What you don't know about Stephen Harper
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National
special report
What you don’t know
about Stephen Harper
His backroom battles, diplomatic scraps, betrayals and secret insecurities.
Behind the scenes of five years in power. By Paul Wells and John Geddes.
ops committee’s consensus: Harper should vive as leader of the Conservative Party of
1. crisis point: the day he ask the governor general to prorogue Parlia- Canada.”
almost gave up power ment, suspending the legislative session It is hard to pick a highlight in Stephen
almost before it had begun. Only three days Harper’s five years as Prime Minister, but
Stephen Harper’s life and work made earlier, Harper had promised Canadians he that’s the low point right there. Harper started
no sense to him if he wasn’t the prime min- would put his government to a confidence fighting back within hours. The coalition crisis
ister of Canada. Having the title wasn’t his vote that would determine its fate. Proroga- ended so soon that already its details blur. But
goal. He needed to hold on, long enough to tion would cancel that vote. It was for the it indelibly marked the thinking of its near-
change a country. Everything he had done good of the country, Prentice said. Give every- victim. At every point since the immediate
in politics since 2002 was designed to unite one a chance to cool down. crisis ended, Harper has insisted, over the
his base and divide his enemies. Now his Harper was tempted by another path. Let objections of Dion’s successor Michael Ignati-
enemies were united. He was lost. them win, he said, with no great conviction. eff, that the opposition parties will reunite if
It was Monday afternoon, Dec. 1, 2008. Let Stéphane Dion try to run the country, they see a chance.
On Harper’s desk sat a copy of the coalition with Jack Layton calling the shots and Gilles Whenever the next election comes, he told
deal Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe sitting in judgment over the whole Maclean’s in January 2009, “the electorate
Duceppe would sign in a public ceremony a mess. It’ll fall apart in six months. We’ll pick will know that if you’re not electing the Con-
few hours later. Its demure title blackened up the pieces in the next election. Come back servative government you’re going to be
his mood even further: “A policy accord to stronger than ever. electing a coalition that will include the NDP
address the present economic crisis.” The James Moore cut in. Prime Minister, he and the separatists.”
first paragraph gave the game away: this was said, you can’t be sure it will work that way. “I really think he believes this,” one of his
about a “new government.” Not his. They’ll be so terrified of facing the voters ministers says. “This is not a line.” On its face,
At times like this, other leaders have been they’ll cling to one another for a long time. it means the biggest confrontation of a career
visited by close friends or trusted confidants They may even make this thing work. You built on brinksmanship still lies ahead.
who helped them look past the crisis of the can’t know. Meanwhile it is getting time to take stock.
moment toward history. But Stephen Harper The Prime Minister was unconvinced. It He has been Prime Minister for five years,
has no close friend in politics, so the three men fell to Jay Hill to make the strongest appeal. longer than Lester Pearson. Not by accident,
waiting outside his door would have to do. “Prime Minister,” he said quietly, “If you give because in a House where the Conservatives
Jim Prentice was the chairman of the cab- up power now, I don’t know if you can sur- have no natural allies, an accident is politic-
inet operations committee, which had been ally life-threatening. By tenacity. While he
holding its weekly meeting down the hall. survives, he chips at the way the country is
The job of “ops” is to put out fires, and this governed, avoiding grand gestures that could
mess qualified. Jay Hill was Prentice’s vice- provide an easy target. It’s why he is deter-
Sean Kilpatrick/CP; Blair Gable/REUTERS
chair, rough-hewn where Prentice was smooth. mined to endure: because he needs the time.
He had known Harper longer than the others, His method is not revolution, or even evolu-
since they had first sat in the Commons as tion. It’s erosion. The object of his steady
Reform party rookies in 1993. James Moore attention isn’t the way Canada works, its laws
was the youngest minister in cabinet, just 33, and transfer dollars, not primarily, anyway.
eager, intense.
Ray Novak, the guardian at the PM’s door, Let them win? Harper suggested letting the
let them in. Haltingly, Prentice laid out the coalition govern. It’ll fall apart, he said.
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It’s the way Canadians think. That is what he of those subsidies, but they wouldn’t bite. Backstage jitters: Harper and his wife, Lau-
wants to change. “Is this a centre-right coun- Conservatives got more votes than other par- reen, pause before a campaign rally in 2008
try?” one of his closest campaign advisers ties, after all. They’d lose more free money.
asks rhetorically. “No.” Harper’s game is to Almost as soon as news of the vote-subsidy if the choice is Conservative majority or all-
change that. cut leaked on Wednesday night, though, it but-Conservative coalition, then how will the
New interviews with Conservative caucus became clear the opposition parties meant Conservatives be able to govern with a minor-
members and current and former Harper to do more than yelp. “This means war,” the ity like the one they have now? A member of
advisers give fresh insight into Stephen Harp- quote-o-matic NDP MP Pat Martin said. Harper’s government simply shrugged when
er’s method. This winter, with no crisis loom- Thursday, Flaherty tabled his statement in that question was put to him.
ing, Harper’s circle has been more relaxed the Commons, making the threat real. All What’s clear is that Harper hasn’t forgot-
and frank than at some earlier moments. three opposition leaders spoke against it. ten the day his enemies almost took his job
They feel freer to reminisce about the boss’s Friday, Dion’s Liberals announced they from him. He cannot believe they won’t try
temperament and method, and to speculate would table a no-confidence motion at the again. Until then he governs as he believes
on his goals. But sooner or later, even now, first opportunity. Friday afternoon, Harper he has governed for every day he has had this
any discussion about how Harper manages walked downstairs to a scrum mike in the job: under siege.
to keep winning turns to the moment he Centre Block foyer and announced he was
almost lost it all. postponing all votes in the Commons for a
week. Plainly, he was buying time. Plainly, he 2. Taking on Ottawa: the secret
The food in Lima was treacherous. Of had no better idea yet. Saturday, Transport to moving the country right
8,000 delegates at the APEC Minister John Baird showed
summit in Peru, Nov. 22 up at the CBC building on Someone who was there paraphrased
and 23, 2008, more than
he was uncertain. Queen Street in Ottawa to Harper’s message to his ministers at his first
100 developed upset stom- his wife, laureen, announce the government cabinet meeting in 2006: “I am the kingpin.
