At a Civitas policy conference in Toronto about five years ago, I sat down with Stephen Harper, then Reform Party MP for Calgary West. I found him direct and forceful, but I thought I sensed diffidence about his own future. He told me then that he was worried that the Reform Party was becoming a personality cult; it must become, instead, he said, an "agenda-driven party."
Although regarded as the heir apparent to Preston Manning, Mr. Harper resigned from politics in 1998 and became president of the National Citizens Coalition.
When the Canadian Alliance was created, Mr. Harper resisted considerable pressure to run for its leadership, a contest won in July, 2000, by Stockwell Day.
Mr. Harper remained quiet through the ensuing debacle in which party membership fell from 250,000 to about 70,000, and a dozen MPs quit the caucus to sit in an uneasy common-law partnership with Joe Clark's Tories.
Yet when Stockwell Day resigned the Alliance leadership on Dec. 12, it was 42-year-old Stephen Harper who was first into the ring.
Recently, I sat down with a trimmer (he has lost 25 pounds) Stephen Harper. He seemed to have lost his diffidence and gained stature. I asked why he had decided to run.
"I've been involved with Reform, and then the Alliance, all my political life. I grew up in this party," he said. "I have fought for the things it stands for. I am an economist by training, and I recognize there is a market for Alliance policy. It's a market similar to what George Bush tapped."
He insisted that the problem is not policy but leadership. "Last year, 65 Alliance members were elected along with Stock. This year, 12 MPs are supporting him; 27 are supporting me. That says something about leadership. I'm offering to move the party forward on a policy agenda, not on the politics of personality nor on some scheme of marriage with the Tories."
Many people -- myself included -- believe that the "brand image" of the Canadian Alliance has been destroyed by recent events. Mr. Harper disagreed.
"I think the damage looks worse than actually it is. We remain the largest party in the House. Our support in the West remains strong. We are the only alternative to the Liberals. Joe Clark has no traction whatsoever."
He has been dismissive of the Tories, which may be imprudent. Surely some form of merger is necessary for political success on the right?
Much time and energy has been spent negotiating with the PCs, he pointed out. "Our primary focus now is on rebuilding this party, not worrying about what conditions might tempt PCs," he said. "Joe's position has always been that the PCs will run 301 candidates in the next election, so that narrows the room for co-operation. Once the Alliance is back on a solid footing, if the Tories have some ideas they want to bring forward, we can explore those, but my focus is leadership, not on cutting some merger deal. I also want to attract Liberal voters, and many of those who are well to the right of Joe Clark."
I asked him about Canada's hesitant support for the war on terrorism.
"The Canadian people dragged the government -- kicking and screaming -- into this war. The Liberals are so infected by the disease of moral equivalence that they never miss an opportunity to carp and cavil at the United States. Defence Minister [Art]Eggleton twisted himself into a pretzel to avoid taking credit for something -- namely our forces seizing Taliban prisoners -- that most Canadians would be proud of."
Then there was the question of Canada's support for an expanded war against Iraq. Mr. Harper appeared to dodge for a moment. He said he was not "in possession of the detailed briefings that would allow an informed decision." But I was pleased that he was explicit about one point: "If I had reservations, I would take care to communicate them privately to the U.S., not publicly as the Prime Minister has done."
Mr. Harper has said that the two predominant religious influences in his life were C. S. Lewis and Malcolm Muggeridge. Each of these men was disdainful of politics. So what influenced him? He was reluctant to be drawn into religious questions, but pointed out that both Lewis and Muggeridge came to their Christian faith as adult converts. "That attracted me."
Some of Stockwell Day's more zealous followers have made support for Mr. Day a kind of litmus test of Christian faith; Mr. Harper rightly thinks that is "bad politics and bad religion. The purpose of the Christian Church is to promote Christ, not a political candidate. I have had direct experience of what you are talking about. But I don't want to say more."
I asked if he was going to win. He was direct. "It is going to be very close." Ian Hunter is professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario law school.