The past few months have been more challenging for Prime Minister Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), with caucus unity emerging as the latest concern alongside an ascendant NDP, an unpopular budget bill, and a long list of controversies that includes the F-35, robocalls, and exorbitantly priced orange juice.
Last month a video surfaced on YouTube of rookie Conservative backbencher David Wilks (Kootenay- Columbia, B.C.) straying from the party line at a constituency meeting on May 22 in Revelstoke, B.C.
In the video Mr. Wilks told constituents that he would “stand up to the Harper government” and challenge Bill C-38, the Budget Implementation Act, which includes a raft of changes to environmental regulation that will speed up the approval process of Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
Mr. Wilks also told constituents that a “barrage” of Conservative backbenchers were unhappy with the lack of input they have in government policy, and that he has yet to participate in a non-whipped vote. Mr. Wilks suggested that he could vote against Bill C-38 if Canadians were able to convince enough of his caucus colleagues to vote alongside him, but he quickly changed his tune. He released a statement of unequivocal support for Bill C-38 soon after the video went viral.
The Tories’ currently enjoy a majority margin of 11 seats following the departure of Lee Richardson, who stepped down as MP for Calgary Centre on May 30 to take the job of principal secretary to Alberta Premier Alison Redford.
Mr. Richardson was one of the few federal Tories from Alberta to publicly back the Progressive Conservatives in the recent provincial election. Most of his fellow Alberta colleagues backed the populist Wildrose Party, which led in polls before collapsing on the final day of the campaign.
Mr. Richardson, 64, urged greater civility in the House of Commons in his resignation speech, and was lauded by members of all parties following his announcement. Despite his popularity among MPs, Mr. Richardson fell short in a hotly contested race for the House Speaker’s chair following the May 2011 election. His departure led Toronto Star syndicated columnist Tim Harper to declare the “End of the Red Tory” in Ottawa.
Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener Centre, Ont.) in April introduced a private member’s bill to establish a subcommittee to review when human life begins under Criminal Code. Earlier this year another socially conservative backbencher, Brad Trost (Saskatoon-Humboldt, Sask.) criticized the “ironclad” discipline imposed on MPs’ votes in the House of Commons.
Mr. Woodworth’s motion recently forced Mr. Harper and Chief Government Whip Gordon O’Connor (Carleton- Mississippi Mills, Ont.) to publicly state that the government considers the debate on abortion closed. Last week Mr. Woodworth cited an illness in his family for postponing further debate on his motion until September.
Each issue illustrates that not all of Mr. Harper’s challenges come from outside of the party.
Former National Citizens Coalition president Gerry Nicholls told The Hill Times that the Conservative Party is essentially a coalition of competing “conservative tribes” that make caucus unity particularly challenging for the Prime Minister.
“You have your Red Tories, social conservatives, libertarians, economic conservatives, and populists, and they don’t necessarily like each other very much,” Mr. Nicholls observed. “The challenge that the Prime Minister is going to have for the next three years is keeping all of these tribes happy. It’s not going to be easy.”
Mr. Nicholls said that social conservatives’ principled views on issues like abortion and LGBT rights pose a particular challenge to Mr. Harper.
“The Wilks thing was more of a mistake. They sent him to re-education camp and he quickly recanted. Mr. Woodworth is more of a problem,” said Mr. Nicholls.
“The social conservatives may not be the biggest group in the Conservative coalition, but they’re an important one that worked hard for the Tories, gave money to the Tories, and voted for the Tories. I think they were expecting a little better treatment from the Conservative Party in terms of airing their viewpoints,” said Mr. Nicholls.
But Conservative insider and Earnscliffe Strategy principal Geoff Norquay dismissed the suggestion that divisions are emerging within the Conservative caucus as “complete and utter nonsense.”
“The party is way, way beyond counting up noses and trying to identify who’s red, pink, or blue,” said Mr. Norquay, who served as a senior policy adviser to prime minister Brian Mulroney. “A mature caucus has room for debate. Managing caucus is an ongoing issue for all parties, because in politics there are always differences of opinion and different ways of expressing the views of constituents.”
Conservative pundit and Summa Strategies Vice President Tim Powers agreed with Mr. Norquay’s assessment that dissenting opinion within the Tory caucus was good for the party, and described examples such as Mr. Wilks’ public criticism and Mr. Woodworth’s private member’s bill as “opportunities as opposed to worries” for the Prime Minister.
Mr. Powers said there are no divisions in the national caucus and that the examples challenged the public perception that Mr. Harper has “an ironclad grip on caucus.”
“When you have the Stephen Woodworths and the David Wilks offering their opinion, I think that’s more helpful than harmful,” Mr. Powers observed. “I think the Prime Minister can live with people talking about issues that are important to them, and for some of these MPs that’s the outcome they’re looking for anyway.”
But national affairs columnist Norman Spector, who served as Mr. Mulroney’s chief of staff from 1990 until 1992, said that Mr. Woodworth’s motion and Mr. Richardson’s departure do pose interesting challenges for the Prime Minister.
“Brian Mulroney was the great communicator. He’d never miss a caucus meeting. It was his No. 1 priority. I don’t know how Stephen Harper does it, but I think that there are some interesting issues,” Mr. Spector said. “The Richardson case raises the issue of the power of being in the PMO or the premier’s office, versus being an elected Member of Parliament. The Woodworth case raises another interesting question. The Prime Minister’s been very blunt in election campaigns, saying that he wasn’t going to reopen this issue. Anybody who ran for the party would have to either accept that or had to think he was a liar, because he couldn’t have been more explicit.”
Mr. Spector said the Prime Minister must convince his team that the NDP poses an imminent threat to the Conservatives’ power.
“What we’re seeing now with Harper and a majority government is what he really wants to spend his political capital on. It’s not abortion, and it’s not same-sex marriage. It’s restructuring the economy,” Mr. Spector said.
“His message to caucus needs to be, ‘We’re being tested as never before, there’s a strong official opposition and the choice for Canadians and for all of us is a united Conservative Party governing this country or the NDP. Thank you very much. God bless Canada,’ ” said Mr. Spector.
Mr. Nicholls was even more blunt, noting that a “common enemy” has been historically necessary for uniting conservatives. He said that the coalition threat during the government’s minority years has declined with the NDP’s surge in national popularity.
“I think he’s going to create this scenario where there’s a really bad guy coming down the road, his name is Thomas Mulcair, he’s not Ignatieff. He’s a threat, he’s savvy, he’s tough, and we’ve got to be careful,” said Mr. Nicholls. “Having said that, he’s going to have a challenge in the next three years because there are going to be a lot of social conservatives, libertarians and populists who are disillusioned with what they’re seeing.”
A poll released by Nanos Research at the end of last week showed the Conservatives and New Democrats statistically tied at 33.5 and 33.6 per cent popular support, respectively. The Liberals trailed with 24.9 per cent. However, Mr. Harper led all party leaders in public trust, with 22.9 per cent of respondents identifying the Prime Minister as the most trustworthy national leader. ‘None of them,’ placed second with 17.2 per cent, followed by NDP leader Thomas Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) with 15.5 per cent, and interim Liberal leader Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.) with 10.8 per cent. Mr. Harper placed first in Nanos Research’s overall leadership index, with a score of 65.8 per cent, followed by Mr. Mulcair with 53.8 per cent and Mr. Rae with 36.5 per cent.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Chris Plecash
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