TORONTO – Stephen Harper was less than an hour into his leadership of the newly merged Conservative Party of Canada March 20 when he took his first agricultural shot at the governing Liberals.
He charged that the Liberals are playing electoral politics with farm support policies.
Harper vowed that the party he will lead into the expected spring or summer federal election will promote resolution of trade barriers while promising to support Canadian farmers faced with market malfunction beyond their control.
“I would say the government’s only interest in agriculture seems to be as a response to their immediate electoral needs,” Harper said in anticipation of the March 22 announcement in Lethbridge of federal aid to the livestock sector.
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It was one of many pointed attacks fired at the Liberals by Harper as the 44-year-old Calgary economist and Conservative MP savoured his decisive win in the party leadership race.
Harper won the leadership on the first ballot, taking 55.5 percent of party support compared to 35 percent for 37-year-old Ontario industrialist Belinda Stronach and 9.5 percent for former Ontario health minister Tony Clement.
The surprise was that Harper won the leadership on the strength of a powerful showing in Ontario, taking 57 percent of the party votes in the province that is home to his two rivals.
He now will lead a united right into an election at a time when public opinion polls show the Liberals under new leader Paul Martin faltering in support at less than 40 percent.
Harper insisted the Conservatives, created out of the ashes of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative parties, will defeat a Liberal party plagued by internal dissent and allegations of scandal.
The new party will have to go into an election campaign without the benefit of a membership policy convention but a patched-up manifesto that tries to reflect both PC and Alliance views will be promoted as party policy.
Based on his track record in politics and as president of the right-wing National Citizens’ Coalition, Harper can be expected to promote:
- Market-based agriculture policies and an end to the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly with a promise that a Conservative government would support farmers when they are hurt by unfair trade rules or practices. That will include helping supply managed farmers adjust to the marketplace once their protected system is lost to trade liberalization rules.
- An end to the gun registry.
- An increased private role in health-care delivery while insisting the publicly funded medicare system will be preserved.
- More allegiance to American priorities, particularly in world affairs. Harper has said he would have committed Canadian troops to the invasion of Iraq.
He told the post-leadership election news conference that Canada can decide its stance on BSE testing only in conjunction with what the United States wants to do.
- Tax cuts and reduced government spending and services.
- More emphasis on funding police and the criminal justice system.
- Less power for the courts.
- Abolition of regional development agencies.
A decade of vote splitting on the right finally ended this winter with the merger of the two parties. Harper acknowledged the new party will have “wings” of left and right and he promised to respect the social activism of the PC legacy.
But he insisted the new party is neither an Alliance takeover of the PCs nor a new conservative coalition.
“I am not leading a coalition,” the new leader told an interviewer.
“I am leading a unified national party that will drive the Liberals from office.”
