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Stephen Harper steps down as Tory leader


Stephen Harper is poised to step down as Conservative party leader, but will stay on as an MP for Calgary Heritage.

Thestar.com
Oct. 20, 2015
By Tonda MacCharles

View video link: http://bcove.me/ktlxki9f


As many Conservatives wrestled with a heartbreaking loss Monday, Stephen Harper stepped down as party leader, said the party’s national president John Walsh.

“I have spoken to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and he has instructed me to reach out to the newly elected parliamentary caucus to appoint an interim leader and to the National Council to implement the leadership selection process pursuant to the Conservative Party of Canada constitution.”

“I wish to address all Canadians,” Harper told a large crowd of supporters here. “During the past nine years it has been an unbelievable honour to serve as your prime minister.”

“We put it all on the line, we gave everything we had to give and we have no regrets whatsoever.”

Jason Kenney, defence minister in Harper’s cabinet, said “it’s a bad night for the Conservative party, but we’ll come back.” He said the Conservatives’ policies were not the problem but “where we went wrong was on tone,” said Kenney.

“We need a conservatism that is sunnier and more optimistic,” he said. “We have to take collective responsibility for that.”

He deflected questions about leadership ambitions.

The first outward sign of trouble on election day in Stephen Harper’s Calgary home base was the grim looks on his staffers’ faces as the Conservative leader arrived to vote. Then came reports from the Conservative campaign across the country. It looked bad. Mid-morning officials thought the party could emerge with just 120 seats.

But there was Harper, visibly at ease with an outcome he knew in his gut was coming - that his campaign was skidding to a brutal loss. Harper had a relaxed lunch with his campaign team, boosting their spirits, and spent time preparing “lots of speeches,” at ease with a number of possible outcomes.

Those who know Harper best say it was the same ease he has carried since February when he made the decision to call an unexpected early election campaign that would start in August - a decision his campaign does not regret.

The decision that Harper made on whether to stay or go was known to very few.

Earlier, before Harper announced his intention to step down, Guy Giorno, chair of the Conservative campaign, had said there would be an in-depth post-mortem on how the campaign was conducted but rejected any suggestion that Harper was not the man to lead it.

He said it was a simply a near impossible feat to win four mandates. “We just couldn’t buck history.”

Giorno ascribed the Conservative loss to the collapse of the NDP vote, and said, “We are “proud” of the campaign Harper conducted, but declined to identify where he thought it went wrong.

“I’m the chair of the campaign. To the extent we fell short of the mark, I’m accountable the buck stops with me, I take responsibility for that.”

Asked if the Conservatives had underestimated Trudeau, Giorno dodged. “I think we had the measure of what he was promising to do which is to raise taxes and cut benefits from Canadians and now Canadians will see that.”

“The prime minister knew we were in for an extremely difficult battle,” said campaign official Ken Boessenkool in an interview with the Star, but Harper didn’t want to leave the fallout from the Mike Duffy fraud trial “and other stuff” to another leader.

“He thought it best that he take us into this campaign, that he lead the campaign and that he leave a strong vibrant party if that was Canadians’ choice to the next person.”

Boessenkool said Harper can hold his head high because he has left the party in strong shape for the long term.

For many, there was only one possible outcome. Harper would have to step down in order for the party to rebuild.

“There’ll be legacy discussion, mourning and an immediate leadership,” race that begins Tuesday said one Conservative organizer.

Recriminations were beginning, and blame assigned, in some cases to campaign manager Jenni Byrne who was not in Calgary for Election Day - while the other top people on the campaign team were.