Stephen Harper
The Amazing Rise of Stephen Harper and The New West
(22nd)
Date Elected to Parliament: |
November 21, 1988 |
Date of Maiden Speech: |
January 20, 1994 |
Date Sworn In: |
February 6, 2006 |
Date Left Office: |
November 3, 2015 |
No Prime Minister in modern Canadian history can match Stephen Harper’s194 spectacular rise to political power. Harper constructed his own political party in modern times as his launching pad to political power, the only federal leader to do so in the 20th century
Born of English stock in Leaside, a pleasant suburb in the east end of Toronto in 1959, he came from a middle-class Liberal family. His father was a World War II veteran and then a successful executive of Imperial Oil. When the family fortunes improved, the family moved to the more comfortable western suburb of Toronto in Etobicoke. There, Harper went to public school, joined the student Young Liberals and then onto University of Toronto where he commenced his studies in economics and political science. His passion was, and is, hockey. While Prime Minister, he wrote an excellent book on hockey.195 An indifferent player, he is a lifelong fan of Canada’s national pastime. An accomplished musician, he was in tune with the range of new music of his times. For relaxation, he led, played, and sang in a small upbeat band.
Dissatisfied with opportunities in Toronto, he decided to go west to seek a new start on his own. He made his way west to settle in Calgary, Alberta, where he continued his university studies in economics, perhaps due to his father’s interest in accounting. He was bright, thoughtful, and made economics his specialty where he excelled. Alberta, the birth place of the radical Social Credit in the ‘30s, was then the hotbed of dynamic Conservatism. Unhappy with federal policies and leadership direction that tilted towards central Canada, especially Quebec, leaving the rising power and economic punch of energy-rich Alberta out of the federal power loop, Harper, a contrarian, became an avid pro Westerner whose benchmark plaint was the feeling of western alienation. The chronic western complaint was that the west was providing more than its fair share of taxes to the federal government coffers and got little in return especially respect. Disenchanted with Trudeau’s National Energy policy (NEP), Harper became a deep blue conservative true believer. NEP, the hated Trudeau policy, introduced by Quebecer Marc Lalonde, was seen as arrogant and insensitive to western concerns. Quebec, Albertans felt, got an unfair share of the federal coffers especially after Alberta was contributing more than a fair share of federal taxes from its growing energy resources. It was the era of Peter Lougheed who gave rebirth to the newish Progressive Conservative Party. Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Policy (NEP) pushed Alberta further, alienating the west while disengaging with the established parties in the east. During the ‘80s oil crisis with gas prices escalating to new heights in the east, Lougheed declared, “Let them freeze”!
Harper zigzagged from job-to-job, moving with lightning speed, all geared to his rising political ambitions. Harper became Executive Director of the Canada Alliance that railed against taxes. Taxes was always a hot button in Alberta. Alberta had the lowest tax regime in Canada. Taxes, Alberta felt, benefited Canada – the rest of Canada – Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes while Alberta got little in return. He felt after careful study that the complex transfer payments formulated by federal Liberals were tilted against Alberta. Harper served a stint as a policy assistant and speech writer in Ottawa to Jim Hawkes, an Alberta Conservative Member of Parliament who later Harper successfully defeated for the Progressive Conservative nomination and went on to win in 1993 in his Hawkes Calgary riding. Pierre Trudeau’s toehold in the West, especially Alberta, was almost wiped out in 1980. Liberals never regained traction even though Joe Clark had gained the Prime Ministership in 1979 for five months before Trudeau returned to the public stage and soundly defeated him in 1980. In that campaign, it was Keith Davey’s idea to ‘low bridge’ Trudeau whose personality was unpopular across Canada especially in Alberta, whose Liberal policies, popular elsewhere, were not exempt from the taint of the NEP. Clark’s modest increase in gas taxes became, oddly, a potent point in Clark’s electoral defeat in Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes.
