More perspective on Stephen Harper's economic performance - without the spin

This week's Report On Business, the business magazine of the Globe and Mail, contains an important extended article called "The Great Economist" by respected Globe columnist Lawrence Martin, who has also published books on Stephen Harper, Jean Chrétien, Lucien Bouchard, etc.
The article is a scathing and damning summary of Harper's actual (as opposed to claimed) economic record, and of his repressive and controlling management style. It should be required reading, particularly for the very businessmen the magazine is aimed at, most of whom are probably sold on the myth of Tory economic superiority, and who are probably planning on voting Conservative again.
The article relies heavily on testimony from the non-partisan civil servants and journalists (and even ex-Conservative Ministers) who have had to work with the Harper government, and particularly with the tightly-controlled and media-obsessed politburo that is the modern PMO (Prime Minister's Office). It does not contain any great new revelations, but it does a good job of bringing together evidence from Harper's ten years in power and putting it all in context, without the intervention of positive spin from the Tory message-massaging machine. And what it reveals is not pretty.
Just a few snippets to whet your appetites:
"Statistics could be found to prove or disprove most any theory one wanted. It was all about who had the biggest megaphones."
"All of their economic policies became instrumentalized towards getting them re-elected."
"Governing was turned into an around-the-clock marketing enterprise."
"The Tories made great political mileage with the measure they were forced into...But they had inherited a sound banking and regulatory system as well as a $13-billion surplus and the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio since the 1970s."
"Flaherty's budget bills were turned into sweeping omnibus bills containing hundreds of clauses and measures...scrutiny at the committee level was further short-circuited by the Tories' use, in degrees rarely seen, of closure, time limitations, in-camera sessions and heavy-handed tactics to block witnesses."
"It wasn't just the left that questioned the wisdom of some of the cuts. The GST reduction was roundly denounced by mainstream economists."
But, better still, read the full article.