It’s all very well that Stephen Harper has assured Canadians he didn’t sign Alberta’s separation referendum petition, but that’s not good enough.
It was, as the CBC’s online wordsmith put it, merely a quip. Nevertheless, if you listened carefully, the former Conservative prime minister could be heard to say at a collegial televised fireside chat with former Liberal PM Jean Chrétien put on by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society Monday that “I didn’t sign the petition.”
Mr. Chrétien responded, “Any Tories did?” Mr. Harper answered, “I’m told not.”
The Ottawa audience at the geographical society get-together politely chuckled and, to be fair, while Mr. Harper is a still-youthful 66, Mr. Chrétien is 92, so this was pretty sharp repartee, considering.
Both former PMs were invited by the society to celebrate Mr. Harper being given a gold medal for his career in public service. Mr. Chrétien received the same honour in 2022.
Mr. Harper stuck around another day for the unveiling of his official prime ministerial portrait, which if you ask me is pretty cartoonish, but, hey, everyone’s an art critic!
Quip though Mr. Harper’s remark may have been, I suppose we can take him at his word that he really didn’t sign – despite his relationship with the United Conservative Party Government in Alberta as the board chair of its pension management corporation.
But as for his mumbled suggestion that no Conservatives had signed, that seems pretty unlikely. Presumably he meant Conservative MPs from Alberta, although the entire exchange only took a few seconds so who he had in mind is not totally clear. If I were a betting man, though, my money would be on the proposition that quite a few Conservative Party of Canada MPs in Alberta have indeed signed the Alberta Prosperity Project separation petition, or soon will.
Regardless, it’s a sad commentary on the state of the federal Conservative Party that The Canadian Press reporter, quite properly, would make that transitory exchange the lead for his story. In fact, it would not be a particular shock if any Alberta Conservative politician, federal or provincial, in office or retired, fessed up to signing the petition.
Indeed, it could be argued that Mr. Harper and his five fellow signers of the infamous Firewall Letter in 2001 got the ball rolling on the current version of “Alberta sovereignty within a united Canada,” as the title of a certain piece of unconstitutional UCP legislation risibly puts it.
This was before Mr. Harper was prime minister, of course, but the manifesto was the inspiration for a number of policies at the heart of the so-called Free Alberta Strategy, which as Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid has pointed out, is the United Conservative Party’s strategy. It may lead, Mr. Braid argued, to actual separation if the government of Danielle Smith fails in its efforts to bully the federal government into weakening Confederation to Alberta’s advantage.
Among the policies advocated by the Firewall manifesto were pulling out of the Canada Health Act to allow the adoption of U.S.-style health care in Alberta, dumping the RCMP for a provincial police force, undermining the creation of national standards and programs, stopping the Canada Revenue Agency from collecting provincial taxes, and, of course, withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan and establishment of the Alberta pension Mr. Harper has now been hired to oversee.
All this in the name of “policy flexibility” – although the subsequent quarter century of rampaging neoliberalism throughout the countries of the so-called First World, including Canada, have delivered pretty much all the destructive policy flexibility anyone can tolerate.
So, no, Mr. Harper’s statement, while mildly reassuring, is not good enough.
For starters, he needs to make it crystal clear he is opposed the Alberta’s departure from Canada, and why. A barely audible quip won’t do.
Well, he did say that if “the federal government manages this country right, puts the stress on unity and not on ideological tangents, there’s no reason why we can’t pull the country together at this point.” And he tweeted he hoped there would be a lot more Canadian prime ministers. But neither is the unequivocal endorsement of a truly united Canada that is needed. So let’s hear one!
Mr. Harper should also mention the Firewall Letter. He should say – perhaps even if it isn’t strictly true – that it was never the intention of its authors, all of whom are still in the land of the living, to inspire a separatist movement in Western Canada.
Or if that was in fact the intention of some of his co-authors – at least half of whom, one suspects, are also citizens of other countries – maybe he should apologize for having had anything to do with the drafting of that screed. Ralph Klein, then Alberta’s premier, sensibly tossed it into the recycler.
