Premiership of Stephen Harper
The premiership of Stephen Harper began on February 6, 2006, when the first Cabinet headed by Stephen Harper was sworn in by Governor General Michaelle Jean. Harper was invited to form the 28th Canadian Ministry and become Prime Minister of Canada following the 2006 federal election, where Harper led his Conservative Party to win a plurality of seats in the House of Commons of Canada, defeating the Liberal minority government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. Harper led his Conservatives to win a more significant minority government in 2008, and then a majority government in 2011. In the 2015 federal election, Harper's Conservatives lost power to the Liberal Party led by Justin Trudeau. On November 4, 2015, Harper resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by Trudeau, who formed a majority government.
Background
From Canadian Confederation until the 1993 election, the Liberal Party's control has been the rule of who was in power in Canada, with short-lived Conservative governments to break up their long stretches of governance. Stephen Harper, then a member of Parliament, and political scientist Tom Flanagan described this as "a benign dictatorship, not under a strict one-party rule, but under a one-party-plus system beset by the factionalism, regionalism and cronyism that accompany any such system". In 1993, the Progressive Conservatives were reduced from a majority government to fifth place and two seats in the House of Commons. They were displaced by the Reform Party of Canada in Western Canada, the Bloc Québécois in Québec, and the Liberals throughout the country due to vote splitting.Harper was elected in 1993 as a Reform MP. He resigned before the 1997 election and became an advocate of the Unite the Right movement, which argued for a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Reform Parties. Harper went on to win the leadership of the Canadian Alliance in 2002. In 2003, Harper and Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay agreed to merge their parties into the new Conservative Party of Canada. Harper was elected leader of the new party in 2004.
In the 2004 election, the Liberals were reduced to a minority government due to a government spending scandal and the success of the newly united right-of-centre opposition party. Harper went on to lead the Conservatives to win a plurality of seats in the 2006 election and formed the smallest minority government in Canadian history.
History
Harper led the government through the longest-lasting federal minority government in Canadian history, which ended when he achieved a majority victory in 2011.39th Parliament
The Conservatives won 124 seats in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2006 election for the 39th Parliament of Canada while receiving 36.3% of the popular vote.It was one of the Harper government's priorities to mandate fixed election dates by amending the Canada Elections Act. This was accomplished by Bill C-16 in May 2007.
The Conflict of Interest Act was another one of Harper's priorities, passing into law in 2007.
40th Parliament
They won 143 seats in the 2008 election for the 40th Parliament of Canada while receiving 37.7% of the popular vote.41st Parliament
In the 2011 election for the 41st Parliament of Canada, the Conservatives won 166 seats with 39.6% of the popular vote.Conventional wisdom before the 2011 election previously held that winning a federal majority without significant support in the province of Quebec would be near impossible. The Conservatives disproved this, winning an eleven-seat majority with only five seats in Quebec. The Conservatives won considerably more popular support outside of Quebec than they did elsewhere, carrying 48% of the popular vote outside of Quebec. This was only the second time in Canadian history that a federal government was formed without a substantial number of seats from Quebec.
Media speculation was the Conservatives would need to win more than 40% of the popular vote to form a majority government, the stated goal of Harper in the 2011 election. However, the Liberal Party was able to win a majority with only 38.5% of the popular vote in 1997. The Conservatives have previously come very close to a majority with 37.7% of the popular vote in 2008 and with 35.9% of the vote in 1979.
