Ottawa

What was Stephen Harper thinking in 1997?

Apparently, coalitions haven’t always been a bad idea

Near the end of his TVO interview in 1997, Stephen Harper was asked who he thought would win the next election. You can advance to the ten-minute mark to see for yourself, but here is a transcript of his answer.

Well, it would really surprise me at the moment if the Liberals didn’t get the most seats. I mean, judging from all the, not just the polling data, but the fact they have such a wide coalition. The way the Liberals, I think, are eventually going to lose office, whether it’s in this election or the next one, is they’re going to fail to win a majority. They’ve basically lost Quebec and without Quebec the Liberal party has never been a majority party in this country. And that’s where I think you’re going to face, someday, a minority parliament, with the Liberals maybe having the largest number of seats, and what will be the test is whether there’s then any party in opposition that’s able to form a coalition or working alliance with the others. And I think we have a political system that’s going to continue to have three or four different parties, or five different parties, and so I think parties that want to form government are going to eventually have to learn to work together.

See previously: The guardian of our democracy, How late is too late? and What was Stephen Harper thinking in 2004?

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