Harper’s balancing act
Posted March 30, 2011 6:26 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper is walking a tightrope, trying to court new voters while retaining his traditional base of support. It may be a tough job, given some of his past promises.
“Your beliefs, your values, our values are the real Canadian values,” said Harper, then Opposition leader, at an anti-gay marriage rally in Ottawa in April of 2005. “And you know my position; you know the position of the Conservative Party of Canada. When elected Prime Minister at the next election, we will bring in legislation that defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman.”
If he hopes to take enough seats in the election on May 2nd to form a majority, Harper does have to appeal to more voters in the centre of the political spectrum — many who remember past promises and agendas.
Harper needs to win back the so-called Red Tories — fiscally conservative but socially liberal voters — who abandoned the Conservatives after the merger with the Canadian Alliance.