achs or worse. The Peruvian told him the party would not go ahead with the So whatever you do around me, you have to
government put out a news vote-subsidy cut. know that I am sacrosanct.” Harper was tell-
release blaming the weather faithful expected him No matter. In hotels across ing his ministers that they were expendable
in Lima, “characterized at to show leadership. the capital, negotiating teams but that he wasn’t. If they had to go so that
this time of year by midday organized a coalition gov- his credibility and his ability to get things
heat, but cool breezes in the mornings and ernment, led by Dion, seconded by Layton, opportunity. It was like a gift to us.” questions about the coalition,” one staffer said. well aware of the danger. done were protected, so be it.
afternoons,” for “upset stomachs” among with a pledge of confidence-vote support from Yet later that evening, as Tories gathered “Whatever they were originally polling on. It They ignored it. “Everyone knew that the “It wasn’t personal,” this source said. “It
“unprepared diners.” Duceppe. The negotiators showed up at the for their annual Christmas party at Ottawa’s could have been about corn syrup.” use of the word ‘separatist’ was inflamma- was his office.” The office was fragile. Harper
Stephen Harper was one of the victims. annual Press Gallery dinner on Saturday night Westin Hotel, many of the rank and file were What they found was a high level of con- tory,” one of them said. “But that was a prob- limped into the PMO with 124 seats out of
The APEC food knocked him off his feet. flushed with excitement. In the cold outside the still in a coalition funk. In fact, one Conserva- cern about what Dion and the others were lem for another day. We had to save the 308, 31 short of a majority. The Liberals had
After he landed back in Ottawa it mutated Museum of Civilization, Doug Finley, Harp- tive official says Harper himself seemed unsure up to. Duceppe’s presence was the biggest government.” kept 103 seats. The gap between the two was
into a sullen and thuggish flu. His mood er’s dour Scottish campaign manager, stood what tone to take in addressing the crowd. It source of concern, followed by the prospect In the end they did. On Wednesday night 15 seats narrower than it had been, in the
was foul and his body weak for days before cradling a scotch and taking a smoke break. was his wife, Laureen, in a quiet moment in of Dion as prime minister. The presence of the party leaders broadcast statements to the Liberals’ favour, after the 2004 election. The
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty tabled his fall One reporter suggested Harper’s options came a kitchen off the main hall, with only a few New Democrats in the federal cabinet fell a nation, making the case for keeping or rejecting Liberals still outnumbered the Conservatives
economic update. down to “fight” or “contrite.” other staffers in the room, who told him the distant third on the list of hot buttons. the coalition. Dion’s video was delivered late in Ontario. Harper’s party had been shut out
That moment came on Thursday, Nov. 27. “Oh, we won’t be contrite,” Finley said. faithful expected him to show leadership. So Conservatives started hitting those buttons and out of focus. The fight went right out of of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
The stakes were high. The election had ended But the boss had no fight in him as late as he needed to rally his own spirits. Harper with every tool at hand. “The whole gamut,” the Liberals. On Thursday, Harper paid a long “He believed it would be a much shorter
as a debate about how to handle the loom- Monday, Dec. 1. He just looked deflated in ignored a prepared text and delivered a rous- the staffer said. “Paid advertising, grass- visit to Rideau Hall and Parliament was pro- term of government than it actually ended
ing recession. Harper had won by promising question period. It wasn’t until nearly 5 p.m. ing attack calling the coalition a separatist- roots mobilization, events, rogued. Four days later, Dion up being,” this insider from the early days
to avoid recession and deficit. Already those that he saw his shot. The coalition partners led attack on democracy. “It sounded like a a media blitz.”
promises were fading, at least in the memory gathered in Parliament’s Railway Committee come-from-behind speech by a coach in a Perhaps the campaign’s
‘if you give up power announced his resignation
as Liberal leader.
said. “That had everything to do with the
design of his office and the government.
of the man who had made them. Before the Room to sign their astonishing manifesto. basketball movie,” one partygoer said. biggest target was the now,’ said jay hill, The attempted coalition Everything was about control over message,
ceviche cut him down in Peru, Harper had Gilles Duceppe was one of the three, seated The next day Harper just about ate Dion involvement of the Bloc. ‘ I don’t know if you was gone. But not forgotten. delivering the five priorities, and writing the
told Asia-Pacific heads of government that a and treated as an equal. in question period. “Mr. Speaker, the high- Never mind that the party Conservatives marvelled at mandate letters so they would be specific.”
jumbo dose of fiscal stimulus would be needed “There are moments when this government est principle of Canadian democracy is that would have no members in can survive as the spike in support for their Harper brought in Derek Burney, a former
in many countries. But Flaherty’s fall update talks to the country, to our supporters and our if one wants to be prime minister, one gets the government; its support leader of the party’ party at the height of the chief of staff to Brian Mulroney, to run the
didn’t mention anything of the sort. What it networks,” one member of Harper’s govern- one’s mandate from the Canadian people, for the Liberals and NDP, crisis, with well over 40 per transition. Burney had been involved in
did propose was an end to the $1.95-per-vote ment said much later. “This wasn’t that. This and not from Quebec separatists.” In the and Duceppe’s presence at the announcement, cent saying they would vote for the besieged throwing together a hectic last-minute tran-
taxpayer-paid subsidy for political parties. was the country talking to us. Immediately after gallery above, Harper’s staff cheered and was enough for the Harper crew. “This was so party. Thousands backed that sentiment with sition plan in 2004, when the Conservatives
The idea, sources say now, came from the the press conference it was a kind of electric pumped their fists until Hill security guards hot among NDP-Reform switchers in Western cash. “We’d never raised so much money,” were amazed to discover they had a long shot
Conservative caucus, not from the top. Gov- shock. Every phone line, every email, every shushed them. Canada,” one of them said. Some Conserva- the senior campaign official said. “It was a at winning. They didn’t, but Harper read the
ernment MPs were not pleased to beat the blog, every radio commentary lit up like Vegas tives, including some who spoke on cable-TV banner month for fundraising.” package Burney, Hugh Segal and others had
PHOTOGRAPH BY Ian Barrett
Liberals, NDP or Bloc in their ridings, only on jackpot day.” As always, Harper’s instincts were bol- political shows for the party, were very wor- Within a month, Harper was telling inter- prepared, and asked Burney to lead the exer-
to see voters bankroll the losing candidates’ “There had been a bit of a sense of defeat,” stered with as much polling as his staff could ried that all this talk about a “coalition with viewers the coalition crisis would be replayed cise if it was ever needed again.
