by Deborah Gyapong

I just came from the Ottawa launch of Gerry Nicholls book Loyal to the Core: Stephen Harper, Me and the NCC. The NCC stands for the National Citizens Coalition, one of the first and for a time one of the only conservative organizations trying to break through the progressive intellectual fog that has its grip on the Canadian political class.

Nicholls worked as vice president to Stephen Harper when Harper led the NCC, so the book promises to contrast the dedicated true conservative he once was to the pragmatic, centrist who just followed every other western democracy deep into deficit spending. Nicholls spoke briefly about the discouragement that many Conservatives are experiencing with the tack the Harper government has taken, but he stressed that it is important to distinguish the political party from the conservative movement.

This is the last line from Nicholls handsome book, published by Freedom Press, a new publishing company dedicated to publishing conservative books by Canadians for Canadians. Publisher Tristan Emmanuel is shown standing in front of the Conservative Books poster. Nicholls stands in front of the Canadian Centre for Policy Studies poster. The Centre co-hosted the launch. It is a relatively new think tank that is contributing to the conservative movement. Nicholls says: “If the disappointment of the Harper government has taught us anything it’s that we conservatives can’t depend on politicians to fight our battles. It’s up to us.” He’s right. He said tonight that Harper, instead of baiting the Liberals last fall with a move aimed at destroying them, should have put forward a truly conservative program and allowed the government to fall. He might have lost the election, but at least there would be one party that had a truly conservative message. I’m not sure I agree with that. But I do agree that we have to change the culture, change civil society through the strenght of our arguments and ideas. The politicians will then follow us.
http://deborahgyapong.blogspot.com/2009/03/gerry-nichols-launches-new-book-in.html