PUBLICATION:        The Ottawa Citizen

DATE:                         2003.11.07

EDITION:                    Final

SECTION:                  News

PAGE:                         A8

BYLINE:                     Peter O'Neil and Tom Blackwell

SOURCE:                   The Vancouver Sun with files from National Post

ILLUSTRATION:     Photo: Wayne Cuddington, The Ottawa Citizen / Stephen Harperclaims a merged Canadian Alliance-Progressive Conservative party shouldn't avoid controversial issues. 

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Harper seeks balance in merged agenda: Alliance leader says new party has to be 'about more than tax cuts'

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A merged Canadian Alliance-Progressive Conservative party must openly embrace social conservatives even though the proposed new entity's statement of principles deliberately avoids issues such as abortion or gay marriage, Stephen Harper said yesterday.

The Alliance leader, who is seriously considering a bid to lead the proposed new party, said the role of social conservatives in the new party will obviously be a dominate theme of the leadership race.

"The party has got to be about more than tax cuts," Mr. Harper said.

"I know that's a view in some quarters (in the two parties) that that's what it's about. But, realistically, I think we have to address a range of issues, including some of these issues that are controversial."

Mr. Harper acknowledged there is no specific recognition of social conservatives or their agenda in the proposed new party's agreement-in-principle, which calls for a party that balances "fiscal accountability, progressive social policy and individual rights and responsibilities."

Meanwhile, in Toronto, Conservative leader Peter MacKay fought off a small but determined band of hecklers last night as he led a Tory show of force in favour of the proposed merger.

A crowd of 1,500 activists at a fundraising dinner repeatedly gave Mr. MacKay standing ovations as he trumpeted the amalgamation deal as the only chance to end effective one-party rule by the Liberals.

However, much of the applause was designed to drown out boos and shouts from about a dozen opponents of the merger, who called it a betrayal of the party's roots and values.

The audience included a who's who of Ontario Conservative heavyweights -- from former premiers Bill Davis and Mike Harris to cable-TV magnate Ted Rogers -- as well as Mr. Harper and several of his caucus colleagues.

"We are here to send a message to our re-united conservative family: Get ready, our time is here again," Mr. MacKay told the dinner. "We are here as well to send this message to the most arrogant, corrupt Liberal government we have ever seen in Ottawa: The countdown has begun, and your days are numbered."

Outside the convention centre where the event took place, about 35 naysayers marched in defiance of the deal, carrying sings with slogans such as 'MacKay traitor,' 'No merger madness' and 'PC party hijacked.'

"I feel like a tourist at the demise of my own party," scoffed one opponent as she left the dinner.

But the message most of the Conservatives inside the building tried to convey was one of grateful acceptance of the proposed amalgamation.

"This is not an Alliance take-over," said Mr. Davis. "This is a happy marriage."

The former premier, one of the architects of the merger, told the crowd he knows some Conservatives are "less than enthused" by the prospect. But he said such divisions in any party are nothing new and "you endeavour to do what you think is right."

Mr. Harper acknowledged the merger deal, to be ratified in a vote by members of both parties in early December, doesn't appear consistent with his statement earlier this year that "serious conservative parties simply cannot shy away from values questions."

"The purpose of the so-called statement of principles in the agreement with Peter MacKay is really just to provide -- I can be quite blunt about it -- an unobjectionable set of principles that can be used as a basis for a wide variety of conservatives starting a debate."

Mr. Harper, in an April speech that was later published as an essay in the now-defunct Citizens Centre Report magazine in June, described social conservatism as "respect for custom and traditions (religious traditions above all), voluntary association, and personal self-restraint reinforced by moral and legal sanctions on behaviour."

He wrote the Alliance and its predecessor, the Reform party, had been adrift because of a focus on winning votes rather than advocating strong policies.

Writing at a time when there were no serious Alliance-Tory merger negotiations under way, he said a legitimate conservative party must concentrate not just on what the state costs, but also "about what the state values."

He said the party should focus on efforts to protect the family by concentrating on issues such as parents' right to reasonably discipline their children; banning child pornography; raising the current age of sexual consent from 14; providing "choice" in education; and "strengthening the institution of marriage."

Mr. Harper argued a conservative party that focuses only on tax cuts, as the Alliance attempted to do during the 2000 election, would risk being indistinguishable from a Liberal party under Paul Martin.

The essay blasted the "federal Liberals and their cheerleaders in the media and the universities" for opposing the U.S. war against Iraq.  

He also condemned the "modern left" because of its support for "radical, responsibility-free individualism" and "tribalism in the form of group rights."

"The logical end of this thinking (by the left) is the actual banning of conservative views, which some legislators and 'rights' commissions openly contemplate."

In yesterday's interview, Mr. Harper said his own positions, such as his recent opposition to gay marriage and his refusal to adopt the strict position of the anti-abortion movement, represent the proper balanced approach.

Social conservative groups that harshly criticize abortion, gay rights activists, and left-wing feminists have expressed both concern and cautious optimism about the creation of the new party.

While several anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage groups have expressed hope the new party could eventually form a government and have a major impact on policy, there are fears the new party could push aside the social conservative agenda.

"For example, the current agreement-in-principle makes no commitment to defend the one-man/one-woman definition of marriage," stated a bulletin on the website of the Canadian Family Action Coalition, which is urging supporters to buy party memberships.