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The Conservative Party convention in Montreal this weekend is the most important convention for the conservative movement. This convention is about policy that will determine our identity as a party and either give Canadians a real alternative, or set back the movement for several years.

Our leader, Stephen Harper, has an opportunity to redeem himself at this convention by encouraging all the right policies to be adopted and by re-affirming his commitment to social conservatism.

Mr. Harper can start on the path to redemption with social conservatives by learning from history, specifically, George Washington. Mr. Washington, when travelling across the Delaware with his hungry and frostbitten troops, gave the order to his soldiers before they arrived on shore to "Burn the boats." His soldiers were shocked and responded, "If we burn the boats, we can't turn back. Even if we are losing against the British, there will be no escape." George Washington replied, "We will win or die."

We social conservatives have been Mr. Harper's loyal soldiers in the former Canadian Alliance party and in the new Conservative Party and we are the reason why Mr. Harper is leader. When we united the two parties in 2003, we burned the boats as Mr. Harper commanded and became one entity. Now, the cultural war begins. We will become an alternative to the Liberals or the party will die.

Mr. Harper has two choices. He can be the founding leader of a great party or he can be responsible for the death of a nation where regionalism will reign supreme and separatism will be an alternative in the West, not just Quebec.

In 2002, Mr. Harper became leader of the Canadian Alliance with the support of many social conservatives. In fact, our organization brought several supporters to Mr. Harper's side from the camp of his opponent Stockwell Day. The next step was the merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties, of which our organization played a pivotal role. After the merger, social conservatives continued to support Mr. Harper in his bid for the party's leadership. We organized to insure he defeated Belinda Stronach, a well-known liberal who has successfully infiltrated the new Conservative Party of Canada.

In my conversations with Mr. Harper, we would always agree that doing what is right is more important then doing what is popular. We agreed that the objective is getting our conservative principles into power. We agreed that the majority of Canadians are both fiscally and socially conservative and would vote for a leader who would stick to these principles.

Now we fear that Mr. Harper is abandoning these conservative principles - the exact thing he once accused former Reform Party leader Preston Manning of doing. What irony.

Social conservatives are becoming increasingly disillusioned to the point of staying home at election time, as evidenced by the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history last July. The re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush is a testament to the political activity and clout of evangelical Christians. Conservative leaders such as Mr. Harper should be paying close attention.

President Bush did not waver in his unequivocal support of social conservative positions. He was clearly pro-life and strongly in favour of traditional marriage. He was not ashamed to proclaim his born-again Christianity in the public forum.

Mr. Harper ran from these issues and reprimanded his caucus members for even talking about abortion counselling. He must realize that conservative principles make the Conservative Party stronger and more likely to win a federal election. Canadians are not going to vote for a "Liberal lite" Conservative Party that stands for nothing except lower taxes and attaining political power.

If power is all Mr. Harper wants, he needs to do the math. If you give people something to vote for they will turn out - and with the low voter turnout in Canada, galvanizing the social conservative movement is a sure recipe for victory.

We will give Mr. Harper one last chance on the condition he takes his own advice and burns his boat.

Craig Chandler is chief executive officer of Concerned Christians Canada Inc., and a former pro-merger leadership candidate for the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.