A tall, pleasant, sturdy looking, soft-spoken, restrained man, Harper began to gain weight and with it, a certain gravitas. He seemed older than his age. He spoke carefully and fluently never adding an unnecessary word. Meanwhile, Harper gained an adequate fluency in French. From Executive Director of the National Citizens Coalition, an organization aimed to reduce taxation, he joined Preston Manning in the founding of the Reform Party. Preston, son of Ernest Manning, the successful and undaunted Social Credit Leader and long serving Premier of Alberta, who upon retirement, was appointed to the Senate by Pierre Trudeau. This did little to ease the alienated west and especially Peter Lougheed who swept the Progressive Conservatives to provincial power whipping the long entrenched Social Credit. The national energy crisis fermented by the OPEC cartel that controlled international oil prices exposed east-west fissures was exacerbated by Trudeau’s NEP and the endless demands of Quebec for a ‘special treatment’, calls for ‘distinct society’ and special consideration on all fronts was seen as Trojan horse for even more taxpayer dollars.
I ran Red Leaf, the Liberal media consortium, for the Trudeau Liberals in the Trudeau federal campaigns. Joe, whose stumbles as Prime Minister, were magnified. It was not a difficult task. Trudeau lost to Clark in 1979 to quickly regain power in 1980. The alienation of the West continued to simmer, and Harper was in the thick of whipping up the sources of its frustration and complaints. Even the reform of the Senate – the three E’s – Equal, Elected, Effective – became a rallying cry against the power tilt to Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes.196
Manning, the son of the long serving Social Credit Albert Premier, Earnes V. Manning started the Reform Party. Preston Manning, in manner and bearing nor speaking style, was not his father’s son. Harper became an activist co-founding member of this new party. Manning’s aim was to gain power parity with the eastern based Liberals and Progressive Conservative Parties, both heavily bound to their urban voter bases in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritimes. The socialist NDP were not an option in Alberta while the NDP retained resonance in Saskatchewan. Once Harper became Manning’s policy advisor, he quickly sensed Manning’s Reform policies and style were ineffective. So, he challenged Manning for leadership, took down Manning, and shrewdly became the Leader of the Reform Party. Ever the pragmatist and student of politics, he quickly gained entry into Parliament in 1993, on his path to national power in a Calgary riding where he had displaced Jim Hawkes, the federal Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament he had worked for. Harper quickly recognized that a marginal fringe party like the Reform with its radical far right membership and social policies was not feasible to gain federal power. He needed to tack towards centre right – ‘to unite the right’. Harper skillfully engineered meetings between his Reform group and the Progressive Conservatives led by Peter MacKay. Soon after, he emerged as the undisputed leader of a merged party, the new and renamed Conservative Party in 2003. No federal political leader accomplished this swift rise to prominence from the margins of politics in so short a period while always expanding on his own political base.
As an effective Leader of the Opposition in Parliament with a dizzying number of federal elections, he finally emerged as Prime Minister in a minority Parliament in 2006 and held power with the longest minority government in Canada’s history until he finally gained a majority in 2011. No doubt he benefited from the disunity within the bowels of the Liberal Party and the patent failure of the meandering NDP. He skillfully maneuvered on the right and centre and against the centre left held by Liberals and the further left socialist NDP that divided the centre left vote to gain traction and finally his majority in Parliament. Harper demonstrated a disciplined, focused deftness to overcome incursions on the far-right attacks amplified by Liberals and by the NDP to push him and his Conservative Party further right.
As the Prime Minister who came from the far fringes of the Canadian political spectrum, Harper swiftly consolidated his support of his divided caucus and slowly moved inexorably to the centre right. He tilted to right when necessary but held a steady course. Because he understood that the radical extremists in his party would block his path to the centre right of the political spectrum, a political sweet spot, Harper handled his caucus with a deft and iron fist to prevent fissures that the both Liberal and the NDP targeted to exploit. Jean Chrétien, the master of ‘wedge’ politics, ‘framed’ Harper with a ‘hidden agenda’ while he cleverly alluded to the influences of the ‘far right’ allegedly ‘racist’ fringe former Reform members in the Conservative caucus. Chrétien, brilliant tactician that he was, drove a stake between Harper and his plan to occupy centre right public opinion. Chrétien surgically would use his favourite word ‘balance’ or ‘baalonce’, to keep his Conservative opposition divided hoping to drive Harper back to the far right leaving the political centre left and right open for Chrétien to hold sway. Harper, as Opposition Leader, was quiet, calm, skilled, determined, and disciplined. Pushing out right extremists in his caucus was not viable, so he contained and muffled their voices. It was a scintillating juggling act to observe.