future comeback attempts, whether they Chris Froggatt, a former ministerial chief of hurry to gather. “We reached out to Tories who the separatists” would hurt the Conservatives if Conservatives don’t win a majority at the By 2006, Burney still didn’t know Harper
wanted to or not. The Conservatives figured staff, said, “and then when that happened it were in the market-research community who in Quebec, where the Bloc’s legitimacy is next election. He has not swayed from that well. He says his marching orders were clear:
the opposition parties might yelp at the end was just a sense that we were handed an were already in the field and asked them to add unquestioned. Harper’s campaign team was message. In some ways, it’s an odd message: “Keep it simple, keep it focused.” With a small
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mostly about the perception that Canadian displacing the Liberal vision and the Liberal years in office. A central theme of Harper’s
conservatives didn’t care whether the country narrative of Canada,” the strategist says. “But remarks was patriotism and love of country.
flourished or disappeared. “A reliable source we needed to give the conservative side some- This helps explain why Conservatives are so
claims that a famous right-wing pundit, a star thing to rally around.” So almost from the pleased to face a Liberal leader like Michael
of the National Post, was heard to say, ‘The Post beginning, Harper started building a distinct Ignatieff, whose many years living abroad
has a problem. It was started to save Canada, right-of-centre, patriotic new vocabulary. “It’s make him vulnerable to attack on the very
but Canada isn’t worth saving.’ ” the Arctic,” this strategist said. “It’s the mil- ground where Harper used to play defence.
This raises a question, Grace wrote. “Does itary. It’s the RCMP. It’s the embrace of hockey And Ignatieff has had to laboriously learn
the right hate Canada?” and lacrosse and curling.” In policy terms, it his party’s ancient rules and culture. Harper
While the article was on the newsstands, included the child care cheques and the built his party from scratch to do what he
Stephen Harper became accompanying rhetoric of wants it to do. The Conservative Party of
leader of the Canadian Alli- families able to make their Canada has existed for only a few months
ance. Of course not a lot of
belinda stronach’s own choices. longer than he has led it. Which helps explain
people were reading The defection helped. Some internal debates the seamless connections between the gov-
Report, but many who did ‘the revulsion at over this clash of visions ernment, the party’s campaign team and its
were on Harper’s staff. They were almost surreal. It galled fundraising shop.
were badly rattled by its her’ brought the some within the Canadian “It’s not the old Progressive Conservatives,
implications. party together. Alliance, and later the Con- it’s not the old Reform-Alliance party,” says
“We didn’t have a compet- servatives, that the only col- Peter Harder, who served as deputy minister
ing narrative,” one of them says now. “What ours on the national flag were red and white, of foreign affairs during Harper’s first year
are the symbols people talk about when they and the Liberals had a monopoly on red. They in office. “It’s a party that was formed so
talk about Canada? Health care. The Charter. even considered adopting red and white as recently before coming into power that this
Peacekeeping. The United Nations. The CBC. the official colours of the Canadian Alliance focusing on the party is logical.”
Almost every single example was a Liberal before deciding to fight their battles on other Harder contends that the Harper team’s
achievement or a Liberal policy. terrain. constant attention to the party’s political
“We had gotten to a point in Canada where But in these early debates we see the impulses fortunes has made Ottawa feel more like
the conservative side of politics had been Harper has brought to so many of his deci- Washington. “It’s an Americanization of our
marginalized—where we weren’t even recog- sions, long past the six-month window after political culture. It’s more a White House
nized as legitimately Canadian.” January 2006. A few issues with a lot of emo- operation than a parliamentary, prime min-
On guard: The Tories had to create a new patriotic vocabulary. Thus the focus on the Arctic, the military, the embrace of hockey, lacrosse and curling. That’s what you get when the Liberals run tional significance get way more attention from isterial operation.”
the country for most of a century: a party Harper’s office and from senior ministers than One measure of the heavy emphasis on
team composed mostly of veterans from the “He actually went over them line by line easy money, started mailing cheques to par- that starts further back in the public debate others. An issue gets special attention if it has strategy is who matters most in the PMO,
Mulroney years, they designed a plan for a with me, and in a very meticulous fashion,” ents of young children, and introduced the than any opposition party anywhere else. the potential to shift the national debate onto and who is missed when they leave. One of
smaller cabinet than Martin’s, with far fewer Burney said. “There was not a lot of chit- first of many tough-on-crime initiatives. The “Nobody believes that the Democratic party terms favourable to Conservatives. “We’ve Harper’s close collaborators says the biggest
cabinet committees. “The PCO”—the Privy chat. This was not a Rotarian kind of guy.” fifth priority, a health care wait-times guar- in the U.S. is not an American party. In Aus- implemented a series of shifts,” the strategist change in the PMO over Harper’s years was
Council Office, the bureaucracy’s central If something in one of the mandate letters antee, would be a tougher nut to crack. Five tralia, both of the major parties are recog- said. “On foreign policy. On defence. On crim- not the exit of two chiefs of staff, Ian Brodie
organizing hub—“had become a mammoth conflicted with language in the Conserva- years later Harper still hasn’t made serious nized as legitimate parts of the debate.” inal justice. On federalism. On the tax system, and Guy Giorno. It wasn’t the departure of
operation under Martin,” Burney said. “It tive election platform, Harper would spot progress on it. In Canada, Harper had to carve out a patri- especially as it affects families.” two clerks of the Privy Council, Alex Himel-
was more than three times the size that it had it and give Burney the wording for a correc- But go back to those first four. During the otic vocabulary that was different from the The result was on display on Jan. 23 at an farb and Kevin Lynch. No, the hole Harper
been in my time, in the late ’80s.” tion. “It was very different from what I was campaign Harper didn’t only say they were Liberals’. “We didn’t have any illusions about Ottawa-area rally to celebrate Harper’s five has been unable to fill was left when electoral
A trimmer organization would permit the used to,” Burney says. “Mulroney would have cinches to accomplish. “They will have longer- strategist Patrick Muttart left in 2009 to work
government to focus. “I know it sounds silly said, ‘Well, what do these letters say, Derek?’ term impacts,” he added. “The country will in the United States.
to say it now,” Burney says, And you’d explain them for be different because of them.” “The one difference with big structural
“but it was also intended,
indirectly, to get more power
it galled some that five seconds and he’d sign
them, or not.”
