His biggest threat is supposed to be new Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, but the sharpest fire being directed at Stephen Harper these days is coming from the rock-ribbed Conservatives that comprise the base of the party he leads.
The criticism has come from several quarters, including Tom Flanagan, Mr. Harper's close friend and former top aide, and the cadre of young activists who make up a good portion of the party's shock troops. Even one of the country's most affable senior Conservatives, former human resources minister Monte Solberg, has issued warnings.
They're unsettled over a federal stimulus budget that includes a $64-billion deficit over the next two years and five years of projected red ink.
“There's a lot of feeling of betrayal. We don't need a second Liberal Party,” said Tasha Kheiriddin, who teaches conservative politics at McGill University.
“It is extremely frustrating, as a small-c conservative, to look at this.”
Ms. Kheiriddin, co-author of Rescuing Canada's Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution, said the party's base may decide to stay home in the next election, particularly if the package does not work. “It flies in the face of all the principles Mr. Harper personally held for a number of years, as well as what the movement was hoping this government would achieve.”
Other key Conservatives agreed.
“This is survival without any sense of direction,” said Mr. Flanagan, a former Conservative campaign chief.
Mr. Flanagan said the budget may cause a number of party members to curtail donations.
“I think it's absolutely essential for the party to keep its core supporters onside, and there wasn't that much in this budget that really speaks to those core supporters,” he said.
He cited as an example the drop-off in contributions in 2000 for the Canadian Alliance, a forerunner of the Conservative Party, when it began to have troubles under leader Stockwell Day.
“All these 100,000-plus donors are writing their little cheques because they believe in a cause and – I don't know what's going to happen – but when Stockwell Day got into trouble that was the first really big sign. The money stopped coming in.”
Mr. Flanagan said Mr. Harper must find low-cost ways over the next few months to animate the troops.
Meanwhile, Mr. Solberg said in an interview that while he believes the budget is popular, he is concerned that it could lead to long-term deficits. In an earlier newspaper column, Mr. Solberg advised Mr. Harper to use the time he has bought to draft a compelling conservative vision for the future.
“The Conservatives have easily escaped to fight another day, but what are they fighting for?” he asked.
Gerry Nicholls, a former colleague of Mr. Harper's at the right-wing National Citizens' Coalition, said he thinks the Prime Minister has lost his way.
“The Conservative party is conservative in name only. It makes me yearn for the days when we had a relatively fiscally conservative leader like Jean Chrétien,” Mr. Nicholls said, referring to the former Liberal prime minister's victory in slaying the deficit in the mid-1990s and paying down federal debt.
Others, however, argued that most members of the party's rank-and-file will realize that while there is doubt about the package, the government wasn't in a position to run counter to the stimulative moves of other countries.
“I don't think there will be very profound grumbling from the conservative wing,” said Roger Gibbins of the Canada West Foundation. “For every person who says that Harper is abandoning his principles, there will be five who will say, ‘Well, principles will only take you so far and you have to be able to have enough flexibility to adapt to the times.'” What's more, he added, most party members have no other place to go.
