Stephen Harper: Heck Of A Speech!

[dnsfurlan]

Although the press focused on a small part of the speech, they seemed more interested in the Orchardites protesting outside or the fact that Mackay was in attendance.

So, in the interest of getting out the full message of the new conservatism in this country, here is the speech. It really is an excellent statment on what the new party should be, and how it's different than what Paul Martin is or is making himself out to be. One Conservative Voice

One Conservative Voice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 12, 2003

Stephen Harper Vancouver Leader’s Dinner

Notes for Address by Stephen Harper, MP

Leader of the Opposition

Vancouver, British Columbia

Wednesday November 12, 2003

- CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY –

The new Conservative Party

As you know, there are real changes taking place in federal politics today – big, positive, exciting changes. It has been almost a month since I stood in Ottawa with Peter MacKay, to announce our Agreement-in-Principle to unite the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives, to create the new Conservative Party of Canada, and to ensure that we fight the next election from coast to coast with One Conservative Voice.

This is a historic step forward. This new party that we will build together will combine grassroots democracy and energy of the Canadian Alliance with history and governing experience of the PC Party.

Getting here was no easy task. These exciting new opportunities were brought about by the hard work of our emissaries, the support of tens of thousands of grassroots members of both parties, and through the groundwork and advice provided by senior statesmen like Preston Manning and former prime minister Brian Mulroney.

But, in the end, it takes two to tango. We all owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my very special guest tonight – the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Peter MacKay.

To those who oppose Peter and oppose this merger – that minority in the party – I ask you: What is your vision of the future? How would you advance our common cause? Would you have part of the PC party join with us, a second part join with David Orchard, and a third part just go it alone & die? That is unacceptable.

We must retain the history and tradition of the PC Party and move, as equal partners, together into the future. Anything else is unacceptable – it is unacceptable to our members, unacceptable to your leaders, and unacceptable to the Canadian people.

There are risks here; I know that. In the last ten years, however, our party has re-formed Canadian politics. We are now poised to re-form Canadian politics again.

We will need your support to join with thousands of like-minded Canadians to take our place in this new national conservative partnership and make it a force across Canada. Are you ready to accept this challenge?

We will shortly ratify the new party and put its organization in place. We are recruiting 308 local leaders to be our candidates across the country. And the new party will select its national leader in March. This plan is achievable because we bring our mutual strengths to the table.

Peter & I have been rebuilding our parties, and we’re committed to our new party. We will not be sidetracked by those who want our leadership race to pit the Alliance against the Tories. We will not be overcome by those outside this agreement and those opposed to it who now want us to fall into division and pointless conflict. We are stronger than that.

We are committed to emerging united and strong for the real leadership race – the one that will pit our new Conservative Party against the Liberals; the one where we battle Paul Martin, not each other. Only if we keep our eyes on that battle, will we end up with one conservative voice.

What Kind of Party?

Let’s look ahead and ask ourselves what kind of party our new Conservative Party will be? What issues will it tackle? What kind of platform will we offer? How will we come together and truly be “one conservative voice”?

Let us not fall for the spin. Our new Conservative Party doesn’t start life with a blank page. It starts with the common philosophy the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives already share: our common commitment to free enterprise, free trade and fiscal responsibility.

Our common causes, however, go beyond economic matters. In recent months, our caucuses have largely been on the same side of big parliamentary battles. In controversies as diverse as those over the failed gun registry, the Kyoto Accord, the war against terrorism, and the definition of marriage, we have found ourselves on the same, conservative side.

But let’s look at the broader questions: What kind of Conservative Party will this be? How will it stay together? How will it avoid the fragmentation problems of the past?

My views have been on the record since I first started writing about conservative unity eight years ago – through my days as a Reform MP, as a conservative outside of partisan politics, as a prospective Progressive Conservative leadership candidate, and as an actual Canadian Alliance leadership candidate.

We have begun with the most important step. We have created the new Conservative Party of Canada – not as the consequence of a long and destruction war of attrition, but as a deliberate act of political will. And so we can – and we will – consciously shape its character.

Now we must go the rest of the way and correct the mistakes of the past. We must admit that a national Conservative Party can only succeed if it welcomes all kinds of conservatives under its banner. Our new Conservative Party must be a party of the broad right of centre. That is where most Canadians are and that is where our new party must be – open to everyone who holds conservative beliefs.

Getting to this point has been long and difficult. Let us remember that this was not because the forces of conservative unity lacked vision. It was not because others who tried lacked conviction, or that personal ambitions blocked their way. No, getting to this point was difficult because, at the dawn of the 21st century, conservatism is a complex force. And it is only by appealing to all conservatives that we can move forward together.

Our new party creates an opportunity, yet that opportunity will be squandered if we start by listing the types of conservative views, of conservative policies and of conservative people that we don’t want in the party. That is a path that leads to failure. It may be where we’ve come from, but it is not where we are heading.