That’s the game. Harper wanted to lock in
change quickly so the country would be more
implications is when Patrick left,” this senior
Conservative says. “To call him the market-
back into the hands of the the only colours The whole operation clement for conservatives, even if he was ing strategist is an under-pitching of his role.
major departments and less on the flag were was designed, first of all, swept away. Economists will tell you the GST He has a whole discipline and methodology
at the centre. I mean, that
was the plan.” red and white—the to deliver the “five prior-
ities” Harper had used to
cut is bad economics. But it is very good at
reducing federal revenues—and hard to ratchet
for keeping track of today but keeping an eye
on the big picture. I still don’t think they’ve
But that plan often con- liberal colours get elected. Badly outnum- back up without a fight. Similarly, try telling replaced him in the organization.”
flicted with another plan: bered in the Commons, he working mothers they won’t be getting their Through it all, Harper has been able to
FRANK GUNN/CP; Photograph by Jake Wright
ensuring that Harper wasn’t blindsided by expected he would have to go back to vot- child care cheques any more. count on far greater caucus solidarity than
his rookie ministers. He kept them on a ers soon. He would need to show them other recent prime ministers did. It’s a mys-
short leash. Ministers traditionally receive clear results. This business of changing the culture tery to outsiders, but it’s very real. It took
“mandate letters,” prepared by the bureau- “The first four of the five things I’ve talked of the country obsesses the group around time to build, and it was greatly bolstered by
cracy and political staff and signed by the about are things that, quite frankly, we can Harper. It crystallized in March 2002, when a departure from his caucus.
Todd Korol/Reuters
PM, telling them what’s expected of them do fairly quickly,” he’d told reporters three an article by Kevin Michael Grace appeared in First came Belinda Stronach’s spectacular
over the medium term. The tasks they set weeks before the election. And indeed, soon the money-losing little magazine The Report defection to Paul Martin’s government in
out usually cover a year or more. Harper’s enough he cut the GST, introduced an Account- (formerly Alberta Report). The article carried 2005. “That had reverberations for years,”
covered only six months. ability Act to disinfect Ottawa’s culture of the headline “A self-hating nation.” But it was Kiss goodbye: Stronach wasn’t missed. Strategist Patrick Muttart (right), on the other hand, was. one long-time Harper adviser recalls. “The
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revulsion at her. At that moment, a whole Grim reminders: Harper took to telephoning shock at the opulent Right Bank residence
slew of people who were kind of dancing the family of every soldier killed in action that ambassador Marc Lortie had inherited
around, not sure if they were in the pool or from his predecessors, panicky word spread
out of the pool, were in the pool.” new restrictions on Canadian travellers in among Canada’s foreign missions: ixnay on
That kind of marquee defection can destroy late 2006. Panicked travellers complained to the conspicuous consumption. Don’t make
a party leader. In fact they often have. Mul- their MPs, who complained at weekly caucus yourself a target.
roney’s career never recovered from the meetings. Cossette was conscripted to fix the By 2009, Embassy magazine was reporting
departure of Lucien Bouchard to form the mess, double-time. Almost overnight, the long that diplomats were barred from using specific
Bloc Québécois. Paul Martin’s revolt ruined lineups at passport offices vanished. terms that smelled too strongly of Liberal
Jean Chrétien. But it wasn’t just the leader. A “The PM was so impressed roots. “Among the changes
whole party was shaken to its foundation in by the turnaround, caucus
both cases. was so impressed because
sources say neither identified are the excising
of the word ‘humanitarian’
Harper notices these things. In office he has all the complaints evapor- peter mackay nor from each reference to ‘inter-
never let a minister rise high enough to form ated, that he actually phoned senior commanders national humanitarian law,’
an independent power base. The Harper oper- Gérald Cossette to thank replacing the term ‘gender
ation is built for survival, armoured against him,” one adviser says. “It had advance word of equality’ with ‘equality of
threat from the inside and out, designed to was very unlike him. The PM the change in policy men and women,’ switch-
protect the one component its leader believes was not in the habit of phon- ing focus from justice for
is indispensable: himself. ing folks like that. Cossette’s career just took victims of sexual violence to prevention of
off after that.” sexual violence, and replacing the phrase
The elites at Foreign Affairs—“that self- ‘child soldiers’ with ‘children in armed con-
3. taking on the world: satisfied coven of right-thinking high priests,” flict,’ ” the magazine reported.
harper’s war on two fronts as one minister called them—were a differ- Experts in the field were outraged. They
ent story. To Harper’s staff, the department pointed out, for instance, that “international
If there is an area where Harper has been headquarters at Fort Pearson was a supply humanitarian law” is a specific subset of inter-
likeliest to indulge a preference for going it house for the internal opposition against national law with its own jurisprudence, so
alone, it is foreign policy. That’s not how he conservatism, and Canada’s global network that eliminating references to it amounted
planned it. He cannot have expected the rest of embassies was a problem to be managed, to calling a hammer a saw because “hammer”
of the world would take up so much of his not an asset to be flaunted. Budgets for “pub- sounded too Liberal. To say the least, the
time. He had barely travelled outside Canada lic diplomacy”—art exhibits, public lectures Harper government was unsympathetic to
before he became its head of government. and the other soft-sell techniques for rais- such arguments.
Foreign diplomats stationed in Ottawa—whose ing Canada’s image abroad—were slashed. “I’ve told my people that this is the policy
own career prospects depended on their Ambassadors were forbidden from talking that we carry out,” Lawrence Cannon, the
insights into Canadian politics—were nearly to reporters without clearing everything they foreign minister, said when the vocabulary
frantic when this man who had turned down planned to say through Ottawa. When Lau- story appeared. “And if anybody is not happy
almost every request for a meeting became reen Harper visited Paris and voiced sticker with these policies that we’re carrying out,
the Prime Minister.
Of course he hadn’t paid the world much European leaders had been strained by the Americans and French, to a lesser extent the Early success at the summit table gave
mind. Foreign policy doesn’t win elections. Iraq war. The late-inning troop surge that others, were in a big fight about what the G8 Harper the confidence to handle foreign policy
Which doesn’t mean it ever leaves a guy alone. would largely rescue the whole operation still was going to say about the ongoing Israeli himself. This prospect greatly displeased the
Harper would not have to wait long to learn lay ahead. The other leaders didn’t know incursion into Lebanon. In the end there was legions of superbly educated, urbane, multilin-
that lesson. The day after the 2006 election, much about Harper, but most figured he was a summit declaration that was more balanced gual career diplomats who staffed the Pearson
his transition team had to junk most of the likely to be very close to than either the European Building, the hulking Foreign Affairs head-
day’s schedule because Harper had to field Bush. Yet at the table, Harper or the American drafts. And quarters on Sussex Drive. To Harper, that
congratulatory calls from overseas. used his fluency in French
if there was conflict, Harper really talked Chirac wasn’t a problem, it was a bonus.