Mr. Harper was only 41 at the time. He could plead youthful stupidity and say he regrets having anything to do with it. He could say, “I’m sorry.”
Federal Justice minister to Danielle Smith: Canada’s judicial selection process is just fine, thank you very much
It didn’t take long for federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser to respond to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s childish threat, noted in this space yesterday, not to pay to keep the lights and heat on in any new superior court judge’s office if the feds won’t let the UCP pick the judges.
Mr. Fraser replied like a grownup, explaining politely that “I’m planning to maintain the process that we have in place that has independence, that has rigour, that has led to stellar candidates being appointed, including recently in Alberta.”
He didn’t say … I dare you to act like a child and make King’s Bench justices hot desk out of spite, but I wouldn’t be surprised people in his office were rolling their eyes and thinking such thoughts when they saw Ms. Smith’s sophomoric letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Well, such foolishness happened before in Alberta. Premier William Aberhart, readers with long memories will recall, got his revenge on Lieutenant Governor John Campbell Bowen for refusing to grant Royal Assent to three unconstitutional bills.
Premier Aberhart gave the order to close Government House in March 1938. Lieutenant Governor Bowen and his family were forced to decamp to a hotel. The historic building sat unused until 1942, when the furniture was auctioned off. By 1943, Bible Bill was dead and went down in history as a petty, spiteful man.
Smith to history: Hold my beer!
Again I must start with an another line from this about Harper, “A barely audible quip won’t do.” He continues to gorge himself at the Tory trough. As for Justice Minister Fraser, good for him for reminding Smith to go play in her (tar) sand box and leave the heavy lifting and thoughtful reflection to adults outside the Bonnyville circus circuit.
Apparently some oilmen think that Albertans have now lost $1.4 trillion because of these idiot Reformers by slashing Lougheed’s oil royalties and corporate taxes and while Smith continues to whine about needing more pipelines they say it wouldn’t be necessary if these Reformers hadn’t deliberately destroyed what Lougheed had created for the good of the people, and I bet they are right.
Alan K. Spiller: That is correct. Also, Stephen Harper was given the position of chairing AIMCo, by Danielle Smith, even though serious warnings were given about it, from conflicts of interest arising. Stephen Harper happened to be Prime Minister when people’s own life savings were gone without a trace in the $35 billion income trust fund blunder. AIMCo is also responsible for the loss of $4 billion of pension money, under the poor leadership of the UCP. We can’t trust the UCP with our pensions. Yet, there are people who believe the UCP are so wonderful. Where’s the sense in this?
Excellent column, DC, and thank you. I was interested in Harper’s comment that he doesn’t think any Tories (he was probably thinking of Tory MPs) have signed up with the separatists. And UCP MLAs? Some might have, but they might be gun shy to admit they have signed. After all (and I hope this is not an idle consolation) to this point in Alberta’s history there has been exactly one Alberta MLA who was ever elected on a campaign of separatism. That was Gordon Kesler, a candidate for the Western Canada Concept in the Olds-Didsbury by-election in February 1982. And Kesler was defeated in the general election of November 1982 (by a Progressive Conservative). Separatism was electorally toxic in 1982, and it may still be in 2026. I predict we’ll see a lot of scrambling by UCP candidates in the next general election to deny their separatist leanings: they will simply mimic their leader and deplore separatists being “demonized and marginalized”.
I might add that I don’t want to demonize anyone (demons don’t figure in my cosmology) but, contrary to Ms Smith, marginalization is exactly the right way to deal with separatists. They are on the margin, right there with flat earthers and anti-vaxxers, and they need to earn their way back to the mainstream by shaking off their crazy anti-social delusions.
