本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The evolution of Stephen Harper and his party
Bill Doskoch, CTV.ca News

Imagine a Canadian political party that proposes radical conservative change: To stop regional development; cancel universality for social programs (including old age security); restrict immigration; and hold binding national referendums on issues such as capital punishment and abortion …

In Canada, there was such a party in our recent history -- the Reform Party. And Stephen Harper, the Conservative Party's leader, was once its policy chief.

Harper cut his political teeth in Ottawa working for a Progressive Conservative MP. But believing then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney wasn't doing enough to move Canada in a truly conservative direction, he left the Tories.

After a chance meeting with Reform leader Preston Manning, Harper became active in his Western-based, grassroots movement. But by 1997, he left over differences with Manning.

After a break from politics, Harper returned in 2002 to head Reform's successor, the Canadian Alliance, and was instrumental in merging that party with the Progressive Conservatives.

The new Conservative Party of Canada lost the federal election in 2004 when the Liberals successfully painted Harper and his MPs as scary extremists. In response, Harper has now remade himself as a Conservative moderate. Today he's even taking advice from Mulroney, and some of the former PM's key associates have joined him on the campaign trail.

During this 2006 election campaign, Harper's Conservatives announced some major centre-right policies that appear to be quite mainstream. However, others, including the Liberal Party, warn the hard-right policies of the Reform and Canadian Alliance Parties still lie beneath the surface.

"I don't believe Stephen Harper's changed as much as the party tries to suggest he's changed," Steve Patten, a University of Alberta political scientist who's studied the Reform Party, told CTV.ca.

"He still drifts off into Reform Party territory some days, as he did when he suggested the courts may become opposition to a government he forms, like an American Republican who's always complaining of Democrats stacking the Supreme Court," Craig Oliver, CTV's chief political correspondent, adds.

Patten said the core values held by the founding Reform-Alliance members still dominate the party.

"It's a matured version of the Reform-Alliance strain of the party," he said. "Harper, although he has the same core values he had back in the late 1980s or early 1990s, doesn't approach politics or the political world in the same way."

While the Conservative leader still opposes same-sex marriage, Harper has softened official policy, saying government should extend civil union benefits to gays and lesbian couples. Harper also said indirectly on Jan. 14 that he would extend his proposed childcare benefit to children of gay and lesbian couples.

During the second English-language leaders' debate, Harper said a Conservative government would enshrine property rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Patten explained it's an idea Canadian conservatives of various stripes have long dreamed of. For Reformers, "that was even more central to their notion of how rights should be defined and protected," he said.

Here's a comparison of Conservative policies proposed in their platform to policies of the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties.

Law and order: The Conservatives want mandatory sentences for gun-related crimes and would try 14-year-olds as adults for violent crimes or repeat offences. That's somewhat more moderate than the Reform Party, which would have seen 10-year-olds tried as adults. The Tories also want to toughen up parole eligibility and scrap the gun registry. As well, the Tories say they would "enact effective deportation laws," which was an important part of Reform justice policy.

Regional Development: Unlike the Reform Party, the current Conservatives would continue regional development agencies (Harper has apologized over the course of this campaign for saying in 2002 that Atlantic Canada had a "culture of defeat").

Senate reform: The Conservatives have said they would appoint elected senators as a first step. A cornerstone of the old Reform Party was the Triple-E Senate -- equal, effective and elected.

Medicare: The Tories stand behind the principles of the Canada Health Act. The Reform Party would have made medicare a spending priority, but would have cut any strings on the money and allowed provinces to pursue private care.

Quebec: Harper has said he'll address the fiscal imbalance, respect provincial jurisdiction and give Quebec a slightly bigger presence on the world stage. Reform, which had a decentralized vision of Canada, saw all provinces as equal. It would have given them all powers to protect their linguistic and cultural uniqueness.

Fiscal conservatism: Reform was aggressive in making deficits a political issue, but felt deficits should be dealt with through spending cuts. The Alliance pushed for tax cuts. Targeted tax cuts are a key part of the Conservative platform in 2006.

While the Reform Party had a strong social conservative streak, William Johnson, author of Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, said Harper personally is not a social conservative.

"He wants to appeal to social Conservatives because he said, again consistently, that for the Conservatives to come to power they have to have a coalition between the economic Conservatives and Libertarians -- which he is -- and the social Conservatives."

Harper also believes moral issues should be a matter of individual conscience, not party policy, he said.

By not making abortion and same-sex marriage party issues, Johnson noted Harper has in effect marginalized the social conservatives.

"Because the vote (on same-sex marriage) will be a free vote, and he will vote one way, yes, but the Bloc, and most of the Liberals and NDP almost to a person would oppose anything that limited abortion or same-sex marriage, it's not going to go anywhere."

"So his position has been consistent, and there's no hidden agenda. He's a very upfront, what-you-see-is-what-you-get man."

Patten said that while Harper has sidelined some of the more extremist people in his caucus, "the party has maintained its hard ideological commitment to the kinds of things people like Stephen Harper have always believed in."

He also said what many Red Tories saw in the wake of the merger drove them to abandon the party.

For example, Keith Martin (originally elected as a Reform MP) and Scott Brison (originally elected as a Progressive Conservative) both joined the Liberal ranks. Prominent Progressive Conservatives such as Andre Bachand, Rick Borotsik and Joe Clark left politics altogether.

However, others like former Mulroney aide Hugh Segal, who had been highly critical of Reform, are now advising the Conservative leader.

Harper has described his current party as having four main pillars: Red Tories, social conservatives, economic conservatives and reformers.

But, what kind of government will be created by such a mix?

"You'd need a crystal ball!" laughed Patten.

That being said, he adds that while Harper has promised he has no hidden agenda and doesn't want radical change, he may have no choice.

"There'll be all sorts of pressures for him to do something radical. There are members of his party who have been waiting a long time to undo Liberal and Progressive Conservative policies they disagree with," Patten said.

And while Harper assures Canadians there are a number of factors that would keep his government in check -- including a Liberal senate, Liberal courts and a civil service appointed by the Liberals -- that may not deter him.

"I believe Stephen Harper is the kind of person who would rather leave his mark on Canada than win two terms in a row," Patten said.

"If there's a majority, people should expect real change."更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net