Harper had both his supporters and detractors in his caucus, but Harper kept his caucus intact and united. Extremists were expunged from caucus. Conservative Senate colleagues I spoke to regularly during this period admired Harper’s no-nonsense approach, his daily tactics and his ability to weld his Cabinet caucus in a fighting unit. His thoughtful, quiet approach won him respect, if not adulation, in his caucus. The Conservative Senate Leader, Marjory LeBreton, a Harper loyalist and hardliner, kept the sometimes-unruly Senate in check. Several Progressive Conservative senators refused to sit in the Senate as part of the National Conservative Caucus with little effect on either the Senate or the Conservatives. These ‘independents’ seem to marginalize themselves to keep the ‘faith’.
Once in power as Prime Minister, Harper continued to maintain an iron fist over his caucus and Cabinet. Ever mindful of his right, he tacked to and from the right when necessary. He, too, had learnt the history of the Conservatives, as had Clark and Mulroney. Conservatives ‘ate’ their leaders for breakfast starting with John Diefenbaker. Yet, no other leader in Canada had built his own political party from scratch or constructed his own pathway to the pinnacle of political power so deftly, or so quickly and in such a methodical way. Harper tended to keep his own counsel and his cards close to his vest. Harper maintained a secret weapon that he utilized throughout his political career. He was understated and underestimated. I believe he kept his ego in rein and benefited in the process. As a result, he continued to surprise friends and foes alike as he seemed from afar to move through the icebergs of politics with quiet effective self-imposed restraint.
Harper was not a spell binder as a speaker, but he was quiet, thoughtful, rational, and steady. He attained a certain serious demeanor. Like DeGaulle, he kept to himself. His caucus grew to respect him, if not like him. His Cabinet assiduously followed his careful powerful lead.
Harper was not a showboat. Charming in private, he had a rather remote stiff public appearance. He was persuasive in caucus and on the public stage with his calmness, unruffled manner, and obvious gravitas.
After he was defeated by Justin Trudeau in 2016, he left a strong united caucus of 90 members, a large enough group, well positioned to maintain a meaningful opposition. He left his party financially sound and free of debt. This was a major Harper legacy – fiscal soundness and it transformed other parties as well as they followed his lead. This was a key component of his architecture of his new Conservative Party. While he, at times, dissipated his avowed ‘balanced budget’ policies on the exigencies of the vacillating economy he continued to widen his centre right wing tent. A skilled economist, he was a sound fiscal manager. When he tacked to the right, he was quickly ‘demonized’ by both Liberals and NDP as an ‘extremist’, which he was not. He was the ultimate pragmatist on most major issues.
A ‘conviction’ politician by nature and deliberation, Harper deeply believed in human rights. He believed in a strong military. Respect for the military and their accomplishments at wars abroad merited public support. He believed in patriotism. He believed in limited government.197 He manifested these beliefs and principles at home and abroad. A staunch opponent of Putin’s thrust into Georgia and Putin’s takeover of Crimea, Harper was perhaps the most outspoken and consistent of any western leader. At first, he spoke out against human rights abuses while in China. Later, he repeated his earlier exhortations to other states with egregious human rights records. He became Israel’s strongest supporter, believing as he did in Israel as the sole practitioner of democratic principles surrounded in a sea of autocratic Arab nations in the Middle East.