Our new Conservative Party must address the challenge of unity by welcoming the diversity of conservative opinion – not bowing to those who demand a narrower party as the price of their participation.

Economic Conservatives

We face several challenges. The first challenge in creating one conservative voice revolves around issues of taxes and the economy.

There will be pressure for the new Conservative Party to focus its attention almost exclusively on economic issues: to promise tax cuts – the deeper the better. Economic conservatives will want us to tackle deregulation and privatization. And of course we will. Naturally our new Conservative Party will stand for free trade and private enterprise. We will always stand for limited government. And, we have got to get our taxes down in this country. We have, after all, good reason to stand for economic freedom.

Canadians know that tax cuts and economic freedom are powerful forces. They power our economy, and fuel economic opportunities that will otherwise drift south. They open up new possibilities to build our society and our communities. They draw wave after wave of new Canadians to our shores. And let us never forget that when we fight to keep taxes low, we show that government is supposed to serve the public – not the other way around.

So, our new party will stand for economic conservatism and lower taxes. But to truly have one conservative voice, we must offer more.

Social Conservatives

Let us learn the lesson of recent years. Our party must offer more than tax cuts and a few economic ideas. In an era where few serious people believe in the old dogmas of liberal socialism, liberals are all too willing to pretend they are economic conservatives and tax cutters at election time – just as Paul Martin did in the last federal election.

Let Liberals pretend that what the state costs is not related to what the state values. As conservatives, we can afford no such illusions. Our new Conservative Party must also address concerns about the moral fabric of our society.

Social conservatives, including traditional Christian Canadians as well as new Canadians from other religious traditions, must be welcome in the new party. Our party should admit, for example, that the frequent failure of politicians to express moral values is directly related to the failure to demonstrate ethical behaviour.

We must stand for the central importance of the family to our history and to our future. We must lower taxes for families, and make the tax system family-friendly. We will stand for the primacy and the protection of children. We must fight sexual exploitation and outlaw all child pornography without exception. We must stand for law and order – for a criminal justice system that values victims and their property over criminals and their priorities. We must respect custom and tradition and the historic and essential institutions of our society.

And we have good reasons to stand for these things. Canadians know that our society should not be some kind of toy, to be disassembled and reassembled by Liberal elitists and social engineers. The moral and economic fabrics of Canadian society are woven together.

This does not mean we are theocrats. We will not ask the state to impose our values, but we must demand that the state stop undermining them. We will stop all efforts to deny free speech and freedom of religion to people who speak out about the issues of the day. And we will not stand idly by while Liberals use the courts to push through agendas because they lack the honesty and moral fibre to openly take these agendas to Parliament or to the people.

Under my leadership and that of most PC leaders, issues sensitive to moral and religious opinion, like the definition of marriage, have usually been subject to free votes by our elected members, regardless of the opinion of the leader. I am committed to that principle. But I am committed to more.

Our party has led the effort to ensure that all Private Members’ Business in the House of Commons be votable. We will continue these efforts and we will not turn away from allowing our members to express a diversity of opinion on moral and social issues, including the views held by social conservatives.

Democratic Reformers

Our commitment to free votes leads me directly to a third element that we must embrace – one dear to all who have fought for fundamental change over the past 15 years: the agenda of democratic reformers.

You know that there is something wrong with our system of government when even a Liberal starts talking about Canada having a “democratic deficit”. The new Conservative Party must take up the cause of democratic reform. The agreement to create the new Conservative Party already enshrines important steps taken in this direction.

Conservative candidates and the leader will be elected by the direct votes of members –not by brokered conventions. Future assemblies will be dominated by elected grassroots members – not ex-officio delegates. Policy resolutions must be passed by double majorities, incorporating the notion of provincial equality into this party’s very structure. And, of course, this entire agreement is subject to a direct vote of our membership, which has been undertaken without delay.

The Reform Party and the Canadian Alliance put democratic reform on the Canadian political agenda; and, in recent years, the Tory party embraced most of these ideas.

We advanced this agenda together during the years that Paul Martin stood for party discipline, top-down politics, and a Senate of appointed cronies.

We are not for some form of extreme populism, re-writing the Canadian constitution from abstract first principles, or making it impossible for public officials to fulfill their mandates. We want to borrow the best practices from other democracies to restore freedom, representation, and accountability to our own system. In other words, we want to modernize Canadian democracy to reflect the highest ideals of our traditional institutions.

We have already made strides. The Alliance has established a strong tradition of caucus democracy. The previous Tory government set the precedent of popular ratification of major constitutional amendments. But much more needs to be done. And so our new Conservative Party must not just talk about the democratic deficit; we must end it.

Let me repeat what I have been saying for years, and let us say it with one conservative voice.

We need free votes in the Commons. We need free elections in the Senate. And we need direct democracy, so that the people can have a say between fixed election dates, not dates set just for the personal benefit of the prime minister.