Soon Harper found himself tossed into to build a quick rapport with a deputy minister off a very hardline position In many ways, the Harper government
the summit routine that defines much of Jacques Chirac. could be encouraged on that.” worked well with the bureaucracy. There
the travel schedule of any large country’s “Chirac had sent signals Peter Harder, who was was always suspicion, because Conservatives
leader. Canada belongs to the Francophonie, that he was not too keen on to retire quietly Harper’s “sherpa”—or dip- saw the civil service as a vast repository of
the Commonwealth, the G8, APEC and the the new government in Can- without a fuss lomatic advance man—for ancient and unquestioned Liberal assump-
“Three Amigos” North American triumvirate ada. Chilly,” recalls a Tory that first summit, also cred- tions. But many ministers worked well with
with the United States and Mexico. Harper’s official who worked at the summit. “The per- its the Prime Minister with a surprisingly their deputies. Where there was conflict, the
presence was requested at all those meetings. sonal dynamics between him and Bush were sure-footed performance in St. Petersburg. deputy minister could usually be encour-
And truth be told, they were the sort of thing so bad at this point.” Yet Harper found a way But Harder says this was far from an isolated aged to retire quietly without putting up a
that made him self-conscious about his lim- to carve out a role for himself, especially with event: “He is a very good summiteer, and fuss. And in a few cases, the Harper crew
Peter Andrews/Reuters
ited experience. Chirac. “Harper learned that he wasn’t out you could argue that the crises we have been came to genuinely value the work bureau-
Chris Wattie/Reuters
He had a chance to assuage those nerves of his league at these summits, and if he mas- managing play to that tactical strength. He’s crats did for them.
at his first G8 summit, in St. Petersburg, Rus- tered a couple of agenda items, he could move very analytical. He intervenes very effectively. One such case was Gérald Cossette, who
sia, in July 2006. The mood at the summit the dial in a way that he hadn’t been at all Away from the cameras, he can build rapport was rushed into service to handle a backlog in
was grim. George W. Bush’s relations with sure he could do,” his adviser said. “The with other leaders.” passport applications when the U.S. imposed In stride: As a newbie, Harper was quickly able to wield influence on the global summit circuit
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well, all they have to do is go and run in the Harper was on a trip to China, his staff started
next election and get themselves elected and to leak word that up to 1,000 military train- 4. FRIENDS AND ENEMIES:
support a policy that is different from ours.” ers would stay in Kabul after the combat and tipping the balance of power
development-support mission in Kandahar
If any foreign policy issue came to define ends this year. This was precisely what Hillary When you’re trying to remake a country,
Harper’s time in office, it was the war in Clinton had asked for. It repudiated Harp- it helps to have steady allies. Harper had one,
Afghanistan. Kandahar was one of his first er’s own call for an end date. “Look, I’m not for awhile. Then he got distracted. Then he
travel destinations after the election. “There going to kid you,” Harper said when repor- decided he didn’t need an ally after all.
will be some who want to cut and run,” he ters finally got him to comment. “Down deep, In Quebec, he said a few days before Christ-
told about 1,000 cheering soldiers. “But cut- my preference would be, would have been, mas 2005, the choice was clear. “We can pick
ting and running is not my way and it’s not to see a complete end to the military mis- the Liberals, who can’t wait to see a PQ gov-
the Canadian way.” He took to telephoning sion. But as we approach that date, the facts ernment.” Or he said Canadians could elect
the family of every soldier killed in action. on the ground convince me that the Afghan the Conservatives, who would “work pro-
That simple decision ensured he would receive military needs further training.” ductively with the federalist leader of Quebec,
regular, harrowing reminders of war’s cost. Sources say neither Peter MacKay, the the most federalist premier we’ve had in my
Almost immediately, the cost began to sky- defence minister, nor Canada’s senior mil- lifetime: Mr. Charest.”
rocket. Eight Canadians had died in Afghan- itary command, had any advance word of the It was a familiar ode to an odd champion.
istan in the four years before Harper was reversal. Harper’s handling of the Afghan- Jean Charest and Stephen Harper were not
elected. In his first year in istan file reflected a level of pals. They had often been at loggerheads
office, 36 more died. The incoherence he would not between 1993 and 1997, when Charest was
escalation in violence would
diplomats compared have accepted from a sub- half the Progressive Conservative caucus and
continue. notes on how hard it ordinate. But increasingly, Harper was a rookie Reform MP with a fond-
And so by late 2007, was to meet harper’s he was becoming comfort- ness for saying politically incorrect things
Harper was not disguising able with the notion that he about Quebec nationalism. But Harper does
his impatience with the fight- interchangeable had no subordinate on for- not base his business on friendships. His busi-
ing. “You know, the United foreign ministers eign policy. ness was to remake the federation.
Nations and our allies will Diplomats whose pre- It was high time, he said as early as 2002,
have been in Afghanistan 10 years in 2011,” decessors once tried in vain to book a lunch to “allow our institutions to evolve away from
he told Maclean’s. “For God’s sakes, Germany with Harper when he was opposition leader the 40-year-long Liberal experiment in cen-
was basically fully restored within four years; now compared notes on how hard it was to tralized federalism.”
