By Canadian Press

Former prime minister Stephen Harper says Canada needs a ‘Conservative renaissance ‘

Mar 22, 2023 | 5:17 PM

OTTAWA — Former prime minister Stephen Harper says Canada badly needs a “Conservative renaissance.” 

Harper was speaking to a room of party faithful gathered in Ottawa for an annual networking conference staged by the Canada Strong and Free Network, formerly called the Manning Centre. 

Wednesday’s public appearance is a rare one for Harper, who exited political life after losing the 2015 election to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. 

Introduced as a “statesmen” of the party, Harper mounted a defence of the term “populism,” which he says is often portrayed in a negative or imprecise light by what he called the “Liberal media.”

Harper reminded the audience that the modern Conservative party was built from populism in Western Canada, a sense of nationalism in Quebec and Tories from Ontario. 

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He says it owes credit to Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party, with its Prairie populist roots, which merged with the former Progressive Conservatives to form the Conservative Party of Canada. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2023.

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press