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Hon. Stephen Joseph Harper

Rank:	34th Leader of the Official Opposition
	22nd Prime Minister-designate of Canada.
Terms of Office:	May 21, 2002 – January 8, 2004;March 20, 2004 ?
Birth:	April 30, 1959
Place of Birth:	Toronto, Ontario
Spouse:	Laureen Harper
Profession:	Economist
Political Party:	Conservative
Religion:	Christian Missionary Alliance

This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.

Stephen Joseph Harper, PC, MP, MA (born April 30, 1959) is leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition; as of January 23, 2006, he is the Prime Minister-designate of Canada.

As one of the founding members of the Reform Party, he served as an MP from 1993 to 1997 before leaving to head the National Citizens Coalition. After the ouster of leader Stockwell Day in 2002, Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance. In 2003, he successfully reached an agreement with Tory leader Peter MacKay to merge the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservatives. In March 2004, Harper was elected leader of the new Conservative Party. Following the January 2006 federal election, the Conservative Party is expected to form a minority government, and Harper to become the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada within a few weeks. [1]. He is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Calgary Southwest.

Background

Harper was born and raised in Toronto and attended Richview Collegiate Institute before finding employment in the oil and gas industry in Alberta in his early twenties. He attended the University of Calgary, receiving a Masters degree in economics. His links to the university remain strong: he was a frequent lecturer and his most prominent policy advisor, Tom Flanagan, is a professor there. Harper married Laureen Teskey in 1991. They have two children: Benjamin, born in 1996, and Rachel, born in 1999.

He first became involved in politics as a teenager in high school, serving as a member of his school’s Young Liberals Club. However, Harper’s political allegiance changed in opposition to the Trudeau Liberal government’s National Energy Program, which he thought was harming Alberta’s energy industry. In 1985, he became chief aide to Tory MP James Hawkes, and served with Hawkes on several House Committees. But he quickly became disillusioned with the government of Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (PC Party). Harper was especially critical of the government’s fiscal policy and inability to fully revoke the NEP until 1986. He left the PC Party in 1986.

He was recommended to Preston Manning, the founder and leader of the Reform Party, by one of Harper’s professors, Tom Flanagan. The young man impressed Manning, who invited him to participate in the party. At age 28, he gave an important speech at Reform’s 1987 founding convention in Winnipeg, and is credited with creating the party’s 1988 election platform and coining the party’s campaign slogan “The West Wants In!”

In the 1988 federal election, Harper ran for a House of Commons seat in Calgary, but lost by a wide margin to Hawkes, his former employer. In 1989, Harper was named executive assistant to newly elected Reform MP Deborah Grey and served as her chief advisor and speech writer until 1993. Harper’s electoral fortunes improved in the 1993 election, in which he defeated Hawkes to win the riding of Calgary West for the Reform Party. Harper quickly became one of the core members of the Reform caucus. In Parliament, Harper became known as a staunch fiscal conservative and federalist but was moderate on social values issues; for instance, he was one of only two Reform MPs to vote in favour of the Canadian gun registry.

Citing concerns with the leadership style and political positions of Preston Manning and a concern that the Reform Party was being hijacked by social conservative special interest groups, Harper left his seat before the 1997 election to serve as vice-president, then as president, of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), a conservative think-tank and advocacy group. With the NCC, Harper launched an ultimately unsuccessful legal battle against federal election laws restricting third-party advertising. Harper also served briefly as a political commentator on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1998, Harper was solicited by the PC Party’s influential “Blue Tory Committee” and Tory MPs Jim Jones and John Herron to seek the recently vacated leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party as a United Alternative candidate. Harper ultimately declined, concerned that his Reform colleagues would view him as a traitor. After the Canadian Alliance‘s poor showing in the 2000 election, a disappointed Harper joined with other western conservatives in co-authoring a document titled the Alberta Agenda. The letter called on Alberta to reform publicly-funded health care, replace the Canada Pension Plan with a similar provincial plan and replace the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with a provincial police force. The document became known as the “firewall letter” because it called on the Alberta government to “build firewalls around Alberta” to prevent the federal government from redistributing the province’s wealth to other parts of Canada.[2] This was portrayed as encouragement for Albertan separation by some of his political detractors.

Canadian Alliance leadership

When Stockwell Day bowed to pressure from within the Canadian Alliance and resigned from the leadership in the summer of 2001, Harper stood as a candidate in the subsequent leadership election. In the vote on March 20, 2002, Harper defeated Day on the first ballot to become leader of the Alliance. He became Leader of the Opposition after returning to Parliament in a by-election in May 2002.

