Harper’s ideals live on

OAKVILLE, ONT.—If you check out what’s happening in Canada’s conservative world these days, you’ll notice something rather interesting. I’m talking about how the values and ideals of former prime minister Stephen Harper are still strongly influencing this country’s conservative agenda, even though he’s been off the national stage for nearly seven years. What’s more (and this is the really interesting part), the Harperian values currently reigning supreme are not those of Harper the former Conservative leader, but instead are those of Harper the former head of the Canadian Alliance. Just to brush up everybody’s memory, Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance in 2002. In 2004, he won the leadership of the Conservative Party. And, yes, Canadian Alliance Harper was a much different political animal than Conservative Party Harper. Harper the Conservative leader, for instance, was moderate in his policies and cautious in his politics. He was also extremely pragmatic, even willing at times to sacrifice conservative principles for the sake of winning power. By contrast, Harper the Canadian Alliance leader was a libertarian-leaning ideologue who would never compromise his conservative values for political gain. To show you what I mean by that, here’s an excerpt from a Harper fundraising letter sent out when he was running for the Canadian Alliance leadership: “Imagine the Canadian Alliance didn’t exist. Imagine if no party existed to speak for Canadians like you who cherish conservative principles and values. Imagine if the only alternative to Jean Chrétien’s arrogant, spend-happy Liberals were Joe Clark’s arrogant, spend-happy Red Tories. Not a pretty picture, is it?” Does that fiery conservative rhetoric remind you of anybody from today’s Canadian political scene? To me, it sure sounds a lot like current Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre. My point is, Poilievre, who has branded himself as conservatism’s true champion and as an adamant foe of wishy-washy Red Toryism, seems to be taking a page out of Canadian Alliance Harper’s playbook. Canadian Alliance Harper, by the way, was also a strong proponent of Alberta nationalism. As a matter of fact, just a year before he became Canadian Alliance leader, Harper, along with a group of other prominent Albertans, pushed the idea of an “Alberta firewall;” that’s to say he wanted Albertans to enact laws to protect their province from Ottawa’s dangerous Liberal agenda. Of course, Alberta’s current premier, Danielle Smith, is pushing exactly that sort of nationalistic “firewall” ideal with her controversial Alberta Sovereignty Act, which enables provincial non-enforcement of federal laws. So once again, the spirit of Canadian Alliance Harper lives. Heck, even Harper himself has begun to sound more like Canadian Alliance Harper than Conservative Harper. For example, at the beginning of the last Conservative leadership race, one media outlet quoted sources close to Harper as saying, “he will not sit idly by if Jean Charest enters the race. The boss is of the opinion that Jean Charest is not a real conservative.” I sure couldn’t imagine Conservative Harper saying anything like that. Meanwhile, Harper also recently sounded a bit like his old nationalistic self when talking about Alberta. Recall that when discussing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate change policies, Harper noted: “the way some things are being handled today—where certain parts of the country are singled out in ways that others aren’t—I think is really inexcusable.” So why are Canadian Alliance Harper ideals suddenly all the rage? Well, maybe it’s because, while Conservative Harper was certainly respectable and competent, he was also pretty bland. Canadian Alliance Harper, on the other hand, exuded ideological fervour, which mobilized the conservative base. And right now, the conservative base needs mobilizing. Gerry Nicholls is a communications consultant. The Hill Times