Hello DJC and fellow commenters,
I must admit that, when I read the words “Both former PMs were invited by the [Canadian geographical] society to celebrate Mr. Harper being given a gold medal for his career in public service” I could not prevent an involuntary laugh of derision. Stephen Harper receiving a “gold medal for his career in public service”? That is a travesty. In my opinion, it is the cynical bestowal of an accolade that is totally Undeserved. Stephen Harper did so many things to impede the progress of science, fair and safe labour practices for employees of federally regulated businesses such as railroads, and so on, and even the existence of democracy itself in Canada.
After reading of this lapse in judgment by the Canadian Geographical Society, I think that a cup of Murchie’s tea ( imported and then blended in Canada over the last 132 years) is called for to restore calm.
Christina: the gold medal for Harper from Canadian Geographical Society reminds me of the Peace Medal invented and then bestowed on Trump by FIFA. Harper will never be forgiven for his burning of 140 years of scientific studies generated at all the Federal Research Farms across Canada and catalogued and stored in their science libraries. Farmers and ranchers attempting to cope with climate change will curse the man as they realize what he has destroyed. Our scientific knowledge base was permanently and irretrievably crippled by his administration.
Hello Christina,
In addition to the points you have made, environmentalists have described the Harper decade as ten years of lost opportunity to address climate change. Given the Canadian Geographic Society’s position on climate change, I expect some people in the organization must have held their noses when they chose to give Harper the award.
I suspect Harper may try get away with his comment about no Tories signing the separatist petition on the technicality that the so far mysterious UCP MLA’s who did sign are not CPC MPs. While it is true they are not the same party legally, they seem to share a lot of common ideas and many are members of the other. I wonder if the names of the UCP MLA separatist petition signers will come out. It will be interesting if they do and even more interesting if they also are CPC members. However, I am fairly certain there will be no punishment for them, at least by Smith and the UCP.
It also would have been a good question to ask the former PM if he regrets being part of the firewall letter that seemed to have inspired and motivated separatists. However, I am guessing he might say something like je ne regrette rien, as he does not seem one for much reflection about his past actions. Of course, the firewall proposals actually didn’t get very far after Harper became PM, so also it makes one wonder how committed to them he really was, or perhaps he had a change of heart.
It is interesting that both Harper and Kenney have now at least come out against Alberta separatism, which is more than can be said for Smith or any of her UCP MLAs. So clearly the current UCP is not our grandfathers’ conservative party any more, if it ever was. It seems more like a semi closeted separatist party. At least Quebec separatists had the honesty and decency to come out, be clear and build their own separatist party. Their leader even left a party that had been the provincial government to do so, although at the time he left they were not. Perhaps it is easier to stand up for your principles when you are no longer in power.
It looks like Smith is trying to pick yet another fight with the Feds about judges, probably in a very MAGA like tactic to distract from her various political problems in Alberta. It worked against the previous PM who was very unpopular in Alberta towards the end, but I am not sure it will work so well against the current one.
Smith’s political problems in Alberta? She has the support of at least 45% of Albertans. She does not have a problem, we do. With the NDP going no where but no where, they will easily win another election and we will be done, because their maga propaganda and tactics will keep the herd in line. These people are like insects, they can survive a nuclear war with their lies.
Harper and Kenny are the same thing. Now that they are out they behave like kittens. Meow Meow – bunch of hypocrites. How can Harper be even respected in Ottawa, the guy is a promoter of autocracies.
As if we’d get a straight answer out of a Conservative MP. Rachael Thomas and Shannon Stubbs have assured me it’s all about the leverage. John Barlow just wants less woke government gopher control and more strychnine please.
Emily: I would suggest that it’s likely any MP who says it’s just about the leverage has already signed the petition. DJC
As an aside: The Conservative friend of the Vice-King of the Excited States says that King Donnie “loves Canadians”. Does that mean he would treat us the same way he, his court jesters, and his herd of ‘brown shirts’ treat the citizens of their own country?
Bruce— Energi media has some interesting insights into Maybelline’s little Canadian bulldog taking time off of nipping at Skippy’s heels to go pray in capital of the brown shirts. Though one bright light did warn of karma & ice.