“Red Tories”

The last challenge I want to discuss tonight is the challenge of those conservatives who focus on issues with which conservatives have not often been associated: environmental welfare and social policies. There are those in the PC party – the so-called “Red Tories” – who treasure the word “Progressive” because they want us to remember the needs of the less fortunate. This tradition is not, of course, restricted to the Red Tories.

The word “Progressive” refers to the old “Progressive Party”, a party with the same political roots that led to Reform. Whatever the lineage, we must not abandon that tradition in the new Conservative Party. We cannot relegate the poor and dispossessed to the trash bin of society. We cannot ignore the scandal of Aboriginal policy in Canada. We must remember the needs of immigrants and those who struggle to make their mark in Canadian society. We must also face the challenges of our major social programs, like health care, while understanding the importance of the needs that they serve. The new Conservative Party must offer a conservative program for all these issues – and we must do so because we believe in them.

We are not in politics to emulate the NDP. We are not going to promise bigger and bigger government as a response to every social problem. We must never buy into the Liberal idea that citizens just can’t care for themselves. We must demonstrate a strong social conscience – not to buy votes, not to feel superior, but because we ourselves are ordinary Canadians, with ordinary worries and, occasionally, extraordinary needs.

With one conservative voice, we must stand for social programs that have as their objective the pride and independence of every Canadian. We must treat all Canadians as citizens capable of caring for themselves and responsible for caring for others. We must be the party of opportunity – of the hand-up, not the hand-out.

One Conservative Voice

We have embarked on an exciting new course, with immense possibilities. This time, we have the opportunity to get conservatism right – from the beginning.

We must have a party with room for all conservatives: for economic conservatives, for social conservatives, for democratic reformers, for Red Tories. Each must have their say and their issues, but none can be allowed to perform litmus tests for the members – or for the leaders – of this party.

We must not play the Liberal game of saying that some kinds of conservatives are, somehow, inherently extreme or un-Canadian. I say that every Canadian conservative who is prepared to work with our fellow conservatives is welcome in our new party – because we have much to build and to re-build.

We have a conservative movement to be rebuilt and, far more importantly, we have a country to be restored. Imagine if, after the next election, we could have the kind of government that Canada deserves.

Imagine, for a moment, what Canada would be like if we had the government we deserve: a country with all the incredible wealth of the land God gave us – and with the enterprise of the hard-working people who came to it.

It would be a country that rewards independent citizens, not political cronies; a country of freedom and rights for ordinary people, taxpayers and families, not just for criminals, political elites and special interests. This would be a country with real power, with powerful allies, and with a say, internationally; not one that neglects its friends and citizens, and turns a blind eye to evil in the world.

Canada would be a country with the best 21st century democracy – not best 19th century democracy. A country built on solid values, not expensive promises.

What you envision is a country the Liberals would not recognize. It would be a country built by a new alliance of conservatives that ran for election as one conservative voice.

[Blacksheep]

Quite a powerful statement in my opinion. It will be interesting to see what happens with the party leadership though. Long, long road ahead.

Honestly I'm a bit of a political neophyte so I have not really been following the whole "new party" thing up untill very recently.

Did Mackay give any sort of speech? or is he scheduled to?

Anyone hear/watch last nights Liberal broadcast. I did not, thats why I'm asking.

[RT_1984]

I think we should try to get as many credible candidates in this race as possible for it to be competitive to the benefits of Canadians. Jim Prentice, Scott Brison, Peter MacKay, Ken Dryden, Tony Clement etc.

And then I think in March we should elect Stephen Harper for obvious reasons that has been illustrated in this speech, performance in parliament, bringing the alliance back from the brink without alienating anyone, and helping to bring about this merger. Norman Spector of the Times Colonist today in an article met Harper again during a Victoria Remembrance Day event, said "he knows he at least as brighter or brighter than Martin and definitely quicker on his feet." It's significant to note that this was the Times Colonist. GO HARPER GO

[dnsfurlan]

Norman Spector was one of Brian Molroney's top aides and I don't think he's been a supporter of the Alliance in the past. So, for Harper to get a compliment from Spector in that way I don't think is a small gesture.

I have always said that we still haven't seen what Harper would be like in trying to be a big-tent political leader. He has spent that past two years shoring up his base within the party, something he has done successfully, as was seen with the unity of the party behind him in the merger discussions. But we are seeing some of what that mind of his has been up to for all these months and I do think it looks pretty good.

There is one factor in politics that Harper has going for him while Martin doesn't - low expectations. Every politician wants this, except for Martin, of course, who has built such high expectations around himself to the point where there is almost very little room for error.

Bush had low expectations. Chretien did too. And they both used this factor brilliantly. I hope Harper is capable of this too. I have see a lot of signs of it, but it is still way too early, of course.

And there is still some talk of a Bernard Lord entry into the leadership race. However unlikely this is, the broader the field the better it is for the party.

And I would definitely like to see how Brison challenges Harper on some of the progressive social policy issues he is so keen on. It looks like to me that Harper is more than ready for the challenge.

But we'll see.