The tide has turned. It's taken a long time, but a pesky, onerous belief system has finally been shown the door.

Curmudgeons and crankypants are now getting their dues, thanks to the silent revolution of Stephen Harper. Not in our backyard is a great battlecry for a nation that has gone NIMBY.

But first, let's retrace some steps.

A few generations ago, it seemed the children of the Great Depression sought to set a new path and put the fear of a cold decade behind them.

My parents lived what were typical lives at the time - my mom, the daughter of a Vancouver grocery clerk, and father, the 11th child of 16 from a wind-scrubbed Saskatchewan farm, grew up, signed on

for the unknown during the second war to end all wars, and then settled down.

Like so many of their generation, their rarely spoken hope was that the next generation wouldn't have to face the same chilling hardships as they did.

Along the way this kind of thinking was acted on by the politicians, who implemented and bolstered Canada's social safety net, establishing new programs and welcoming new Canadians from virtually all corners of the globe.

My parents and others emerged from the early 20th century with hard work and diligence, succeeding sometimes and struggling often. But they could claim victory on that singular hope.

They came to expect their elected leaders to speak to and for them. Some would even take difficult positions into a vocal den of opponents - like Lester Pearson did when presenting his case for a new flag before a crowd of pro-Red Ensign veterans - and pitched debate and disagreement as part of a healthy discourse.

Now we know better. Making things better for future generations has been shown to be a mug's game. Having a dream is one thing, but sharing it with others is risky business. Stephen Harper understands that talking with the citizenry is a waste of two cents - soon to be rounded up to a nickel.

How to win over popular opinion on increasing the age of eligibility for retirement benefits? Why not leak it to the press in Switzerland and let them bear the news back home? Need to trim some governmental spending while maintaining the largest PMO staff in Canadian history? Stripping health benefits from refugees is as good a place as any - after all, immigrants 100 years ago did with a lot less and often survived.

Before he was prime minister, Stephen Harper had plenty of opinions. We were too soft and too socialist. Canada was a push-over; friend of many and beholden to too few. If our neighbour wanted to go to war, we hemmed and hawed just a little too much for his liking. Now, he's parked his opinions and quietly brought us around to his way of thinking.

In international circles the Maple Leaf no longer represents a calming, peace-keeping people. Today, we're just as blustery as our superpowered amigos.

When he needed to defend the interests of big oil corporations, Harper had his natural resources minister take a unique point of attack - by claiming the rabble-rousing environmentalists were beholden to "foreigners." China's leaders, who are currently enacting their own National Energy Program upon our natural resources, must of loved that one.

Running a nation is really no different than marketing a risky pipeline project. Start with the soft tones and pretty pictures, and go silent if any hard questions come your way. The largest deficit in Canadian history? Hey, look at all our pretty signs!

Yes, our prime minister has made major strides in restoring the reactionary balance by emancipating statistical relevance in political decision making and evoking the tactics of the 1974 Philadelphia Flyers on his political opponents.

What high school bully hasn't taken credit for the good achievements of a predecessor, and mocked unmercilessly the bad ones?

Certainly some who survived the Depression must have learned that to the victor go the spoils. And they taste twice as good that way, too. To misquote a 1950s cartoon, "We have seen the enemy, and it is you."

For those at the back of the line, enjoy your Freedom 67. Canada is back. And continues to go back with a vengeance.

Dan Olson is the Coquitlam NOW sports editor, who on occasion thinks before he speaks.