wrong. No matter the crisis, the boondoggle, the gaffe or the misstep, his poll numbers remained steady. If anything; they rose. His media relations regime was flawless - give them a little. If they like you: give them a little more. If they don’t: fuck ‘em. That tactic netted him such faithful followers as the never-can-he-do-wrong SUN/Quebecor chain, a few small (mostly rural) hangers-on and an election-time endorsement from the Globe & Mail. They did not care especially for his policies, but instead for his rhetoric.

One wonders if the media hadn’t been so critical of Harper from the outset if they might’ve had a more constructive role in shaping his government. Then again, that would likely compromise the very integrity of the institution as a whole. Maybe it’s for the best.

Now those papers, or at least the big ones, have developed amnesia over their past support for the sitting PM. Their acrimony is drowned out only by their outrage. 

Which brings us back to the budget. 

Harper, no doubt, thought - and knew full well - that he could get away with this budget. Any poor analysis, any criticism or outrage, could be managed easily and could be dispatched without much hassle.

This time, it seems, the tipping point may have spilled over.

Previous PMs - even for the then-governing Liberals - had passed big, bad budget bills. Opposition swells, then dissipates.

The swell, it seems, has not caught up with this government in five years.

Harper, it seems, is finally being swept.

Side-stepping the press has worked for awhile. It worked when our economic recovery was truly fragile and Her Majesty’s Official Opposition was fractured. Now there is a united front against this government’s budget and the media maelstrom is raging. Several concessions have already been made. Several ministers’s titles have garnered the prefix 'embattled.’ Poll numbers have tanked.

While Harper’s disgust for the media may be as constant as ever, he may finally face the reckoning that comes along with crossing the broad populace. He may be forced to face a more powerful opposition than which he faced in a minority government. He may be forced to accept the criticisms of the fourth estate and govern himself accordingly.

Or, perhaps, he’ll double down.