Stephen Harper Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Early Years and Family
Stephen Harper was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1959, and grew up in the suburbs of Leaside and Etobicoke. Following graduation from high school, he moved to Alberta to work briefly in the oil industry, and then entered post-secondary studies at the University of Calgary. In 1991, Harper married Laureen Teskey, and together they have two children.
Academia & Conservative Ideology
In the 1980s, Harper studied at the University of Calgary, where he graduated with a Master’s degree in Economics. At the University of Calgary, Harper was exposed to several political ideologies that have played a major role in the development of modern Canadian conservatism. The first of these was neo-liberalism, or right-wing liberalism, which favours a limited role for government in a nation’s social and economic development. This form of liberalism was espoused at the time by those such as noted US economist Milton Friedman, and by conservative politicians, such as Ronald Reagan in the United States, and Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom.
The second political ideology was Western alienation, which argues that the interests of Central Canada, and particularly the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, dominate Canadian national politics. Western Canadian interests, on the other hand, are often given second billing or are completely disregarded in national policy. One of the formative moments of Western alienation was Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program, which sought to stabilize national energy supplies and prices through federal regulation of the oil and gas sector in Western Canada.
Searching for a Party: From Tory to Reformer
Harper first entered politics in 1985, when he became chief aide to Jim Hawkes, a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament for the constituency of Calgary West. This was during the period of the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, and the introduction of many neo-liberal ideas into Canadian government policy and process. Harper’s relationship with the Progressive Conservatives, however, was short-lived, as he became disillusioned with the Party and resigned as Hawke’s chief aide in 1986.
In 1987, Harper re-entered national politics with the newly formed Reform Party of Canada. The Reform Party was created during a period in which the Progressive Conservative coalition of Western populists, Quebec nationalists, and so-called Red Tories in Atlantic Canada was beginning to fracture. The Reform Party was created by Western conservatives who were discontented with the Progressive Conservative government’s alleged favouritism of Quebec, lack of fiscal responsibility, and failure to respond to Western concerns and interests. Over the course of its development, the Reform Party took on a complex mix of neo-liberalism on fiscal issues, social conservatism on moral issues, and Western alienation on issues of federalism.
Harper began his association with the Reform Party when he was recommended to its leader, Preston Manning. Manning invited Harper to make a speech at the Party’s founding convention in 1987, and later made him his chief policy officer. Harper is credited with having a major influence on the Reform Party’s 1988 election platform, which stressed, among other things, the importance of giving a greater voice to Western Canada in Canadian politics.
In the 1988 federal election, Harper ran as a Reform Party candidate against his former employer, Progressive Conservative Jim Hawkes, but was soundly defeated. In 1989, Harper was named executive assistant to Deborah Grey, the Reform Party’s only elected Member of Parliament, serving as her chief advisor and speechwriter. In 1993, Harper ran again as a Reform candidate, this time defeating Hawkes to win the constituency of Calgary West. During his tenure, Harper differed with his party on some key policy issues; in 1995, for example, he was one of only two Reform MPs to vote in favour of federal legislation requiring owners to register their guns.
Political Lobbyist and Commentator
Harper only served one term as a Reform MP. In 1997 he left the Party to become President of the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative think-tank and lobby group that advocates free enterprise, free speech, and government that is accountable to its taxpayers.
In his reasons for leaving politics, Harper cited a desire to speak his mind more freely than he could as a Member of Parliament. His departure, however, may have been motivated by differences in political strategies. In 1995, Tom Flanagan, a University of Calgary political science professor and close Harper advisor, published the book Waiting for the Wave: The Reform Party and Preston Manning, in which he suggested that Harper was critical of Manning for pursuing a Western Canada-based strategy for winning government. For Harper, conservatism would not be won solely with the support of Western Canadians; his view was that support would also have to be garnered in Central Canada.
