Taking a look at the ever-flowing stream of Canada history, there is a bunch of memorable giants showing up successively, Diefenbaker, William Lyon Mackenzie, John MacDonald and Pierre Trudeau, these names are probably engraved deeply in every Canadian’s brain. However, there is another guy should be memorised, Stephen Harper. Harper is an often-underestimated Canadian politician, and he became his country's first conservative prime minister in 13 years when he led his party to victory in January of 2006. Harper engaged in politics as a member of conservative revolt against Canada’s traditional centre-right wing party, he failed in his first a few attempts in leading his party to gain the control. He then reconsidered his movement’s strategy
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The Reform Party soon appointed Harper as its chief leader, and in 1993, Harper successfully acquired a seat in the Canadian Parliament. In the following four years he sharply criticised the rule made by the center-left Liberal Party, which won a majority at that time, by calling Canada "a northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term”, meaning that he felt Canada was prone to be in a process of socialisation. Failing to gain the attention from the Parliament, Harper stepped down and became the president of the conservative activist group the National Citizens' Coalition, which claimed that the central federal government was not concerned enough about the western part of …show more content…
In a 1998 speech, he admitted that the Reform Party could never win a nationwide majority on its own, and Reform's principles needed to be combined with the Progressive Conservatives’. A few years later, Harper made such a merger happen, and finally in 2002, he was back on the Parliament seat. He also successfully replaced social conservative Stockwell Day as leader of the former Reform Party, renamed the Canadian Alliance. Ever since then Harper became the leader of the opposition in the Parliament. In 2003 a new leader took over the Progressive Conservatives, and Harper negotiated with him to merge the two parties, cofounding the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper became head of the new party in March of 2004. Harper clearly knew that his time was about to
The Reform Party soon appointed Harper as its chief leader, and in 1993, Harper successfully acquired a seat in the Canadian Parliament. In the following four years he sharply criticised the rule made by the center-left Liberal Party, which won a majority at that time, by calling Canada "a northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term”, meaning that he felt Canada was prone to be in a process of socialisation. Failing to gain the attention from the Parliament, Harper stepped down and became the president of the conservative activist group the National Citizens' Coalition, which claimed that the central federal government was not concerned enough about the western part of …show more content…
In a 1998 speech, he admitted that the Reform Party could never win a nationwide majority on its own, and Reform's principles needed to be combined with the Progressive Conservatives’. A few years later, Harper made such a merger happen, and finally in 2002, he was back on the Parliament seat. He also successfully replaced social conservative Stockwell Day as leader of the former Reform Party, renamed the Canadian Alliance. Ever since then Harper became the leader of the opposition in the Parliament. In 2003 a new leader took over the Progressive Conservatives, and Harper negotiated with him to merge the two parties, cofounding the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper became head of the new party in March of 2004. Harper clearly knew that his time was about to