National Citizens Coalition and Other Right-Wing Groups Help Mike Harris

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

The billboard to the right was designed by Gerry Nicholls when he was running the anti-Bob Rae campaign for Ontarians for Responsible Government, an offshoot of the National Citizens Coalition.

I've read several books on the Mike Harris Revolution and all ignore the influence of these right-wing groups, that played such an important role in the success of the movement.

Colin Brown Jr., son of the founder of the NCC, Colin Brown, was invited to speak to the Ontario legislature in 1997.

I appreciate the chance to speak to you today. My name is Colin Brown and I'm the president of Ontarians for Responsible Government. As our name suggests, we at ORG believe in responsible government. That means we believe in government that is careful with tax dollars That means we believe in government that's efficient and, most of all, we believe in a government that promotes economic freedom. We came into being around in 1991 to oppose and expose the ruinous socialist policies of Premier Bob Rae and the NDP after his first budget. For four years we battled that government and ultimately contributed to its defeat at the polls in 1995. (1)

And indeed they did. For the entire duration of Bob Rae's premiership, the OFRG did nothing but harass, while building support for a neoconservative takeover.


The National Citizens Coalition

The National Citizens Coalition, which was started in 1975, on the advice of Preston Manning's father, Ernest Manning; had always been considered to be a right-wing fringe group. But after helping to get Brian Mulroney elected, they began to earn some legitimacy, and with 50 members of Mulroney's caucus belonging to the NCC, it was not too difficult to influence policy.

In 1987, when Stephen Harper, who had joined the NCC in 1980, was helping to start the Reform Party, he worked with the NCC and it's then president, David Somerville. Somerville had been a journalist for the Toronto Sun when Peter Worthington was the editor, so his devotion to right-wing causes was already well tested.

Somerville's connections with the Reform Party were even more direct. He attended virtually all of their assemblies during his term of office as an
observer." At the founding convention of Reform in 1987, he told reporters, "If NCC supporters notice a remarkable similarity between the political agendas of the Reform Party of Canada and the NCC, it may be because an estimated one third of the delegates are NCC supporters." Although he continued to argue the NCC was beholden to no other organization, he nevertheless declared enthusiastically after Preston Manning's speech in 1991 at the Saskatoon convention that "it was conceivable to think of him, for the first time, as Prime Minister Manning." Not surprisingly, an NCC poll released that summer also indicated more than 60 per cent of NCC members outside of Quebec planned to vote Reform.(2)

And while Stephen Harper has been credited with writing policy for the Reform party, most of it was actually cribbed from the NCC handbook. (3) They would also put $ 50,000.00 into his 1993 campaign, that brought him to Ottawa as an MP.

But besides simply being engaged in guerrilla warfare against Bob Rae, the NCC also worked closely with Mike Harris and his team.

In 1994 Somerville was asked to address the Ontario Conservatives' platform committee, the group of whiz kids Mike Harris had assembled for his "Common Sense Revolution." According to a report on his presentation in the NCC's June 1994 Consensus, Somerville urged Harris to "come out strongly in favour of privatization, contracting-out, repeal of pro—labour union laws and immediate action to eliminate the deficit". (2)

Corporate money began to flow, and the debt of the party was gradually reduced.

But it would take more than just the NCC if the Revolution was going to have any success, and just as with the Reform Party, Harris could count on several, including the Fraser Institute, of which he is now a fellow. Michael Walker told Enterprise Magazine in 1995, that he and Mike Harris were regular fishing buddies.

Another important group working behind the scenes was the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB) led by Craig Chandler. In January of 1994, Mike Harris attended a PGIB rally in Hamilton, Ontario, where he stated "I encourage you to join the PGIB is you have not already and demand a restructuring of the public sector to both cut costs and improve services. It is time to go forward with a common-sense plan to unleash the power of the marketplace." and on March 14, 1997, from The Globe and Mail: "...the Calgary-based Progressive Group for Independent Business, a group known as the brains behind Ontario Premier Mike Harris's Common-Sense Revolution. " (4)

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, then led by Jason Kenney also featured a Harris pledge as part of their literature, and praised him for promising to cut taxes.

But the most important influence on the success of the Harris Revolution came from south of the border. That coming next.

Mike Harris and the American "Common Sense" Revolution

Sources:

1. Pre-Budget Consultations, Legislative Assembly of Ontario, March 6, 1997

2. Hard Right Turn: The New Face of Neo-Conservatism in Canada, Brooke Jeffrey, Harper-Collins, 1999, ISBN: 0-00 255762-2 4, Pg. 413

3. Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada, by William Johnson, McClelland & Stewart, 2005, ISBN 0-7710 4350-3, 2005

4. What are People Saying About PGIB, PGIB Website, Accessed July 23, 2010

Roots of Reform: NCC, Racism and Ethnic Indigestion

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

"I spotted a lot of movement about 30 feet away to the left of the stage [at a punk rock concert]. I squinted through the maze of sweaty bodies and saw what appeared to be a group of men making salutes. Fascist salutes.

