Tory policy convention not likely to provide clarity on social issues: Harper  
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch posted 2:45 p.m. September 8, 2004]

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper speaks with reporters on Parliament Hill today while Conservative Party Interim Council Chair Don Plett looks on.

OTTAWA — Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper says he does not expect his party's first ever policy convention to provide clarity on where his party stands on some controversial social issues that dogged it during the election campaign. 

Harper and party interim council chair Don Plett announced on Parliament Hill today that a policy convention will be held at the Palais de Congres in Montreal from March 17 to 19. 

Harper spent much of the election campaign trying to present a moderate Conservative party to voters, while at the same time having to explain or denounce some of the social conservative views expressed by individual Conservative MPs in media interviews.

But Harper said party policy on divisive social issues - such as same-sex marriage or abortion, where there are sharp differences of opinion in the new Conservative caucus -- are likely not to be resolved in Montreal.

"In the past, resolutions on sensitive topics of moral and religious opinion have generally been defeated because I think the party holds the view that I do, which is on those kinds of things the party has to be opened to diversity of opinion and you don't adopt any one position on those issues," he said.

Holding a party policy convention could be a double-edged sword for the Conservative Party, which was created by a merger of the former Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties. 

While it may provide clarity on some issues, it could produce divisive debates on controversial issues and produce further media coverage of Conservatives arguing over those topics. 

However, Harper said he does not think the policy convention will be divisive. 

He said the policy convention will allow people with differing views in the party to recognize they have differences, but find ways to "live with those and work through them."

Plett said a policy development process will begin in October which will seek grassroots input from individual members of the party. Details of the process will be made available in a few weeks, according to Plett. 

Today's press conference was Harper's second in just two days. It comes after a summer in which Harper kept a low profile, with just two scrums with the Parliamentary Press Gallery after the federal election.

When asked if the lack off access was his way of dealing with what some Conservatives see as uneven-handed treatment of the party by the national media, Harper said, "I'll let press analysts comment on that." 

"I'm here today to make an important announcement that we weren't in a position to make before today. We make announcements or we respond to issues when it's timely to do so."

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