Later that month, Harper stated that the Atlantic Provinces have “a culture of defeat that we have to overcome,” calling it “a sad reality the traditional parties have bred in parts of Atlantic Canada.” The PC-controlled Legislature of Nova Scotia unanimously approved a motion condemning the remark, and was joined by New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord and federal Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark. While saying that his remarks were taken out of context and that he merely meant Atlantic Canadians feel despondent because of being ignored in Ottawa, Harper later apologized for any offense the remarks might have caused.

His first 18 months as opposition leader were largely devoted towards consolidating the fractured elements of the Canadian Alliance, challenging the agenda of the Liberal government, and encouraging a union of the Canadian Alliance and the federal Progressive Conservatives. The aim of this union was to present only one right-of-centre national party in the next federal election, thus preventing the vote-splitting of the past. After reaching an agreement with Peter MacKay in October 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada officially merged in December, with the new party being named the “Conservative Party of Canada“.

Conservative Party of Canada leadership

On January 12, 2004, Harper announced his resignation as Leader of the Opposition, in order to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper won the Conservative leadership election easily, with a first ballot majority against Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement on March 20, 2004. Harper’s victory included sweeping many Ontario ridings, strong showings in many Quebec ridings, and surprising results in Atlantic Canada where he won many ridings with a strong grassroots organization.

2004 federal election

Harper led the Conservatives during the 2004 federal election, where it was widely believed he had a chance to defeat Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin. After an immensely damaging release by the Auditor General regarding the government’s lack of oversight of the Sponsorship Program of the 1990s and what some observers considered voter anger in Ontario against Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty for breaking a promise not to raise taxes, polls showed the Conservatives in a dead heat with the Liberals.

Late in the campaign, the Conservatives began to attract negative attention for controversial remarks made by MPs and candidates regarding homosexuality, official bilingualism and abortion. Additionally, the Liberal Party began airing controversial TV attack ads suggesting that the Conservatives would make Canada more like the United States in negative ways. Harper was also criticized for his position supporting the American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. The term “hidden agenda”, used commonly in the 2000 election to refer to Stockwell Day, began surfacing with increasing regularity with regard to Harper’s history of supporting privatized health care. Harper in turn claimed that the Liberals were running an “American-style campaign” of scare tactics and were trying to “wrap scandal in the Canadian flag”. The momentum began to swing against his party, although some polls suggested it was neck and neck right up until election day.

The Conservative Party was successful in gaining seats in Ontario, where the Reform Party and Canadian Alliance had never been able to make significant gains, but Martin was re-elected with a minority government and 135 seats. The Conservatives finished in second-place with 99 seats. While the Conservatives had improved on the 72 seats they held entering the election, the party took 29.6% of the popular vote, down from the 37.7% combined total of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives in 2000. Harper maintained support from most party members because he was credited with bringing the Progressive Conservative Party and Canadian Alliance together to fight a close election in a short time. Further, the election of a new leader during a minority parliament was not seen as strategically feasible.

Harper as Conservative leader and Leader of the Opposition

Harper has been called a “policy wonk” by his friends and an “ideologue” by his detractors. Observers have suggested that he has recently sought to refine his image to appear more moderate and to appeal to a wider range of the electorate. Although the public image of Mr. Harper is overwhelmingly that of a stiff and unemotional man, many of his colleagues surprisingly report that he has a charming sense of humour and even a well liked candour. He has previously shown a talent for performing impressions of other politicians, such as: Preston Manning, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien, John McCallum, and even California Governor and famous actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Conservative Party’s first policy convention was held from March 17-19, 2005, in Montreal. A more moderate party stance was demonstrated, in accordance with what many viewed as Harper’s goal. Any opposition to abortion or bilingualism was dropped from the Conservative platform, though the party was still opposed to same-sex marriage. Harper received an 84% endorsement from delegates in the leadership review.

Under Harper, the Conservative party has sought to make the sponsorship scandal, ethics and Liberal corruption as the central issues in Canadian politics.

The party’s fight against same-sex marriage has been controversial. Canadians are evenly divided on the issue, but the Conservative base is fairly supportive of the traditional definition of marriage with three out of four delegates wishing to maintain it. Harper has been criticized by a group of law professors for arguing that the government could over-ride the provincial court rulings without using the “notwithstanding clause“, a provision of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In contrast, Harper and constitutional lawyer/Conservative Justice Critic Vic Toews suggest that this clause does not have to be used to enshrine the traditional definition of marriage. Harper’s position to provide same-sex couples with the same rights as married couples via civil unions was recently endorsed as constitutional by the law firm Lang Michener. The Supreme Court of Canada specifically declined to pronounce itself on whether reinstating the traditional definition of marriage would be unconstitutional. (Source: Reference re Same-sex marriage, [2004] 3 S.C.R. 698 [3])

Following the April 2005 release of Jean Brault‘s damaging testimony at the Gomery Inquiry, implicating the Liberals in extensive corruption, many opinion polls placed the Conservatives considerably ahead of Liberals. The Conservatives had earlier abstained from the vote on the 2005 budget, as it was clear Canadians were not interested in an election. With the collapse in Liberal support and the controversial NDP amendment to the budget, the party exerted significant pressure on Harper to bring down the government.

