Over 20 candidates and members of Parliament for the Conservative Party of Canada, including leader Stephen Harper, Justice Critic Vic Toews, Foreign Affairs Critic Stockwell Day and Firearms Critic Garry Breitkreuz, have links to organizations established under the umbrella of the Council for National Policy (CNP), an American group that the New York Times calls a “club of a few hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country,” [1] and which Rolling Stone reports has “funnelled billions of dollars to right-wing Christian activists.”[2]

Stephen Harper addressed CNP members in 1997 at its meeting in Montreal,[3] where the group reportedly conceived of the Republican effort to impeach President Clinton.[4] Addressing the elite group is no small feat, given that guests may only attend meetings with the unanimous consent of the Executive Committee.[5] Since Mr. Harper’s address, links between Conservative Party members and groups sponsored by the CNP like Focus on the Family, Concerned Women for America, the Christian Coalition of America and the National Rifle Association have grown. In turn, these groups have taken an increasingly forthright role in influencing Canadian politics through radio broadcasts, Canadian affiliates, and training for grassroots advocacy efforts in support of Conservative Party candidates.

This should perhaps come as no surprise given that the Vancouver Sun estimates that “roughly half the current 98 members” of the Conservative caucus “are religious social conservatives,” which is “well over double the national average.”[6] It suggests, however, that powerful forces may be affecting the distribution of political power in this country about which Canadians may not be aware. The chart found below demonstrates the links among the CNP, its associated organizations, their activities in Canada, and various Conservative Party candidates for the 2006 election. For more information on the organizations and the candidates, click on the chart.

Conservative Affiliations

The disclosure of this social conservative network is important because such links are likely to become stronger in the future. Influential young Canadian conservatives like Tasha Kheiriddin of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have called for the creation of leadership training institutes along the lines of the Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C.,[7] which teaches, according to two Wall Street Journal reporters, “young members of the Religious Right how to take a role in national politics,”[8] to train a new generation of Canadian conservatives “how to do all the things in politics."[9]

The president of the Leadership Institute, Morton Blackwell,[10] a former Special Assistant to President Reagan[11]and “a particularly hard core conservative activist,[12] has shown a keen interest in spreading the teachings of his school to would-be conservative leaders from all over the world. It is perhaps no coincidence, then, that Mr. Blackwell was the Executive Director of the CNP when it invited Mr. Harper to address the organization in 1997, having administered the powerful social conservative group in that capacity from 1991 until at least 2000.[13]

In so far as the values of these organizations and the Conservative candidates they support depart from those held by Canadians, voters in the 2006 federal election should take these ties very seriously since, according to David Laycock, political scientist at Simon Fraser University, “[t]he individual views of Conservative candidates matter very much in a party that promises to hold more free votes in Parliament on social and moral issues.”[14] As conservatives in Canada move to entrench their grassroots organization through social conservative leadership training initiatives like the upcoming February national faith and politics conference undertaken by the Manning Centre[15], Canadians must remain vigilant lest social conservatives already supported by a vast network of American organizations turn their influence into a government mandate.