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Emissaries from the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservatives have reached an agreement in principle to found a new party, and it now appears a movement is afoot to install former Ontario premier Mike Harris as leader.
Organizers from the federal and Ontario Conservative parties confirmed that Harris supporters have been quietly laying the groundwork for a run at leading a united right once a deal is reached to dissolve the Alliance and Tories and found a new party.
And that agreement may now be at hand. In Ottawa, Alliance leader Stephen Harper said he expects to receive a compromise proposal from his representatives and the Tory emissaries "before the end of the week."
"My understanding is there is an agreement in principle, it's a matter of our representatives coming to finalizing that effort," he said. "I'll make a decision shortly after I get the final conclusions of the discussions ... to get an agreement both sides eventually have to make their decisions to sign off, and I don't know what the Tory timeline is on that."
Conservative leader Peter MacKay struck a far less strident tone than on Wednesday, when he blasted the Alliance for purportedly leaking details of the negotiations to the press
"I can tell you the emissaries are doing great work ... I'm confident in the emissary process, I'm confident in the people I have representing me at that table, and we're going to take a very strong and serious look at this," he said.
Mr. Harper doesn't anticipate any further talks, and suggested a meeting scheduled for next week between the emissaries -- former federal finance minister Don Mazankowski, ex-Ontario premier Bill Davis, and Conservative MP Loyola Hearn for the Tories, ex-Reform MP Ray Speaker, Senator Gerry St-Germain and MP Scott Reid for the Alliance -- will simply formalize the agreement.
"I don't think the public wants an endless soap opera, there's been some good discussions over the three months, I think most of the issues have been thoroughly addressed," he said.
Mr. Harper said. "It's time for the parties to make their positions known and take their decisions," Mr. Harper said.
If the two parties are able to reach an agreement, it will first be presented to their respective caucuses, then submitted to the general membership.
Mr. Harper said it would then take three or four weeks "to get some details out to them and get some mechanism whereby they can send back their support or opposition".
It's then hoped a new leader could be in place either late this year or early in 2004.
But before any of that happens, Mr. MacKay has to get his caucus on side.
"Are people nervous about it? Are they concerned? By all means, this is their livelihood ... clearly I'm going to need caucus support for this. And so this is a (multi-tier) process that's got to be in place before we're going to be able to proceed," Mr. MacKay said.
While both leaders are preoccupied with stickhandling a deal, the buzz surrounding a Harris candidacy is intensifying.
The former Ontario premier was in Ottawa on Wednesday night, and, after being sighted by a journalist, said he is "not disinterested" in making the leap into federal politics.
A former adviser said Mr. Harris doesn't want to sour the unite-the-right discussions by leaping into the fray too soon, and that he has limited interest in getting involved until the process for merging the parties is under way.
The unite-the-right negotiations have become the hot topic among Tories across the country, and Mr. Harris is likely to fuel more speculation when he plays golf with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein today.
Mr. Harris gave a speech in Banff at the Global Economic Forum last night, and was to meet with Mr. Klein afterward.
Speaking to reporters earlier in the day, Mr. Klein came out in support of the principle of consolidating Canada's right-of-centre political parties, and suggested Mr. Harris would be a good choice to lead the new entity.
"The Klein-Harris axis is pretty well known, and given what's happened in Ontario lately, I think Mike knows he can't go it alone, he needs allies in other parts of the country," said an Ontario Tory close to Mr. Harris.
With the Ontario Tory election campaign floundering, many of the same people who were urging Mr. Harris to run for the federal Tory leadership earlier this year have renewed contact and turned their energies toward having him enter the race to lead the new party.
Alliance officials said it will indeed be a race, and that Mr. Harper would run, despite rumours in many Tory circles that he isn't keen on staying in Ottawa.
Factions within the Alliance and the federal Tories are lukewarm to Mr. Harris, and some privately doubt he's ripe for a transition to the federal scene. But at the same time, the perception that an outside candidate is needed to galvanize the new party appears to be gaining steam in Tory circles.
"Whenever you have a candidate of that calibre, it gives you the chance to avoid the perception that either Harper or MacKay have won out over the other. And Mike Harris would be a great choice," said one New Brunswick Tory.
Will we finally see a consolidated party on the right here in Canada? What should the party be called? What do you think the overall platform of this party will entail?
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