Has Stephen Harper not been involved, and possibly president of, some right wing international group hell bent on weakening democracies around the world, since he was defeated as Canadian PM? And they’ve had great success… He has no credibility in terms of defending Canadian democracy!
Harper did not sign the petition? I am not so sure. Now he is playing this game of the nice past prime minister but he is supporting Viktor Orban. He is the head of the International Democratic Union doing exactly what this article explains
https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2019/08/06/Harper-Heads-Global-Org-Help-Elect-Right-Wing-Parties/
Harper is now trying to soften his behaviour but we all know very well who he actually is.
Viktor Orban calls himself an Illiberal Democrat !! What a joke and so is Harper. An opportunist.
Thanks for that link! Great article, the Trojan horse appears to be in place. The right wing financial lords know there is more profit potential within a united Canada, so Harper may just convince the less extreme individuals that separation is not a good thing, but we can likely get some laws changed in our favour if we just keep screaming stupid stuff!… It’s a sad situation that we need the support of a traitor to help save our democracy; we’ll just have to pay later I guess..
Always the same propaganda to keep us tamed and accepting our decrepit democracy.
Harper was a mediocre prime minister and once he left office he became an even more mediocre regular citizen, contributing openly to weakening democracies around the world. That is the truth. So him showing up now and pretending that he is with the crowd is just another propaganda trick.
DC: “Mr. Harper should also mention the Firewall Letter. He should say – perhaps even if it isn’t strictly true – that it was never the intention of its authors, all of whom are still in the land of the living, to inspire a separatist movement in Western Canada.”
The good die young.
While the Firewall authors plague us still, their proposals turned into zombies. Rising from the dead to wreak havoc no matter how many times they are put down.
Danielle Smith rails against “nine bad laws” — most of which seek to preserve life on the planet we live on.
The Firewall authors had at least nine terrible, horrible, no good, very bad ideas.
Which Smith is still flogging decades later.
Heaven help us!
They already sold our province and maybe even our country to foreign entities and they don’t know how to get it back. Not only that but the big ugly beast they helped create is demanding more, with their investment portfolios at risk so they are scrambling to keep feeding it our assets, in energy, data centers, water, etc – under the guise of separation. Money over sovereignty even if it’s submitting to an autocrat. Or to the Chinese. Maybe even driven by fear. The British loyalists and perpetuators of the new world order did not expect Trump to usurp the throne, so now what? They don’t have the answer to the problem they created and did not have the foresight to see it coming. Clearly they did not watch game of thrones.
I should have said ‘read’ game of thrones as it was before the show that the Harper and Carney economics sent us down this one way road.
I don’t believe Stephen Harper, or Danielle Smith.
The Alberta New Democrats are currently running a program where they have all signed a document affirming their commitment to keeping Alberta in Canada, and are challenging UCP MLAs to sign the same form. Stephen Harper’s comments makes me thing the AB New Democrats should expand their program to include the Alberta Members of Parliament.
@Bob
Also, where’s Skippy’s security clearance? *cough cough*
And why aren’t the media hammering on it and asking the obvious question, “Why not? Because you can’t criticise the government’s foreign policy with it? (that’s his claim) How do you think you’re going to be able to criticise something that you’re not invited into the room to learn about it because you don’t have the clearance? How can you form an opposing argument, which is your job in parliament, when you don’t know anything about it?”
B…. “Bruce Fanjoy”
has introduced a petition that calls for mandatory security clearance for opposition leaders…..e7148 ….(snap)
@randi-lee
Let’s hope that goes through. Wonder if Skippy will pass?
When Harper first got elected, he banned the press from the Conservative hallways of parliament. All interviews for his MP’s had to be approved by the PMO and all questions had to be vetted by the PMO as well. He gutted Canadian environmental and climate monitoring, he used to work for Imperial Oil. Peter C. Newman stated, “A few more years of Harper and we’re going to have to change the name of our country.” Harper was no better than Mulroney. I’m sorry, I don’t like him and I don’t trust him.
@Jones
100% with you here. I spent the entire tenure of Harpo fighting the government over it’s austerity budget from which, the working class still hasn’t fully recovered.
