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Former prime minister Stephen Harper urged the Liberal and Conservative parties to take on the challenges of our time together as the country stares down two potentially existential threats to its sovereignty: an imperialist president to the south and separatist movements in Alberta and Quebec.
Speaking at an event Tuesday where his official prime ministerial portrait was unveiled on Parliament Hill, Harper said while the two major parties may differ on some matters of policy, those issues should be secondary to keeping the country together.
“In these perilous times both parties, whatever their other differences, must come together against external forces that threaten our independence and against domestic policies that threaten our unity.
“We must preserve Canada, this country handed down to us by providence, preserved by our ancestors and held in trust for our descendants. We must make any sacrifice necessary to preserve the independence and the unity of this blessed land,” he said.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper’s official portrait is unveiled at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday. Harper served as Canada’s 22nd prime minister for nearly a decade and tapped Toronto artist Phil Richards to paint the portrait, which will hang in the House of Commons foyer.
In his own remarks to the crowd assembled for the unveiling, a who’s who of Canadian politics past and present, Prime Minister Mark Carney praised his predecessor for always being mindful of regional cleavages.
On Harper’s watch, popular support for a Quebec referendum on independence was at its lowest point in decades and western alienation was a marginal issue.
“Prime Minister Harper consistently understood that Canada’s strength has always come from holding together a country that stretches from coast to coast to coast,” Carney said.
“He spoke directly to Western Canada’s sense of contribution — the responsibility not as a region to be managed, but as a core pillar of our national project,” he said.
At his official portrait unveiling ceremony on Tuesday, former prime minister Stephen Harper said ‘we must make any sacrifice necessary to preserve the independence and the unity of this blessed land.’
Carney said Harper came to Ottawa as a “conviction politician,” but emerged as a “pragmatist,” praising his stewardship during the global recession of 2008-09, which Canada weathered relatively well compared to other developed nations.
While committed to balanced budgets, Harper rightly loosened the federal purse strings to prop up an economy under threat, Carney said.
“When the financial crisis struck, he did not let ideology prevent him from doing what was necessary,” Carney said. “This was not a betrayal of principles. It was an expression of a deeper principle. The purpose of sound fiscal management is to serve Canadians, not the other way around.”
Harper appointed Carney to serve as the governor of the Bank of Canada in that era.
The two have spoken since Carney was elected prime minister, he said, and Harper has provided counsel that was “greatly appreciated.”
On Monday, Harper and former prime minister Jean Chrétien jointly called for a revival of Canadian patriotism and a greater focus on national unity.
Speaking together at an event marking 20 years since Harper formed government, Chrétien said it’s clear Trump looks at Canada and “would like to take it over.”
“But we stand on guard, don’t worry,” he said.
Chrétien said Trump’s erratic foreign policy is the sign of “a big shift.”
“Beginning of the end of the American empire and it has to come — all empires change — now it’s accelerating,” Chrétien said. “We’re in a very good position because we have the land, the best educated people in the world.”
While there are separatist movements in both Alberta and Quebec, Chrétien said the country has faced such unity crises before and can prevail again, especially because the Clarity Act is in place — federal legislation his government passed that makes it more difficult for any province to secede.
“We have managed quite well to survive and, at this moment, our friend from the south has created a movement that Canadians have never been so proud to be Canadian,” he said.
Former prime minister Stephen Harper delivered a speech at the unveiling of his official portrait in Ottawa on Tuesday. The portrait of Canada’s 22nd prime minister was painted by Toronto artist Josh Richards.
“Everybody would give everything they have for the privilege to share our so-called miseries.”
Harper quipped that he “didn’t sign the petition,” an apparent reference to the document circulating to prompt a referendum on Alberta independence.
Chrétien interjected and said, “any Tories did?” to which Harper replied, “I’m told not.”
While sharing the stage with Chrétien, who championed the ‘no’ side in the 1995 referendum on Quebec independence, Harper said Canadians need to lean into civic nationalism at this potentially perilous moment.
“We are living in an age of nationalism where there is no reason why this country should not be as nationalistic as anyone else. We have a lot to be proud of. It’s a tremendous country. We have a great history, a great land, a tremendous gift of providence.
“Our pride doesn’t just have to be not liking Donald Trump. We should be proud of who we are as a nation,” Harper said. “I love the United States but I’m not American. I think our country is different and worth preserving.”
Harper said he ran into a prominent longtime separatist a few months ago at the Ottawa airport and chatted with this figure about what Trump is doing to international affairs.
Former prime ministers Stephen Harper and Jean Chrétien met for a fireside chat on Monday in Ottawa after the Royal Canadian Geographical Society awarded Harper its gold medal for his career in public service and his tenure as Canada’s 22nd prime minister.
Harper said he remarked to the unnamed separatist, “This is the reason we have to stick together,” and said the person then lowered their voice and replied, “I think you’re right.”
Chrétien said it’s a problem that relatively few Canadians are familiar with the country’s history.
“I’m amazed by the ignorance of the people,” he said, referencing the country’s 18th-century origin story and how Britain worked with, and at times appeased, French Canadians to collaboratively keep Canada separate from the U.S.
French Canadians went from a small complement of some 60,000 in New France to a 9,000,000-strong block in one of the wealthiest countries on earth. “It’s not that bad,” Chrétien said in jest.
Harper made marking and celebrating Canada’s history a focus of the government he led.
The last Conservative government invested heavily in commemorating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, that foundational military conflict where local, British, French and Indigenous soldiers thwarted American invaders and secured what would become Canada’s independence on the northern half of the continent.
Poking at Carney’s recent mention of the Seven Years’ War during a speech in Quebec City, Harper said he should have invoked other moments of bicultural co-operation.
“The American Revolution, the War of 1812 are probably better examples of Canadian unity than the Plains of Abraham,” Harper said, referring to the British defeating the French in 1759, which brought an end to New France.
“We burned the White House but we will not repeat,” Chrétien joked of the soldiers that torched the presidential residence.
“Part of it is being torn down by the current incumbent,” Harper said in response.