Immigration, always a messy undermanaged portfolio with vacillating objectives mirroring beliefs of minorities who kept up public pressure, was put in the hands of capable assiduous Jason Kenney, who also came from a Liberal family. Jason planned and plotted to reform immigration, shifting from refugee concerns to economic requirements and a merit driven immigration policy, while building a Conservative base in the ethnic communities once considered a monopoly for the Liberal Party. Jason Kenney, who started as a Young Liberal, became a friend as we travelled to represent Canada at all party delegations in the OSCE-PA across Europe. He was bubbly, always pleasant company, bursting with energy and ideas. Jason, too, was a true believer in Conservatism. Jason Kenney’s grandfather was Mart Kenney, a band leader from London, Ontario who had run for the Liberals, who I became acquainted with when I danced to his smooth music in front of the bandstand in Springbank Park under the stars in my hometown of London as a youth.
I encountered Harper’s school time sweetheart Laureen, a warm, gracious, attractive woman who became his wife, on numerous occasions. Each time we met, she paused and asked about my wife’s charitable activities and asked to send her regards. She provided a solid family environment to raise her young family, always a daunting task for a working politician – especially a leader. Harper was an attentive father, making time to spend with his children and their extracurricular activities while brushing aside uninvited publicity. The public spotlight on children is, at best of times, difficult to fend off.
Just before my retirement from the Senate, I decided to invite my American-born grandsons to visit Ottawa during Winter Fest. It’s usual to arrange a photo op with the Liberal Leader, in his office, then held by Stéphane Dion. This turned out impossible to arrange. His office seemed disorganized. I was dismayed. As I walked from my East Block office on Parliament Hill one morning, I encountered Kenny and blurted out my unhappiness. “Would you like them to meet Stephen Harper?” he volunteered. I thanked him, but I was not sure it could be arranged in the two days remaining before my family was due to arrive in Ottawa for a visit to Parliament Hill at Winterfest.
The very next day I received an unexpected call from Harper’s office and was told that Mr. Harper would be delighted to meet with me and my grandsons, tomorrow, Friday afternoon, after Question Period. Friday afternoon at 3:15 P.M. sharp, I entered Harper’s office on time with my three grandsons and the office was empty. We waited in the outer office for twenty minutes. Both the outer and inner office were empty. When a secretary sauntered in, we were told this was Dion’s office; Prime Minister Harper was on the next floor. I had gone to the wrong office. We raced up the staircase to find Harper waiting. He was welcoming and charming, regaling my grandsons about hockey. “Would you like a photo?” he asked them. “Probably your grandfather may not want to be in the photo.” “No”, I said, “I would be delighted.” After more than a half-hour, we took our leave stunned by his time and attention. He seemed totally relaxed during the usually busy Prime Ministerial schedule. I saw another side of Stephen Harper. Harper’s ease with my young grandsons was amazing. My grandsons, all fanatic hockey fans like their paternal grandmother, were astounded with his detailed hockey knowledge. Harper seemed unhurried as he had all the time in the world – unusual for Prime Ministers. I saw a gracious softer side of him I couldn’t believe.
Stephen Harper had a lifelong passion for popular music. He played, wrote, and sang as he led a small rock band. To gain a more popular image, he would surprise audiences at Party rallies, fundraising or charitable events with his catchy songs and skilled musicianship. I witnessed several of these performances, switching as he did from suit and tie to a trendy dark sweater, watching the audience surprised and enthralled with this different Stephen Harper.
There was indeed a softer side to Harper that he kept hidden from the public. He was not a narcissist.
A fairer legacy will emerge for Harper as the ‘demonization’ by his political foes fades. The party he created and led, the new Conservatives, after three consecutive election victories remains strong and effective. He was an early and persistent advocate of electoral Senate reform. He balanced the federal budget, returning to temporary deficit as economics demanded quickly and then back to balance. He oversaw a rise in real income for the middle-class for the first time in decades and solid economic growth. He had the lowest debt to GDP ratio in the G7 economies during his tenure in office coupled with solid economic growth. Canada came out of the recession stronger than any other of the G7 economies under his careful sound economic leadership. His ‘job’ policies were effective as were his immigration reforms. He increased lagging defense spending, moving more quickly towards our NATO financing commitment. He supported veterans via the new Veterans Charter. He attempted to dislodge Russia from the G7 meetings. He reinvigorated respect and support for Canada’s military. He advocated human rights openly in his meetings with the Russian and Chinese leadership. He started new broader free trade negotiations, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (with Asia) and finalized the free trade negotiations with Europe – EFTA. He signed a Free Trade Agreement with South Korea. He accelerated the FTA with Israel while strengthening economic and cultural ties.
