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Canada

Stephen Harper

No longer in office

Prime Minister

Conservative Party of Canada

1,525 days in office

41st Parliament of Canada
30 May 2011 - 02 Aug 2015

After two consecutive terms in a minority government (2006-2008, 2008-2011), Stephen Harper led the Conservative Party to a majority government with 166 seats and 39.62% of the popular vote on May 2, 2011. By rejecting the budget proposed by Harper’s minority government and adopting a motion of non-confidence asserting that the Harper government was in contempt of Parliament, the opposition parties forced the elections.

In the Conservative Party platform entitled “Here for Canada: Stephen Harper’s low tax plan for jobs and economic growth,” Harper’s Conservatives focused on furthering the economic recovery from the Great Recession of 2008. They hoped to obtain a strong mandate to implement the next phase of Canada’s Economic Action Plan, to eliminate the deficit by 2014-2015, and its “tough on crime” agenda for “law-abiding Canadians”. Stephen Harper’s Conservative Party designed a platform with 143 pledges, some of which appealed to very specific market segments according to a political marketing strategy. In Québec, Harper appealed to Quebec nationalists with the slogan “Notre région au pouvoir” (Our Region in Power).

In partnership with

Center for Public Policy Analysis (CAPP)

Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes

Promise History

Governments and Governance

41st Parliament of Canada

3.07.006 - “In the spirit of open federalism, when renewing the Health Accord we will respect the fact that health care is an area of provincial jurisdiction and respect limits on the federal spending power.”

Stephen Harper's Low-Tax Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth

Published: May 2011

“The Conservative government, which views health care delivery as strictly a provincial responsibility, has refused to negotiate a new agreement and will continue to limit its role to ongoing transfers of money to the provinces. This year’s transfer is $32-billion; that amount will increase by six per cent annually until 2017, and after that increases will be tied to the performance of the economy. However, unlike under the Health Accord, there will be no conditions on how the money is used.”