Harping on.

HARPER, Stephen, 1959-; MACKAY, Peter

This article focuses on the unification of Canada's two right-wing parties into a single national Conservative Party. Last autumn, as Paul Martin prepared to replace Jean Chrétien as Canada's prime minister, the divided right-wing parties were gloomily contemplating a second decade in opposition. So much has the political climate changed that the hurried merger of the Progressive Conservatives (PC) and the Canadian Alliance into a single Conservative Party has created a credible alternative to the Liberals. The turnaround is partly due to the bursting of a sleaze scandal from the Chrétien era, concerning a publicity campaign against separatism in Quebec which degenerated into a slush fund. That has damaged the Liberals. But it is also because the Conservatives' tricky merger went surprisingly well, thanks mainly to the negotiating skill of Stephen Harper, the Alliance leader. Despite his party's ties to social and fiscal conservatism, he persuaded Peter Mackay, the more centrist PC leader, that merger offered each their only hope of power.