Opinion polling between the 2006 and 2008 federal elections
From December 2006 to August 2008, the Conservatives and Liberals exchanged leads in opinion polls. From September through the election in October 2008, the Conservatives led in all polls.Opinion polling between the 2008 and 2011 federal elections
The Conservatives led in every public opinion poll released from March 2010 to the election. From January to September 2009 and again from January to February 2010 several polls showed the Liberals tied with or slightly leading Harper's Conservatives.Opinion polling after the 2011 federal election
The Conservatives continued to maintain 37–39% support after the election. In March 2012, some polls showed the NDP tied with or surpassing the Conservatives and others showed the Conservatives with a slim lead. In May 2012, the Tories dipped into second place behind the NDP, but the NDP quickly dropped again. In April 2013, the Conservatives dropped in second place in the polls behind the Liberals and their new leader Justin Trudeau. The Liberals would keep their lead until 2015. Upon the beginning of the election campaign in the summer of 2015, the three main federal parties were neck and neck with about 30% each in most polls. The Liberals ended up edging out the other parties during the campaign and won the 2015 Canadian federal election.Relationship with parliament, opposition parties
For most of Harper's tenure as prime minister, he led a minority government meaning he relied on the support of other parties to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons. The Harper government often relied on the official opposition Liberal caucus abstaining in whole or in part to allow confidence measures to pass. The government lost its first confidence vote on a Liberal-sponsored censure motion on March 25, 2011, prompting Harper to seek dissolution and the calling of the 2011 general election.Confidence in the House of Commons
The principal motions of confidence in the Canadian House of Commons are matters of supply and the motion in reply to the Speech from the Throne. The government may also designate any vote to be a matter of confidence, and opposition parties may introduce motions that explicitly express a lack of confidence in the government. During this period of Harper's tenureship, he began to increase the scope of what bills of the government could be considered confidence measures, reflecting the increasing willingness of the government to trigger an election based on favourable polling conditions.Non-confidence motion and prorogation of Parliament, 2008
Harper precipitated a national controversy, which threatened to overturn his government, by fielding a spending bill in the fall of 2008 which would have stripped taxpayer funding from political parties and taken away the right to strike from Canadian public service workers as purported solutions to the effects in Canada of the global economic crisis. Outraged opposition parties formed a coalition intending to call a vote of non-confidence that would have toppled the Harper government, but he avoided the impending vote of non-confidence by asking the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until January 26, 2009. Following the resumption of parliament, Harper introduced a new budget which was allowed to pass when members of the Liberal caucus voted for the budget with an amendment to budget motion.Senate appointments
As prime minister, Harper recommended the appointment of 38 persons to the Senate of Canada. All of these senators were members of Harper's Conservative Party. Three subsequently resigned from the Senate to seek election to the House of Commons.Harper had long been an advocate of an elected Senate and appointed four senators based on the result of Alberta Senate nominee elections. Harper introduced legislation to provide for elections to advise the prime minister on whom to recommend for appointment to the Senate and to cause appointed senators to serve fixed terms, to, in essence, create a de facto elected Senate without changing the constitution. Harper's Senate appointments and reform proposals were criticized for failing to address the balance of seats among provinces, possibly being unconstitutional, and for running contrary to the spirit of his previous pledges for an elected senate. Harper argued that, without appointing senators, the Liberals would have continued to enjoy a majority in the Senate despite lacking popular support, the Senate would become less and less able to function, and all of his appointees agreed to resign and seek election to the senate should his reform proposals pass.
Libel suit against Liberal Party
Harper launched a lawsuit on March 13, 2008, against the Liberal Party of Canada over statements published on the party's website concerning the Chuck Cadman affair. This was the first time a sitting prime minister had sued the opposition for libel. The $2.5-million suit was named "The Liberal Party, the Federal Liberal Agency of Canada, and the unnamed author or authors of the statements published on the Liberal website". The articles at the centre of the lawsuit were headlined "Harper knew of Conservative bribery" and "Harper must come clean about allegations of Conservative Bribery". Those articles questioned Harper's alleged involvement in financial offers made to Cadman to sway his vote in a crucial 2005 Commons showdown. The suit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice did not name Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion or MPs Ralph Goodale and Michael Ignatieff—whom Harper had also threatened to sue. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2009 with both parties not disclosing the terms of settlement.Dona Cadman said that before the May 2005 budget vote, Tom Flanagan and Doug Finley, two Conservative Party officials, offered her husband, Chuck Cadman, a million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his vote to bring down the Liberal government.