In May, Harper announced that the government had lost the “moral authority to govern”, and vowed to “put [the] government out of its misery”. The Bloc Qu?b?cois agreed to follow suit, while the NDP supported the government due to the amended budget. This effort to bring down the government failed following the decision of prominent and popular Conservative MP Belinda Stronach to cross the floor to the Liberal Party. This move was controversial, and was viewed as opportunistic by conservative observers. Liberals labelled the Conservatives as “in bed with the separatists”, and thus unpatriotic, while the Conservatives accused the Liberal Party of criminal activity in offering a member of Parliament a cabinet position in exchange for crossing the floor. The May 19 second reading budget vote passed with Conservative support. However, the NDP amendment to the budget tied rather than failing to pass by one vote (because of Stronach’s defection and the support of the independent members). With the Speaker of the House voting to continue debate (following parliamentary precedent), the Liberal Party continued to remain in power.

Harper was also criticized for supporting his caucus colleague MP Gurmant Grewal. Grewal had produced tapes of conversations with Tim Murphy, Paul Martin’s chief of staff, in which Grewal claimed he had been offered a cabinet position in exchange for his defection. Some experts analyzed the tapes and concluded that a digital copy of the tapes had been edited.

In early June 2005, the Conservative Party announced that Harper was embarking on a summer tour, consisting of barbecues, photo ops, and similar events, with the aim of allowing Canadians to get to know the Conservative leader personally. In early July, five members of Harper’s communications team resigned. Harper’s critics suggested that this was an indication of unrest in the Conservative Party, while the Conservatives maintained this was simply a change of guard and pointed towards similar Liberal communications staff shake-ups in 2004.

On Thursday, November 24, Harper introduced a motion of no confidence on the Liberal government. The vote on the motion took place on Monday, November 28. As the Liberals had lost NDP support by refusing to accept an NDP plan to prevent health care privatization, the no confidence motion was passed by a vote of 171-133. Harper led the Conservatives into an election, scheduled for January 23, 2006, the fate of which may determine his future as leader of the Conservative Party as well as that of Prime Minister Paul Martin‘s leadership of the Liberal Party if either fails to lead their party to victory.

2006 federal election

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Stephen Harper started off the first month of the campaign with a positive approach making a policy-per-day announcement. This came as a surprise to most media, because they believed he would focus on the sponsorship scandal. The Liberals were opting to hold any major announcements until after the Christmas holidays. As a result of Harper making these announcements virtually unopposed by the Liberals he dominated media coverage for the first weeks of the campaign. Though his party showed only modest movement in the polls, Harper’s personal numbers, which had always trailed his party’s significantly, began to rise relatively rapidly.

On December 27, 2005, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Canada’s federal police force), announced it was investigating Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale‘s office for potentially engaging in insider trading before making an important announcement on the taxation of income trusts. This revelation and the refusal of Goodale to step aside during the investigation dominated news coverage for the following week and this allowed Harper to refocus on his previous attacks about what he called Liberal corruption due to this, the sponsorship scandal and other questionable parts of the Liberal record. Harper’s Conservative Party soon found itself leading in the polls.

In the 2004 election, when the Conservatives had briefly led the Liberals, many Canadians did not trust Harper so the Liberals responded by running negative ads suggesting Harper had a hidden agenda. In response to the Conservative lead the Liberals again launched these sorts of ads in the 2006 campaign; however, Harper’s numbers had risen considerably and polls found he was now considered more trustworthy than Liberal leader Paul Martin and the ads were not as convincing. Worse yet for the Liberals, one ad that was not intended to air was erroneously posted on their website and released to the media with the other ads. This ad insinuated that Harper would place armed Canadian soldiers on the streets of major cities and that this would be a dangerous thing. This was in response to a Conservative pledge to put troops on the ready for aid to the civil power in the case of a natural disaster. This ad, and the negative reaction to it by military watches, Conservatives, and some prominent Liberals, became the news story for several days and the sting was taken out of the other ads.

The Liberal campaign became the focus of mockery by the press and Harper following this and Harper’s campaign continues to proceed without any major gaffe.

Stephen Harper is the Prime Minister-designate as of January 23, 2006. It is expected that he will be sworn in as prime minister by the Governor-General of Canada within a few weeks.