The problem with Harper right now is that he’s claiming he wants what’s right for Canada but that’s a bold-faced lie. He doesn’t. He never did. He spent his entire political career, just like Doug Ford, advocating for, and rewarding the corporatists and enacting an agenda to crush all opposition and to turn Canada into an authoritarian hellscape.
Leopards don’t change their spots. He was an abominable human being then and he’s still one.
Canada has two official languages. This is offensive to Alberta, according to Smith. Whataboutism? You betcha. What about people who are bilingual in other languages that aren’t Canada’s official languages? I mean really, what about it?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alta-judges-legal-experts-francophone-groups-9.7075285
Even Stephen Harper had a change of heart about bilingualism.
https://macleans.ca/news/canada/why-should-a-pm-speak-french-political-reality/
Is our petty premier planning a secret CPC leadership bid and finding French a little harder than she expected? Por favor, la Jefa, this isn’t Panama. Why don’t you run for leader of Panama instead? I hear the US president might be looking for someone to do that.
The true conservatives in my world haven’t forgotten how these Reformers lead by Stephen Harper, and including Pierre Poilievre, Brian Jean, Jim Prentice, and Jason Kenney screwed Canadians out of $35 billion. My conservative family lost at least $30,000. In typical Reform Party Fashion they lied to the people, promising not to tax the Income Trust Investment then did just that, just like we have seen them do at the provincial level. They are great liars.
Then Harper’s gang cut taxes to benefit the rich and increased the Federal government debt by $151 billion and it got them kicked out when they tried replace the lost revenue by cutting billions off federal healthcare transfers to the provinces to force us into privatization of healthcare, and they wonder why people aren’t dumb enough to elect them again. Smith is trying the same stupidity with Albertans and the mindless senior idiots see nothing wrong with what she’s doing.
Alan K. Spiller: I remember that very well. Now, Danielle Smith let Stephen Harper manage AIMCo. What could possibly go wrong? The UCP already lost $4 billion of pension money through AIMCo.
I’m not sure what Marlaina’s beef is with the judges. The CoKB judges appointed by Li’l Magus in Alberta are tuned right into the Alberta legal tradition of protecting the plutocrats, just like Harpo’s selections.
@Murphy,
Cuz you can’t be a full-fledged dictator if the courts can stop you…Yeesh lol
That’s an interesting bit of history with regard to government house ; I do believe they left that bit off the tour when I took it. Such a lovely building, a shame what has been allowed to happen to that site.
Interesting image of Canada’s best PM sitting next to the worst. This maybe part of Harper’s rehabilitation campaign, not unless the one that Geo. W. Bush is involved in. However, regardless of how much their turd of a public image is polished, there’s no doubt that Bush was a disastrous president, and Harper proves what happens when a complete idiot is left in charge.
Haven’t commented here in years. Mindless drivel and utter nonsense is all I ever hear from Smith, and I’m here way over on the East Coast. If shovels hadn’t been invented, they’d have to do so in order to tip her sayings out the premier’s office window onto the garbage heap, which is getting dangerously high.
So I heard Smith’s whining about federal judges being appointed not by her, and the usual BS from Harper (or was it that intellectual giant toad Poilievre — one dolt is as useless as the other to me) fulminating his age-old gripe about Alberta not having enough sway in Canada. Well, we don’t need a province with 12% of the population running the country, so keep griping. I mean, heck, NObody cares what Nova Scotia thinks, but for some illogical reason people of dull conservative intellect from Alberta think we should all shout hurray and emulate them. No thanks.
Nice post, DJC. Somehow you keep carrying the torch. Hard work there to keep motivated against the never-ending hordes of armpit scratchers. I guess someone has to do it! Congrats. (And the St Alberts Mission U19AA Ringette team beat NS this aft in Guelph. Got a family young lady in the NS team, and we were mostly asleep it seemed to me. Dear oh dear)
Thanks, Bill. Go St. Albert Mission! DJC