The party of Stephen Harper isn’t going anywhere

HALIFAX—With the disappearance of Jean Charest from the Conservative leadership race, Justin Trudeau has been dealt another ace by a party that can’t seem to get over Stephen Harper. Unless a meteor enters the political firmament—someone new and estimable not now on the candidate radar screen—the person who replaces the hapless Andrew Scheer will be a captive of their record as a Harper cabinet minister. Oddly enough, the only way for any of them to escape that trap is to come up with new policy directions certain to upset a significant portion of the party’s socially conservative base—and of course Harper himself. To win the leadership will likely mean towing the Harper line—a tack that will lead by a direct route to a third straight national election loss. One more after that, and the CPC would equal the dubious record of the British Labour Party, which has also refused to adapt to new times, and paid the price at the polls in four consecutive elections. The Harper model was already old and soundly rejected in 2015. Today, with issues like the environment eclipsing the prosperity of the corporate sector, it just seems grumpy, irrelevant, and dangerous. Jean Charest’s decision not to enter the race shows that the CPC is still a closed shop. He was seamlessly bilingual, nationally known, highly intelligent, and most important of all, a winner at the ballot box. He was also a Quebecker, offering a new field for the CPC to plough. The fact that Charest was not wanted on the Conservative voyage is further proof that elements in the CPC just can’t get over themselves; people like Richard Décarie, the former Harper staffer who is entering the leadership race on behalf of socially conservative values, and to stop Jean Charest; the guy who said being gay is a choice. So instead of setting a bold, new course, the party braintrust has cobbled together a convention process that guarantees that only Harper hacks need apply. There has been much harrumphing about Peter MacKay, the man who was Harper’s impotent deputy-leader for nearly a decade. People like Tom Flanagan, the University of Calgary professor who is also a former campaign manager for the Conservatives, has gushed that now more than ever, MacKay is the right choice for party leader. Flanagan points to MacKay’s co-founding role in the CPC, and the three senior portfolios he held: foreign affairs, national defence, and justice. And, of course, his loyalty to Harper. That is one way of looking at MacKay. But it is not the only way. Progressive Conservatives like David Orchard will not remember Peter MacKay the co-founder of the CPC. They will remember the guy who buried the knife in his former party after winning its leadership and promising not to preside over the demise of the Progressive Conservatives. MacKay has been called an electable centrist with the Maritimes as a power base. But the Harper defeat was greatest in the Maritimes, where the CPC lost every seat in 2015 and won only four of 32 seats in 2019. Since resigning his Central Nova seat, which had been a family trinket for many years, MacKay’s former riding has gone Liberal in both elections, despite the ardent efforts of MacKay and his father, Elmer MacKay, to get people like country-singer George Canyon elected as Conservatives. And where, one wonders, was the electable centrist in 2015 when his party went to war against Justin Trudeau for the first time? While his colleagues in the party tried to hold the fort, MacKay slipped away from the front lines and back into private life, avoiding Stephen Harper’s Waterloo. He was clearly biding his time for a more opportune moment to assert his conservatism. That may be remembered by other people sniffing at the CPC leadership, like Pierre Poilievre and Erin O’Toole, who manned the ramparts in 2015 with the Liberal hordes closing in. And although it is true that MacKay held senior cabinet posts, it is debatable whether that is a blanket recommendation. MacKay helped lead the disinformation campaign on the Harper government’s acquisition of the dubious F-35 stealth fighter. Had it been successful, Canadians would have had to pay for the biggest boondoggle in their history. While MacKay was perfectly happy to offer photo-ops hopping in and out of the cockpit of the troubled aircraft, he was part of the team that tried to pull the wool over the eyes of Canadians regarding the ruinous cost of the jets. It took Canada’s first parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page, to reveal the true costs involved in purchasing the F-35. MacKay was then, and continues to be, a cheerleader for the military industrial complex and all that it stands for. Not necessarily an attribute that will be rewarded in mainstream politics. MacKay was also at the centre of an embarrassing scandal for the Harper government in July 2010. The then-minister of defence was holidaying at a private fishing camp on the Gander River in Newfoundland. Although there were other ways to get out of the camp and back to Ontario for a government announcement, a Search and Rescue Cormorant helicopter served as a flying limousine for MacKay to make the trip. The request raised hackles inside the Department of Defence. What if a search and rescue event occurred while one of a small fleet of helicopters was winching the minister up from his fishing hole? MacKay told Parliament that it was all part of a long-planned military demonstration, but emails subsequently published in The National Post contradicted the minister’s claims. In one of the emails, a member of the armed forces said that the “mission will go under the guise” of search and rescue training. The opposition thought MacKay had handed them more than a fishing story. They accused the minister of misleading the House. The other candidate who, until last week when he dropped out of the race, was deemed by some to be in an advantageous position to take over from Scheer is Pierre Poilievre. A Harper minion who carried loyalty to the point of obsequiousness, the Ottawa MP was seen as the most Conservative of the bunch—at least the ones on display right now. But like MacKay, Poilievre’s inclusion in two Harper cabinets was at best a mixed blessing. True, he was seen as having executive ability by Stephen Harper, but what did that mean, and how did he exercise it? Not only was he one of the most toxically partisan Harper ministers, Poilievre disgraced himself and the party as the front man for the Fair Elections Act. It should have been called the Voter Suppression Act. Even The Globe and Mail called the act the worst piece of legislation in 2014. And the paper characterized Poilievre’s performance as Stephen Harper’s front man in selling it as “unctuous.” The Globe also advised Canadians to “Rejoice” when the Trudeau government repealed the odious legislation with Bill 33. Where is Rona Ambrose when you need her? Exercising better judgment than people who think they can win the big poker game with Harper dealing the cards. That might be a new milestone on the road of delusional ambition. Michael Harris is an award-winning journalist and author. The Hill Times

The party of Stephen Harper isn’t going anywhere

The former prime minister's fingerprints are all over the leading contenders to replace Andrew Scheer atop the Conservative Party.

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The party of Stephen Harper isn’t going anywhere

The former prime minister's fingerprints are all over the leading contenders to replace Andrew Scheer atop the Conservative Party.

To keep reading, subscribe and become a political insider.

Only $7.76 a week for an annual subscription.

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