Citizen
By Eric Dowd
Toronto – To understand
Stephen Harper you should know for three years he ran a group started in
and often focused on Ontario that was slightly to the right of Mike Harris
and Margaret Thatcher, although this never emerged much in the federal
election.
The federal Conservative leader
in a break from elected politics was from 1998-2001 president of the
National Citizens’ Coalition, founded by Colin Brown, a wealthy
insurance executive and Progressive Conservative activist, in London,
Ontario.
Brown
in the 1960s was a friend of Conservative premier John Robarts, also from
London, and his company managed a lot of provincial civil servants’
pension funds.
Brown’s
only other claim to fame was he took Robarts and a planeload of about 60
politicians and business leaders annually to the United States to watch
the Masters golf tournament.
News
media of the time reported this as a sporting event, but the businessmen
must have been grateful to have this opportunity to hobnob with
politicians who made many decisions that affected them.
Brown
founded the NCC in 1968 mainly to criticize the size and cost of
government and claimed it represents `ordinary people,’ although it has
not pressed much for more safety in the workplace or a higher minimum
wage.
He
did not have the same rapport with Robarts’s successor as premier,
William Davis, who was a more moderate Tory, did not go on the golf trips
and presumably recognized accepting them would place him in a conflict of
interest.
Brown
and the NCC even attacked Davis after he helped Liberal prime minister
Pierre Trudeau secure a formula enabling the federal and provincial
governments to change the Constitution and insert a Charter protecting
rights.
The
NCC accused Davis of surrendering to Trudeau, helping him make a power
grab and resembling Neville Chamberlain.
He
was the British prime minister who bowed and scraped to Hitler in a vain
attempt to avert World War Two -- we are not making this up, as negative
ads said in the election – and it was among the most disgraceful
comparisons ever in Ontario politics.
This was before Harper ran the NCC, but he must have known of and felt comfortable with its policies and tactics or he would not have agreed to lead it.
The
NCC attacked a later Conservative leader, Larry Grossman, for supporting
pay equity, rent controls and minor protection from discrimination for
homosexuals, all now commonly accepted.
The
NCC said Grossman was `more socialist than the socialists’ and urged
Conservatives to withhold donations, but Grossman retorted being
criticized by the NCC raised his stature with voters.
When
the New Democrats were in government, an NCC offshoot, Ontarians for
Responsible Government, claimed it had a poll showing `a shocking’ 41
per cent of residents felt it was managing the economy so poorly they
would seriously consider leaving the province if they could afford to.
Not
many would believe this and it proved only questions in a poll can be
worded to obtain almost any desired answer.
The
NCC accused Brian Mulroney when he was Conservative prime minister of
being `too pink’ and `subsidizing socialism.’
It
ran ads saying an NDP leader, Ed Broadbent, whom most people probably
would consider as comfortable as old shoes, was `very, very scary.’
The
NCC also ran huge, cruel ads criticizing a federal Conservative government
decision to allow in 50,000 Vietnamese refugees, arguing they would bring
in too many relatives, take jobs from Canadians, find housing scarce and
feel out of place, and the government replied this smacked of racism
Under
Harper the NCC lobbied for tax credits for parents who send their children
to private schools, which helps mostly, although not only, the better-off,
weakens public education and in Ontario has been introduced by Harris and
rejected by the current Liberal government.
The
NCC also would sell all crown corporations whose functions can be
performed by the private sector and not even Harris or Thatcher went that
far. How much of this does Harper still believe?
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