Germany joined NATO 10 years after it was get the attention of his successive and inter- But his goal was not merely to protect prov- Steady ally: Flaherty is the only minister to have held the same cabinet job for the full five years of the Harper government
conquered.” He wasn’t willing to accept any- changeable foreign ministers. When David incial prerogatives. “The call for firewalls is
thing like an open-ended commitment in Emerson had the job, his staff once blocked a about refocusing the federal government on In office, he moved quickly to shift the court fight to shut down Vancouver’s InSite At which point the relationship between
central Asia. “To say that Afghanistan would phone call from Germany’s foreign minister. its own responsibilities as much as it is about balance. He sharply increased defence spend- safe-injection drug facility—which means Charest and Harper went right down the
need decades and decades just to do the basic When he had it, Maxime Bernier amazed giving provinces greater control.” After the ing. He made Justice Minister Rob Nichol- appealing a lower-court ruling that said tubes. Dan Gagnier watched it all and he still
security work, I think is pushing credibility,” another European foreign minister with the Sept. 11 attacks, he said, the cost of Liberal son the busiest guy in cabinet—although InSite is none of Ottawa’s business? It can’t. has trouble explaining it. Gagnier became
Harper said. “Not just pushing the patience depth of his ignorance on major bilateral files. meddling in provincial jurisdictions like health largely because Nicholson’s tough-on-crime Consistency is for monks.) Charest’s chief of staff in mid-2007 and left
of the Canadian public and the military, push- “Many, many people trying to hold him up,” and education was obvious. “The spotlight bills kept dying on the order paper and in 2009. He had served the same role for an
ing the credibility of the effort.” an ambassador from that country said later, on Ottawa’s core functions—defence, justice, needed to be reintroduced every time Harper If any provincial premier could be ex- Ontario premier, David Peterson, in the late
Which is how Harper came to be sitting referring to Bernier’s staff. “It was a disaster.” solicitor general and immigration—revealed prorogued Parliament. In recent years he pected to welcome these moves, it was Charest. 1980s. To him the relationship between Harper
down with a roomful of reporters during No matter. Harper was learning that, con- that they have been suffering what might at has made Immigration Minister Jason Ken- After 15 years in federal pol- and Charest was based on
the 2008 campaign, announcing, as if they trary to the old adage, foreign policy can win best be called benign neglect.” ney one of the most influential ministers in itics, he has never had to mutual interest. When the
had already heard the news, that Canada’s elections, or at least help. He sharply increased his cabinet. That’s the spotlight on Ottawa’s stop proving his bona fides
charest and harper interests diverged, the rela-
military commitment in Afghanistan would the size of Canada’s diplomatic missions in core functions. as a true Quebec national- concluded there tionship evaporated.
end in 2011. “You have to put an end date India, a move that was noticed in large South Giving the provinces greater control has ist. Any transfer of power simply couldn’t be “They’re different people,
on these things.” He repeated this message Asian communities around Toronto. He been accomplished in a bunch of ways. The from Ottawa to Quebec City right?” Gagnier said of his
often, including in December 2009: after showed unwavering support for Israel’s Likud GST reduction sharply curtailed Ottawa’s is good news to him. In of- anything personal former boss and the Prime
2011, he said, “we will not be undertaking government. ability to pay for incursions into provincial fice, Harper concentrated between them Minister. “One’s a Progres-
any activities that require any kind of mil- He paid an extended visit to Ukraine, even jurisdictions. Harper’s health ministers have on Charest more than any sive Conservative and the
itary presence, other than the odd guard though its pro-Russian president, Viktor essentially given up policing provincial com- other premier. He travelled to Quebec City other is—well, he’s much more conservative,
guarding an embassy.” When Hillary Clinton, Yanukovych, had been the bad guy during pliance with the universality and accessibility for their first meeting, in itself an almost un- let’s put it that way.”
Mathieu Belanger/Reuters; Tom Hanson/CP
the U.S. secretary of state, came to Ottawa that country’s 2004 Orange Revolution. An requirements of the Canada Health Act. heard-of concession by a sitting prime min- Two events turned the Harper-Charest alli-
in April 2010 looking for military trainers Ottawa-based reporter for the Kyiv Post put Harper’s government has refused to renew ister of any party. He gave Quebec a perma- ance sour. Each man did something that got
to hang around in Afghanistan after 2011, Harper on the “Ukraine’s 10-best” list for the Vancouver Agreement, which made the nent representative in Canada’s delegation on the other’s nerves something fierce. First,
Harper and Lawrence Cannon all but ran 2010—and Michael Ignatieff on the 10-worst federal government a partner with British to UNESCO. He turned Jim Flaherty’s second Charest used every dime of the $700 million
her out of town. list. The third-largest Ukrainian population Columbia and Vancouver city hall in budget into a huge transfer giveaway to the windfall to finance personal income-tax cuts,
What was striking here was that Harper’s in the world, after Ukraine and Russia, is Can- developing the city’s downtown core. The provinces and billed it as the settlement of a Hail Mary pass during a 2007 election he
government repeatedly dismissed any sug- ada’s. If the world was going to insist on Harp- Harper team argues that is none of Ottawa’s the “fiscal imbalance,” a term that had pol- was on his way to losing. Harper likes to pro-
gestion that their policy could ever change. er’s time, he was going to make sure the world business. (How can that position be squared itical resonance only in Quebec. Quebec’s claim that there are no bad tax cuts, but this
Then it changed again. Last November, while paid him some political credit in return. Sour alliance: Charest’s tax cut irked Harper with the Harper government’s continuing share alone came to $700 million. one comes close. Quebec still receives equal-
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ization payments, financed by taxpayers in federalism as in world affairs and political
other provinces, and delivers generous social strategy, Harper finds himself alone.
programs other provinces can’t match. Cut- But here too, he rather likes it that way.
ting Quebecers’ tax bill in those circumstances The agenda he described in that 2002 speech
just didn’t seem cricket. remains. Provincial revenues, after cash
But neither, to Charest, did Harper’s deci- transfers from Ottawa, are much higher than
sion soon after to attend a lunch in Rivière- federal revenues. Federal tax revenue, as a
du-Loup accompanied by the local member portion of GDP, is at its lowest since the
of the national assembly: Mario Dumont, mid-1960s.
