James Moore: 20 years of lessons learned from Stephen Harper

Former prime ministers Stephen Harper and Jean Chretien discuss top issues, including threats to Canadian sovereignty and the importance of staying united.

James Moore is a former federal cabinet minister under prime minister Stephen Harper, and is a contributing columnist for CTVNews.ca.

“I think this is it,” I said to my dad. “No, this can’t possibly be it,” he said in response. “No, this is actually it,” I said again. The “it” was our destination: a tiny tavern in the village of Quyon, Que. — about 45 minutes northwest of downtown Ottawa.

That night at that tavern, the former member of Parliament for Calgary West (1993-1996) and recently resigned president of the National Citizens Coalition, Stephen Harper, was hosting one of the first events of his campaign for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance. Party members in the area were contacted and invited to come out and meet the man who was hoping to be the next leader of Canada’s official opposition and, eventually, prime minister.

It was early in 2002 and I was a supporter of Mr. Harper’s campaign to replace Stockwell Day as Canadian Alliance leader. I was asked to be there that night to act as the MC/interviewer of the candidate for the assembled crowd of party faithful so they could get to know our candidate better. I was a bilingual member of caucus (there were only about three of us) and 26-years-old at the time.

The ‘crowd’ that was assembled included my 64-year-old father and my two parliamentary assistants – Paul and Barb – who came along for support. It was fortunate that they came with me because, as it turned out, when Paul, Barb, my dad and I walked into the pub for the event that night, our presence doubled the crowd size.

I looked at Mr. Harper with a ‘what now?’ expression and asked if he wanted to start the event, and he looked at me and shrugged, “sure, let’s do that.” We sat on stools at the front of the room on a tiny stage with a crowd that was distracted by the Montreal Canadiens game that was on the TV just next to us on the wall-mounted TV. We had handheld mics for a sound system that was utterly unnecessary given we were talking to my dad and about eight other people, but away we went.

From broken to united

These are sometimes the humble beginnings of political careers and even of leadership campaigns when you are running to be leader of a party like the 2002 Canadian Alliance. At that time, Canada’s conservative movement was broken, divided and going nowhere after losing three elections in a row to Prime Minister Chrétien.

On the parliamentary side we were shattered into three factions: the Canadian Alliance; the Progressive Conservative Party under Joe Clark; and the so-called ‘Democratic Representative Caucus’ of 13 former Alliance MPs; and there was no unity or credibility in sight. The Canadian Alliance was in single digits in the polls nationally, we were mired in caucus infighting, struggling with collapsing finances, and caucus morale had cratered.

With that as the backdrop, Stephen Harper’s rise to power is truly one of Canada’s most impressive and inspiring political success stories. He is a student of both Canadian history and of political movements, and he understood that if he was going to make the improbable possible, it was going to take discipline, focus, tireless effort and some good fortune.

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From that humbling event in that little pub in Quyon, to winning the Canadian Alliance leadership, then bringing the caucus back together, to then reaching out to Peter Mackay after he replaced Joe Clark as PC Party leader to bring the political family together and create the new Conservative Party of Canada, to winning the leadership of that new party, to then quickly turning around and holding what was to be the Paul Martin super majority ‘juggernaut’ into a Liberal minority government in 2004, to then repositioning the party for another national campaign, to then being chosen by Canadians to be their 22nd prime minister, was a whirlwind political journey and success story that is an inspiration to any serious student of democratic movements and Canadian history.

I was fortunate to ride the Stephen Harper political wave through five elections to Parliament over 15 years, including over nine years in government, eight years in cabinet, and a lifetime of experiences, opportunities, memories and friendships for which I will be forever grateful.

As it turns out, the discipline, smarts, passion and pragmatism that were the cornerstones of the success of electoral victory proved to be the foundation of his successes in government. When he guided Canada through the global recession in 2008-2009 where Canada entered the recession late compared to all other economies, came out of the recession early, and emerged with one of the healthiest economies in the G7 while lowering taxes, resulting in the world’s strongest middle class and we arrived back at a balanced budget after temporary deficits, yes, we were fortunate to have Stephen Harper as our prime minister.

When Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and attacked Ukraine, he spoke with clarity and strength that made Canadians proud. When ISIS and ISIL were murdering innocents and making grotesque death videos, he took a position of leadership and contributed meaningful resources to stop the killers and stand for Canadian values abroad.

As an economist, he understood that Canada’s economic reach needed to be truly global if we were to grow our economy, create local jobs through world sales and diversify our opportunities. When he became prime minister, Canada had free trade agreements with five countries in the world (America, Mexico, Chile, Israel and Costa Rica). When he left office, Canada as was the only country in the world to have free trade agreements with more than 50 per cent of the global economy.

Governing with pragmatism, not partisanship

With the United States, he found ways to find agreement and move forward to strengthen the relationship between our countries. Whether it was working with Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Barack Obama, it didn’t matter. He found areas of agreement, built relationships, focused on key projects of mutual benefit (Beyond Borders Agreement, infrastructure projects, trade agreements, continental security modernization) and had substantial wins for Canada.

When it came to governing effectively, Stephen Harper was responsible and pragmatic. When choosing Canada’s ambassador in Washington he reached out to former Manitoba premier Gary Doer, a New Democrat, because he was capable, effective and knew how to build relationships that would serve Canada. It wasn’t about party, it was about capability and character, and he sought good people of great capacity and invited them to work with him for Canada.

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He did this again when he asked former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley to offer meaningful advice on the future of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, and they both put country first and worked together on Canada’s biggest foreign policy commitment of the past generation. And Stephen Harper showed the same smarts when he reached out to a former Liberal cabinet minister who he had deep respect for – David Emerson – when he invited him to join his cabinet and make policy contribution to his government, even though it would be politically awkward and difficult to explain to a skeptical public.

But in each of these cases, Stephen Harper aspired to make his government more effective and sturdier for the challenges ahead by taking political risks, by looking past party labels and inviting people of character to make his government more capable of serving Canadians.

This week, Stephen Harper’s official portrait will be unveiled on Parliament Hill on the 20^th anniversary of his election as prime minister. Those of us who had the privilege to work with Stephen Harper are in Ottawa this week reconnecting and reminiscing about the incredible pride we have for prime minister Harper’s legacy and his achievements.

His portrait will serve as a permanent reminder in our national capital that a good man of sound judgment, deep character, pragmatism and principle served as our prime minister from 2006 to 2015. His legacy will far outlast his time as prime minister, and those of us who have known him best will forever be thankful for his leadership, friendship, example and lifelong commitment to a more prosperous, safe and united Canada.

More from James Moore:

• Conservatives need to level up their policy game
• How a provincial leadership race could help to determine our economic future
• Mark Carney in 2026: Progressive pivot or Progressive Conservative?