"... I pushed my way through the crowd ... As I got closer, I could not, as the saying goes, believe my eyes. A group of large, muscular young men were, in fact, making Nazi salutes in the general direction of the stage. One of them, a stocky fellow with cropped blonde hair, was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words: "DROWN THE BOAT PEOPLE" (1)

That incident took place in 1980, but those words on the t-shirt, which might sound strange today, packed a wallop back then.

The term "Boat People" was in reference to a decision made by the Government of Canada to take in 50,000 Asian refugees, who were sent adrift as a result of the Vietnam War. However, it became a hot button issue when the National Citizens Coalition launched a series of ads suggesting that this was akin to an invasion, that would threaten our nationality. They used flawed logic and fabricated figures, but eventually, under pressure, the government had to turn them away.

In this recorded interview from the CBC archives, with then president of the NCC, David Somerville*, you will hear him try to justify this racist campaign. One cleric even referred to their impending arrival as 'ethnic indigestion'.

During the campaign, National Citizens Coalition founder, Colin M. Brown, attempted to explain why letting in Hungarians fleeing communism after the Soviet crackdown was justified and why letting in Vietnamese boat people fleeing communism was not. “I think the Hungarians have made marvelous citizens,” Brown declared, “but the bloodlines run the same way. We all come from Europe so they fit in. You wouldn’t know if the people next door to you are Hungarian or not. They don’t all go and gather in a ghetto.”

And then there's Harper's famous quote: "You have to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from Eastern Canada; people who live in ghettos and are not integrated into Western Canadian society." (2)

In 2000, Alliance candidate Betty Granger caught national attention with her comments about Asian immigrants, and an 'Asian Invasion'. When it was later discovered that she was a riding president, Harper stated: "Betty Granger is a riding president, a member in good standing. She’s somebody that other members I’ve talked to think very highly of, and quite frankly, she was the victim of an unfair slur story in the last election campaign." (3)

During the 2008 election campaign, Conservative MP Lee Richardson suggested that most crime in Canada is committed by immigrants, a statement that the police and others who know, quickly refuted. Yet Richardson said: “Talk to the police. Look at who’s committing these crimes,” he added. “They’re not the kid that grew up next door.” (4)

According to Paul Fromm, after it was discovered that several neo-Nazis were operating within the Reform Party: " The attraction of Reform for [Al] Overfield and like-minded persons, he said was that it was strictly white bread, 100 percent white Canadians, really anti-immigration; there was really no difference between those people and them."

Stephen Harper claimed that he joined the National Citizens when Pierre Trudeau implemented the National Energy Program. That would have been in 1980, just about the time of the 'Boat People' controversy. He claimed that he liked what the NCC stood for. Within the decade, he would be inspired by author Peter Brimelow and William Gairner's book, The Trouble With Canada, became "the de facto manifesto for Preston Manning's Reform Party". A few years later Stephen Harper would be running the National Citizens Coalition.

In another CBC archive from a radio station call-in show, discussing the NCC campaign of hate, you will hear future Reform Party member, Doug Collins, author of the book; Immigration and the Destruction of English Canada, trying to defend their position.

I mentioned Collins in another post, regarding Stephen Harper's Northern Foundation and their pro-Apartheid activities. "Doug Collins is a member of Canadian Friends of South Africa ... and has written numerous sympathetic articles ... Collins is also a member of CFAR ... an extremist right-wing group founded by Paul Fromm." (6)

Just because the National Citizens Coalition was a 'legitimate' agency, and just because men like Peter Brimelow, William Gairdner and Doug Collins, were 'legitimate' authors, does not make them any less racist.

Their views fueled the fires, 'legitimizing' many hate groups and resulting in "A group of large, muscular young men ... making Nazi salutes ... and one of them ... wearing a T-shirt bearing the words: "DROWN THE BOAT PEOPLE"

Footnotes:

*David Somerville was the president when Stephen Harper was named vice-president of the National Citizens Coaliton. Harper then took over from Somerville to become their president.

Sources:

1. Web of Hate: Inside Canada's Far Right Network, By: Warren Kinsella, Harper Collins, 1994 ISBN 0-00-255074-1 Pg. 3

2. Stephen Harper, in Report Newsmagazine, 2001, when he was president of the NCC

3. Stephen Harper, Calgary Herald, January 15, 2002.

4. Calgary Tory offers no apology for immigrant-crime comment: Local Conservative incumbent Lee Richardson expressed regret Thursday - but offered no apology or resignation - for controversial comments he made suggesting immigrants are to blame for much of the crime in Canada, By Calgary Herald, September 25, 2008

5. Preston Manning and the Reform Party. By: Murray Dobbin Goodread Biographies/Formac Publishing 1992 ISBN: 0-88780-161-7, pg. 218-219

6. Dobbin, 1992