Charest’s hated opposition leader. “It was an Of course, deficits and federal spending
unpleasant moment, if I can put it that way,” have been sky high. Harper’s failure to
Gagnier recalls. announce stimulus spending was the oppos-
Diverging interests. Charest needed to save ition’s pretext for launching the 2008 coali-
his bacon on the federal dime. Harper sought tion bid. He had to spend big to survive. He
to build a durable Conservative electoral base has worked hard to make that necessity a
in Quebec. Since most Quebec Liberals who virtue.
own a federal party card are federal Liberals, It helped that his finance minister was as
he saw Dumont as a more consistent ally. flexible as he is. Jim Flaherty entered Harp-
In each case, it was nothing personal. The er’s government as a paragon of small-gov-
two men finally concluded there simply couldn’t ernment conservatism, a man who’d run
be anything personal between them. After the unsuccessfully as a right-wing outlier to
2007 election, Charest decided a friend in replace Mike Harris as the Ontario Conserva-
Ottawa was not nearly as tive leader in 2002. He has
handy as an opponent in presided over ballooning
Ottawa. “It was Charest real-
the wild ride of spending and deficits. It
izing that within the bubble, late 2008 tested the doesn’t seem to have hurt
the way you do politics in close relationship his good cheer.
the national assembly, you Flaherty has no equiva-
can work together and get between harper lent in cabinet. While for-
results with the federal gov- and flaherty eign ministers and environ-
ernment, but there’s always ment ministers come and
got to be a list of demands,” Gagnier says. go, he is the only minister (save Marjorie
LeBreton as Senate leader) to have held the
But what a lot of people are learning is same cabinet job for the full five years of the
that Harper is good at ignoring demands he Harper government.
doesn’t want to hear. Early on, he invited The wild ride of late 2008 sorely tested that
premiers to 24 Sussex for a traditional first relationship. During the campaign, Harper
ministers’ dinner. Speaking to reporters after- and Flaherty sounded like they were living
ward, he quipped, “I’m glad I didn’t bring in different economic universes. Harper called
my wallet.” It was a signal: he would transfer the battered stock markets “some great buy-
power and resources to the provinces, but ing opportunities.” Three days later, Flaherty
only on his terms. injected $25 billion into the banks. His sense
These days Harper meets with his prov- of urgency was much closer to the real world
incial counterparts far more rarely than Paul than Harper’s nonchalance. Was the Prime
Martin and Jean Chrétien did, and almost Minister caught off guard? Far from it.
never as a group, where they could outnum- As early as the summer of 2007, insiders
ber him. Earlier prime ministers had a say, Bank of Canada officials were conveying
powerful intergovernmental affairs minis- a sense of deep, growing unease in their
ter to coordinate the interrelationships regular briefings to the Prime Minister’s
between Ottawa and the provinces. Harper Office. Harper was fully briefed on trouble
does not believe there should be close inter- in the U.S. subprime mortgage markets.
relationships, so his intergovernmental Reporters and the opposition remained “It strikes you how seriously Harper takes says. “He wanted to act as boldly as he pos- Harper, Flaherty, Kevin Lynch, who was then Big spenders: The 2009 budget kicked off
Ryan Remiorz/CP; Shaun Best/Reuters
affairs minister is the answer to a trivia ques- oblivious. “It was amazing: a huge s--tstorm this,” says one person who was in the room sibly could. He wasn’t concerned about the the clerk of the Privy Council, and Derek stimulus projects and years of deep deficits
tion. (Josée Verner. Don’t worry, it won’t be could hit the markets and not affect the pol- for key budget planning sessions. “Sometimes size of the deficit, he wasn’t concerned about Vanstone, who was Flaherty’s chief of staff
on the exam.) itical class in Ottawa,” marvels one Con- we have a tendency to overstate how Harper the short-term political prospects. He wanted and has since moved to the PMO as deputy himself as a small-government conservative.
Harper and Charest no longer bother even servative strategist. micromanages. But when it comes to the big to make sure it would happen quickly.” chief of staff. But if he stays in office, it will all become part
keeping their antagonism fresh. “It’s prob- After the 2008 election, of course, the cat things, he’s involved.” Harper worked with him constantly. The budget they crafted, which kicked off of his long game. He has already said he will
John Woods/CP
ably matured to the point where there’s a was out of the bag. Flaherty and Harper hun- “Flaherty’s mindset was that his biggest Finance officials drove up to the Langevin at least three years of deep deficits and prob- protect transfer payments to the provinces
respect for the two offices, but it’s a cool thing,” kered down for some emergency budget- concern was that we wouldn’t do enough,” Building, where Harper keeps his office, con- ably more, is in many ways a huge departure when it comes time to cut spending and rein
Gagnier says. “Not a warm relationship.” In making. another participant in the budget process stantly. Sometimes the group was very small: for a Prime Minister who likes to think of in those deficits. That means the only place
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he can cut is in areas of federal activity. roll, they would rather avoid the trouble. Tough enough? Harper has organized his life His national campaign director, Doug Fin-
In 1995 and 1996, the Liberals cut heavily You will already have noticed that close col- so that few dare to challenge him ley, has been responsible for implementing
into transfers when they finally vanquished laborators of Harper prefer not to speak for Harper’s plans since 2004. Already they are
a generation of deficits. They used their res- the record—even when they’re saying nice that claiming Harper is a significant prime well ahead of the schedule they imagined
toration of transfers as a chance to enforce things about him. minister will not change the minds of anyone they would adhere to. “Certainly Stephen
national standards, set by Ottawa with the It all baffles Derek Burney, who has been who thinks otherwise. At a minimum, he Harper’s first goal was to unite the parties,”
help of a few allies among the premiers, on a public servant and a political staffer and endures. Finley says. “Having done that, we felt at the
provincial spending. who marvels at how cowed the bureaucracy, “I don’t think there’s a Harper conserva- time that it would take probably at least one
Harper remains fully capable of flip-flop- and Harper’s own ministers, are. “If you tism in the sense of an easily identifiable full election cycle—by that I mean five years—
ping, here as everywhere. But his statements joust with these guys, you just might win a ideology,” a member of his government says. to get us in a position where we could aspire
so far suggest he will play this recovery very few,” he said. “There’s an approach to government, which to government.”
differently from the way the Liberals played For now almost nobody is in a mood to is informed by what some would call prin- The sponsorship scandal and the Gomery
the late ’90s. The flow of money and power joust with Harper. The opposition parties deny cipled, others would call ideological conserv- inquiry sped everything up considerably.
from Ottawa to the provinces, unaccompan- they are plotting to form a coalition to replace atism. But it’s conditioned by the day-to-day Where are they heading now? Finley is respon-
ied by federal oversight into how the provinces him. And you know what? They are not plot- requirements of running a government and sible for delivering a majority to Harper. He
use their relative bounty, will continue. ting to form a coalition. But neither are they maintaining a broad base of support.” is realistic about the odds.
