Stephen Harper

Our country is badly in need of a Conservative renaissance at the national level. Indeed, I think the future of the country, and the future of our middle- ...

He called the Reform Party a “product of that era” that advocated for “very orthodox economic policy” but was nonetheless “portrayed as radical by the media and rejected by the elites,” which he compared to how Conservative Leader “That's sort of the pickle I think they find themselves in is that so much of the funding infrastructure for the Conservative movement comes from people with a libertarian bent and yet that's just not popular politically.” But in terms of the general population I just don't think that sticks,” he said. During his speech, Harper offered a history lesson in conservatism, populism and the Reform Party of Canada that birthed his political life. The Reform Party’s success in the early 1990s Harper linked to the rise of influential conservative politicians in the previous decade, like U.S. “Our country is badly in need of a Conservative renaissance at the national level.

Canada needs a “Conservative renaissance,” former prime minister Stephen Harper said, but he cautioned that Pierre Poilievre should wait until an election ...

He said its owes credit to Preston Manning, founder of the populist Reform Party, a precursor to the Canadian Alliance, which merged with the Progressive Conservatives to form the Conservative Party of Canada. Poilievre's election as party leader last September appears to have changed that, with Harper throwing his endorsement behind Poilievre, which was the first time he had done so for a Conservative leader. Canada needs a “Conservative renaissance,” former prime minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday, but he cautioned that Pierre Poilievre should wait until an election before telling Canadians how he might run the country.

The former prime minister gave a speech before a conference once dubbed the “Woodstock” of the conservative movement.

“But it’s not to talk about how you would run the country. Harper would later become the leader of the successor to the Reform party, the Canadian Alliance; when it merged with the Progressive Conservatives, he became leader of the new party, the Conservatives. They were once political brothers in arms, working to transform the Reform party — which was founded as a Western grassroots protest response to the Progressive Conservatives — into a national political party capable of forming government. He also remains a presence in the conservative movement itself, something Harper paid tribute to in his speech Wednesday night, a 20 minute run through nearly 100 years of conservative history in Canada dating back all the way to the days of the prairie populists right up to the modern incarnation. Harper’s remarks to a conference once dubbed the “Woodstock” of the conservative movement marked a return to the domestic political spotlight for the former prime minister. There is time to develop those, Harper said, and given the federal NDP is a “branch plant” of the Liberals, the current Conservative party doesn’t need to do anything to be a contender in the next election — it will be one, and Poilievre has a shot at winning.

Canada needs a Conservative renaissance at the national level, former prime minister Stephen Harper told attendees at Canada's largest conservative ...

Liberal media is imprecise and often negative when referring to populism, blaming any election they don’t like on it, he said. But, he said if Poilievre forms government, he will be leading under much tougher circumstances than Harper did. The party has been led by different leaders in all three elections, with both Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole leaving the top job shortly after failing to form government.

In a rare public speech, Harper reminisced about the early days of the Reform Party and suggested a similarly insurgent movement is required in Canadian ...

The conservative movement came to Ottawa at a time when the party appears to be leading in public polling, but with no general election imminent. Read more: Comparing the current geopolitical climate to the 1970s, Harper cast Poilievre – who is scheduled to speak to the conference on Thursday – in a line of Reformers that grew out of the political tumult of that decade.