A reflection on Stephen Harper's legacy, on the 20th anniversary of the Conservatives' 2006 election victory

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I first crossed paths with Stephen Harper in the late 1990s, but only briefly. I had just been elected as a Progressive Conservative, and he had by then moved on from a term in Parliament as a Reform MP to lead the National Citizens Coalition. He remained visible on the Hill due to his significant role in building the Reform party, after having worked in the Progressive Conservative party for a time.

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The divide in the Conservative movement was deep and bitter at that time. The implosion of the PC party, which gave rise to the Bloc Québécois and Reform parties, culminated in the 1993 election that reduced the PCs from a majority government to two seats and ushered in an era of Liberal hegemony.

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While my father, who served as a minister in the government of prime ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney, and his generation of Progressive Conservatives carried the scars of that conservative civil war, I carried little of that sentiment with me. I quickly discovered that I had much in common with the new cohort of western MPs, who shared my conservative values and vision for the country. This was particularly true on fiscal policy, governance and accountability, justice, national security and resource management.

The disastrous, wasteful Liberal long gun registry had divided urban and rural Canadians as much in Atlantic Canada as it had in the West. There was also in those early days a growing recognition that the political standoff within the conservative movement would allow the Liberals to govern in perpetuity. Vote-splitting was real and cratered the seat count of both conservative parties, particularly in vote-rich Ontario. Merging the two parties was the only way forward.

While no one was articulating that path forward just yet, the frustration and pressure was already building on the leadership of both parties to turn the page. With the benefit of hindsight, both Harper and I were on a parallel path bound for collision or co-operation.

My brief tenure as leader of the PC party was controversial from the get go. I did not run as a pro-merger candidate. Nor did Harper when he won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, though the party’s new label was revealing. Neither side was in a position to truly compete for government. The political prospects looked dim for both parties, which were staring down the barrel of a fourth-consecutive Liberal majority.

A chance encounter in an airport and a brief exchange in the lobby........

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