His personal probity was unquestioned. He was a man of strong beliefs and stronger convictions.
Harper distanced himself from Mulroney, concerned as he was by Mulroney’s egregious conduct and some policies, he considered less than Conservative.
His policies on climate change were nuanced as he believed the carbon tax, diverting billions to underdeveloped countries, would overburden Canada economically and not have a significant impact on global warming. So, he withdrew from the ambitious goals of the Kyoto Accord that even the interested states would not attain. He supported the Lower Churchill Falls hydro project that reduced emissions equivalent to taking thousands of vehicles off the road. Harper invested $3 billion in public transit projects, especially $700 million towards the Spadina line extension to York University – long overdue. His Supreme Court appointments, while one was controversial and discarded, were sound and solid jurists. His Cabinet and caucus moved towards gender equality. Solid progress was made on Indigenous issues – on reconciliation, a key perquisite to any consensus, pushing Aboriginal education reform that faltered due to traditional Aboriginal reluctance for accountability and divided, fragmented leadership. Harper’s demands for economic accountability by indigenous chiefs was not well received, but a prerequisite to any further allocation of the federal budget.
Harper’s political preoccupation where he sensed he had special gifts was to safeguard the economy. In the last week of his last losing campaign, he returned to Etobicoke in the west end of Toronto where he was raised, he said in one of his final speeches, “In the time of growing economic uncertainty, protecting the economy is the number one priority in this election.” In a sense, he ended where he started in politics with the conviction that the Canadian economy was of paramount importance as he reminded himself and others – he was an economist.
All in all, a solid record of accomplishments. He left office without a blemish to his personal probity. The Duffy Affair tarnished his record and was a significant factor in his defeat in his last campaign. In time, history will take account of Harper’s spectacular rise and solid accomplishments. He will receive better recognition as the ‘demonization’ wears off and his record is compared to others. He was, unlike most Prime Ministers, not in love with his own image. He was the founder of the modern Conservative Party. He left his Conservative Party with a strong base in Parliament and sound Party finances. It remains to be seen if this legacy of tilting Canada to the right will survive his laudable public service.
•Why Chrétien Mustn’t Flag by Stephen Harper (Globe and Mail, December 2, 1999, pg. A17)
•On Second Thought by Stephen Harper (National Post, October 5, 2000, pg. A18)
•Separation, Alberta-Style: It Is Time To Seek A New Relationship With Canada by Stephen Harper (National Post, December 8, 2000, A18)
•The Alberta Agenda by Stephen Harper, Tom Flanagan et al. (Archived November 18, 2004, at the Wayback Machine., National Post, January 26, 2001, A14)
•Get The State Out Of The Economy by Stephen Harper (National Post, February 8, 2002, pg. A14)
194Stephen Joseph Harper is his full name. The name Joseph is after his father who had a profound influence in his life.
195A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs and the Rise of Professional Hockey (Simon and Schuster, 2013).
196Under the BNA, Quebec was entitled to 20% of the Senate, notwithstanding change in demographics.
197John Turner argued that there are cycles in government. Clearly the size and scope of government and its increasing costs need closer review and constraints with care to ‘respect the tax payer’s dollars’. The size of government became mammoth and always in search of value for cyclical constraints and retrenchment. Democratic governments, by nature, grow if not restrained with rational plans and careful supervision. Money is a necessary antidote to avoid cyclical austerity in lean times. Keynes was careful in this regard. Few who espouse Keynes have studied him. Harper, an economist by education, had a clear understanding of public finance and believed that public expenditures should not crowd out private investment to maintain normal economic growth.
Stephen Harper - Maiden Speech