performing the day-to-day consultation and Yes, but again: does this “The reality is, with four
collaboration opposition parties always do to add up to anything? This parties, each capable of get-
5. Mind games: What Harper clip a government’s wings, because they are source decided to try ex-
’his own personal ting around 40 seats, the
really thinks too afraid of looking like the coalition he warns plaining it a different way. emotional continuing likelihood of
against. They have had him outnumbered for “He has a clear set of prin- preparation for minority governments is
When Stephen Harper had been prime five years. For a week in 2008 they acted like ciples, which he tries to im- strong. And you would be
minister for only a few months, a visitor to it. Now he will not stop using that week as a plement in a responsible a press scrum takes a fool not to be ready for an
his office asked what he had learned so far on stick to beat them with. and prudent way. That may up a lot of energy’ election at any time. We’re
the job. Harper considered the question briefly. It is a cliché to say somebody is his own sound trite, but it’s actually, now at a stage, I think, where
“I just wish I’d been tougher,” he said. worst critic. In Harper’s case it is true in two in the history of modern Canadian conserva- our base is strong. We’ve shown five years of
Tougher how? On which files? Against ways. First, he has not exactly surrounded tism, almost revolutionary at the federal level. stable government. Our attention to our knit-
whom? himself with the kind of person who is fear- Previous conservative governments were ting, which is particularly the economy, job
“Just . . . tougher,” Harper said, before ush- less about speaking truth to power. “Ste- simply brokerage parties, all about constant creation, tax reduction, is resonating well with
ering his visitor out of his Centre Block phen Harper is always at his best when there calculation of electoral advantage.” the Canadian public.
office. are people who say, ‘What the f--- are you Surely nobody would claim Harper is “I believe we’re ready for a majority. Cer-
Most voters supported somebody else’s doing?’ ” says a former staffer from his first immune to the temptation to calculate elec- tainly the seats are there. Will the tactics
party over his. On any day of the week, his years in office. “But he organized his life so toral advantage. “The Mulroney refrain, when change? No, not considerably.”
opponents could try again what they tried to that nobody was saying that to him.” the base was complaining about that govern- What’s the goal? A majority for what end?
do in 2008. He is persuaded they will try again This produces nasty surprises. He was ment’s profligacy . . . they would always say “I’ve heard people say that Stephen Harper’s
after the next election, should the Conserva- amazed at the political turmoil that followed politics is the art of the possible,” this Con- number one goal in political life is to get rid
tives get another minority. In the meanwhile when he had Linda Keen, head of the Nuclear servative said. “Margaret Thatcher said, what of the Liberal party. I’ve never heard him say
he sees them scheming against him, ganging Safety Commission, fired for refusing to run is your sense of what’s possible? that. Obviously we’d like to beat them every
up in committees, sucking up to reporters. If the Chalk River reactor, and then called her “Stephen Harper has a much more expan- time we run against them.”
he is not tough they will cut him down. a Liberal plant with a mandate to safeguard sive sense of what’s possible than his pre- All of which is fine enough, but it still doesn’t
But then toughness is a relative thing, isn’t the Liberals’ legacy “from the grave.” He’d decessors as national conservative leaders. address what Harper would do with five more
it? A member of his government notes that managed to make Keen a martyr. “Why did That is understood implicitly in the party. years if he had them. Probably it’s safest to
Harper’s cabinet has grown steadily, due nobody tell me that?” he asked later when That’s why the right wing of the party con- say he will do more of the same: incremental
partly to his aversion to firing anyone. Max an acquaintance told him what he’d man- tinues to support him, notwithstanding par- changes that change the country in ways his
Bernier had to go because of the documents aged to do. ticular policies that bug them. They under- opponents, when they finally do push Harper
at the girlfriend’s house. Helena Guergis had But the “own worst critic” label also really stand he’s more Thatcher than Mulroney.” or his successors out of office, will have trouble
to go because of all the icky claims against does mean he is often harshly self-critical. As His first big decision in electoral politics ratcheting back. Money out of Ottawa. Ottawa
her. Lawrence Cannon is fine. Bev Oda is fine. a result, he goes through a conscious and was to abandon the Mulroney Progressive out of the provinces’ business. An alternative
Diane Ablonczy was too quick to lecture intense process of preparation—before every reacts—does he want to be angry? Does he to Scott Reid, the eastern Ontario MP who Conservatives in 1987 for an upstart move- narrative of Canadian patriotism that gives
young Stephen when they were both rookie public appearance—to convey an aura of want to be more placid?—this doesn’t come used to be one of his closest advisers, after ment that wasn’t even named the Reform conservatives a flag to rally around.
Reform MPs, so he has made sure she rises unflappable certitude. naturally to him. His own personal emotional Reid made comments about bilingualism in party yet. He knows what a furious conserva- “I’m pretty sure the Prime Minister has a
very slowly indeed. But she rises. “It’s not like people who have to go and preparation for a press scrum takes up a lot 2004 that gave Harper a rough couple of tive base looks like. It looks like him. He pays pretty good idea where he’s going,” Doug
So he’s a pussycat? That may be overstat- check their hair or tie,” says one Conserva- of energy.” days on the campaign trail. it much closer heed than he does a bunch of Finley says. “He is, as many in the media have
ing things. But Harper’s bark is so fierce that tive insider who has worked closely with the His aim is to avoid the sorts of blunt, But Harper cannot shut himself down after Ottawa columnists. Why did he hold his ground described, the prime strategist. He’s the leader
few have ever bothered to test his bite. It’s Prime Minister. “To prepare for making sure impolitic assertions that plagued him before a gaffe. So he goes to extreme lengths to avoid on the long-form census, but abandon a in every sense of the word. He’s not the micro-
easy in Ottawa to find prematurely retired that every word that he plans to say is deliv- he took office—like his reference to the “cul- making them. Throne Speech promise to find gender-neutral manager that people describe, or the sort of
Lyle Stafford/Reuters
bureaucrats who decry Harper’s manage- ered correctly, and that he’s leaving the right ture of defeatism” in Atlantic Canada. Mis- lyrics for O Canada? “The census wasn’t burn- sour-faced bully or whatever. I’ve never seen
ment style. But just try to get one of them emphasis, and he’s not going to be caught takes from others are easy enough to correct. Does all this effort and calculation, all ing up Lowell Green’s show,” says one former that in the years that I’ve known him.
to detail their complaints for the public rec- out by questions that he’s not going to want Harper simply shuts them out, denies them these years of survival, add up to anything? staffer, referring to a popular Ottawa talk- “But I know in his mind there are plans
ord. Even when they’re off the public pay- to answer, and he’s going to limit how he plum posts, ignores their counsel. He did it Opinions on that question diverge so wildly radio host. “But O Canada sure was.” constantly forming.”
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