As vaccination rates in Canada and the United States increase, governments should focus on economic recovery but at the same time be wary of the far-left elements in society that seek to tear down Western democracies, says former prime minster Stephen Harper. “This crisis really has been unique and very different and more complicated than [any] time before. This is a combination pandemic and an economic crisis, the solutions for one often being contrary to the solutions for the other,” Harper said on American Optimist, a podcast hosted by U.S. entrepreneur Joe Lonsdale. The solution to the post-pandemic economic recovery is to “run strong market-oriented economic policy” to allow the private sector to recover, said Harper, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2015, and successfully steered Canada through the 2008-2009 financial crisis. He recalled that during the crisis, his government resorted to economic stimulus to stabilize the economy. In …