With the National Citizens Coalition, Harper played the role of a right-wing political lobbyist and advocate. One initiative he undertook was to attack new federal legislation that placed restrictions on political advertising of private interest groups during federal elections. Harper took the federal government to court over the legislation, arguing that it violated constitutional rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, and the right to vote. The case of R. v. Harper was eventually heard by the Supreme Court of Canada, which upheld the legislation, concluding it was constitutional under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Harper also continued to comment on the general direction of Canadian politics. In 2001, Harper, with five other Alberta right-wing politicians and academics, published an open letter to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, titled The Alberta Agenda. In this letter, the group urged the Province to build a “firewall” around Alberta to limit the extent to which an “aggressive and hostile” federal government could encroach upon provincial jurisdiction. Specific recommendations included Alberta’s withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan (and the instituting of a provincial replacement), provincial collection of personal income tax, creation of a provincial police force to replace the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), resumption of provincial responsibility over health care policy, and a push for Senate reform as a major national agenda issue.
Uniting the Right: Harper and the New Conservative Party
In 2002, Harper left the National Citizens Coalition to run for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance Party (formerly the Reform Party of Canada). Harper defeated fellow conservatives Diane Ablonczy, Grant Hill, and former leader Stockwell Day, to become the new leader of the Party. He was returned to Parliament in May 2002, after winning a by-election in the constituency of Calgary Southwest.
At the time of Harper’s selection to leader, conservative politics in Canada was highly fractured. There were two federal conservative parties, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, both competing for support among voters. Moreover, strong divisions within the Canadian Alliance Party itself had emerged, as several caucus members, including Deborah Grey, the first Reform MP, had left the Party over ideological disagreements with former leader Stockwell Day, and joined a coalition with the Progressive Conservatives.
Early in his leadership, Harper worked towards consolidating these various conservative elements, beginning by first tackling the fractures within his own party. By April 2002, all but one of the dissidents who had left the Progressive Conservative coalition returned to the Canadian Alliance. From then, there was the greater issue about how to end the vote-splitting between the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives. Initial talks that were held ended unsuccessfully. However, an agreement was subsequently reached in October 2003, following Peter McKay’s replacement of Joe Clark as leader of the PC Party. The two parties united formally, in December 2003, as the Conservative Party of Canada. In 2004, Harper was selected leader of the new Conservative Party, defeating newcomer Belinda Stronach (who had helped to broker the merger deal between the two parties), and former Ontario provincial conservative Tony Clement for the position.
Harper’s Conservatism & Election Success
With conservatives united under the single banner of the Conservative Party, the question today is whether Harper can take them to government. Since becoming leader, Harper has overseen a reshaping of the conservative image into a more moderate form. In the Party’s first policy convention, held in March 2005, opposition to abortion and bilingualism were rejected in the official Conservative platform. The Party, however, has kept its position on same-sex marriage, supporting civil unions instead.
Also notable is the absence of a strong message on Western alienation. In 1988, Harper and the Reform Party positioned themselves as champions of Western Canada, running on the slogan “The West Wants In!” While Western alienation may still be a core value, Harper and the new Conservative Party are no longer presenting themselves simply as Western dissidents seeking to radically change Canadian federalism.
The movement towards a more moderate Conservative Party under Harper carries with it both opportunities and risks. On the one hand, it could result in greater electoral successes in Ontario, a province which is vital to winning government in Canada. On the other hand, there is the danger that Ontario voters might view the new image of conservatism as simply that – an image. During the 2004 general election, for example, the Liberal Party was very successful in painting the Conservative Party, and Mr. Harper, as having a hidden agenda . Another concern is that, as Harper steers the Party into moderation, he could lose traditional bases of support among the social conservatives, right-wing liberals, and Western dissidents who view conservative politics in terms of reform and change.
For more information on Stephen Harper:
• Mapleleafweb: 2002 Canadian Alliance Leadership Race
• Mapleleafweb: The Conservative Party of Canada
• Conservative Party of Canada: Stephen Harper Biography
Over 20 candidates and members of Parliament for the Conservative Party of Canada, including leader Stephen Harper, Justice Critic Vic Toews, Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day and Firearms Critic Garry Breitkreuz, have links to organizations established under the umbrella of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an American group that the New York Times calls a “club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country,” and which Rolling Stone reports has “funnelled billions of dollars to right-wing Christian activists.” Visit http://harperstiestousa.org/ for more on this one!