OTTAWA — Stephen Harper’s official portrait will be unveiled next week in Parliament as the former Conservative prime minister seeks to emphasize Canadian identity and unity at a time of political turmoil.
It’s part of a week of events marking the 20th anniversary of the modern Conservative Party taking office and the former prime minister’s political record, according to one of the organizers.
Harper led the then-newly united Conservatives to a decade in power in 2006, and the party, which will emerge from this weekend’s convention having tested its trust in current leader Pierre Poilievre’s ability to do the same, is marking an electoral feat that has not been matched since that time.
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But the aim is to highlight Canada’s strength as a country based on orderly transitions of power and cross-partisan respect for the office of prime minister, said an organizer, whom the Star agreed not to name to discuss plans for the week’s events, some of which are not yet finalized.
On Monday, Harper is expected to be recognized by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his contributions and will then sit with one of his political rivals and predecessors, former Liberal leader Jean Chrétien, for a fireside chat about Canadian unity and identity — a conversation that the two former leaders have had on an ongoing basis about how to find common ground.
On Tuesday, Harper will attend question period in the House of Commons and his long-delayed official portrait by Canadian artist Phil Richards will be unveiled, followed by a Wednesday gala in Ottawa where Harper is to deliver a keynote speech to some 1,200 attendees.
Harper once famously dissed such events, saying ordinary people look at a “rich gala all subsidized by taxpayers,” and don’t see their concerns reflected. For this occasion, current and former party supporters have been invited. Taxpayers are not on the hook as the event is being sponsored by Harper’s supporters, colleagues, corporate sponsors and his firm, an organizer said.
On Thursday, Harper will attend an event at the Library and Archives Canada, where he has completed the donation of a trove of his documents and records while in office — as all prime ministers do. Not all those records are yet public.
Harper will speak about his participation in a Library and Archives Canada project involving 100 hours of interviews to document key moments of decision-making at the Prime Minister’s Office, spanning his 10 years that covered critical moments including the war in Afghanistan and the global financial crisis.
The goal, said the insider, is to show there is a road map for how governments have handled crises, with the emphasis on the fact that in Canada there has been an unbroken succession of leaders and a peaceful transition from government to government.
