by Judi McLeod
January 17, 2005
Did accepting membership in Canada's Queen's Privy Council compromise Conservative leader Stephen Harper just one month prior to the June 28, 2004 Canadian federal election?
Without media fanfare, Stephen Joseph Harper was sworn in as a Privy Council member on May 4, 2004. In the June 28, election Canadian voters reduced the Prime Minister Paul Martin-led Liberals to humiliating minority status.
Harper entered the federal election campaign in what appeared to be an upbeat and confident mood. By the last two weeks of the campaign, he seemed to go into hiding.
Within days of the election, he was talking to the mainline media about stepping aside, and melodramatically "mulling over" his future.
Throughout the campaign, Harper had taken a drubbing in the mainline media, who parroting the Liberal government, claimed he had some sort of "hidden agenda".
Viewed by some in his own party faithful as lackluster in conservative ideals, he was dubbed as the "beacon of bland".
alberta academic David Taras wrote: "Harper…seems perpetually burdened–there is nothing light or whimsical about him…he is the oldest young man in Canada."
Speculation ram rampant in the wake of election about why Stephen had lost his groove. Here were Canadian conservatives in ecstasies: the arrogant, scandal-plagued Liberals had been left vulnerable by minority status, but their leader was thinking about calling it quits.
Harper never followed through on an au revoir, and today he is the somewhat reluctant leader of Canada's Conservative Party, Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Like the only petunia in a Liberal garden patch, Harper's name stands out among prominent Privy Council names. The names of other conservatives like former Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney are there. But they are Red Tories and they hail from long ago eras.
There is no doubt that as a sworn in member of the Privy Council, Harper is at much closer range to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II than he is as the reluctant leader of the Loyal Opposition.
"according to the official Canadian document, Rules and Structure of the Privy Council office, published in Ottawa by the Privy Council in December 1996, there is a Canadian Privy Council Coordinator of Security and Intelligence and a Security and Intelligent Secretariat, which both report directly to the Queen in her capacity as Sovereign of Canada. The Secretariat is chaired by the Clerk of the Privy Council, the Queen's personal administrator."
Back in Britain, "the Queen presides over a weekly meeting of the Intelligence Committee, where she and not the prime minister–is fully briefed on the activities of all the British Secret Service. No British "Rambos" or latter-day James Bonds carry out a single covert mission, which does not fall under the purview of the Queen." (Scott Thompson, The Dogs of War: Her Majesty's Irregular Forces).
In Canada, "on the advice of the Prime Minister", the Governor General appoints new ministers to the Privy Council before they are sworn in as ministers. The Prime Minister of the Day may choose to recommend the appointment of other persons of distinction as a special form of honour.
The Privy Council Office came into being under the Constitution act of 1867. From 1940 on, it has also provided the secretarial functions for the Cabinet.
The office provides support and advice to the Prime Minister on prime ministerial prerogatives, assumes responsibilities for the organization of the Government of Canada, and provides advice to the Prime Minister on national security and intelligence matters among other duties.
alex Himelfarb, the clerk of the Privy Council is Prime Minister Paul Martin's most senior bureaucrat.
The Council sounds inane on paper and is weighted down with lofty descriptions, but the Queen's Privy Council for Canada is a veritable seat of power, even the inner sanctum of Canadian politics.
among the few non-elected members of the Canadian Privy Council are Paul Desmarais, founder of the Montreal-based Power Corporation, and alleged to be the power behind the Canadian Prime Minister's Office, and United Nations heavy, Kyoto Protocol architect, New ager Maurice Strong. Both were sworn in to the Council on July 1, 1992.
Strange stomping grounds for new Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.
Ironically, Harper shares Queen's Privy Council membership with The Honourable alfonso Gagliano, the disgraced Liberal Minister of Public Works, former Canadian ambassador to Denmark, and the alleged kingpin in the ongoing Liberal sponsorship scandal.
Was Harper co-opted by Paul Martin one month before June 28, 2004 Election Day?
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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