New Harper book coming: sources

Sources say it will focus on rise of populism

OTTAWA • Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper is writing a book, several sources have told the National Post.

The book will focus on populism and the future of the conservative movement, according to multiple people with knowledge of the project. It is expected to grapple with the question of how to handle right-wing populism and take it seriously.

Sources suggested the book was already in the hands of a publisher and would be published this year. But a spokeswoman for Harper, Anna Tomala, said she could not confirm that, saying: “There are discussions with a number of publishers about a variety of topics that are presently being explored with Mr. Harper.”

Harper, prime minister from 2006 until 2015, earned his political stripes in the Reform Party, a populist force born in western Canada in the late 1980s and becoming a major disrupter in federal politics by the ’90s. He was a strategist and MP for that party before going on to consolidate Canada’s conservative movement under a “big blue tent,” the newly minted Conservative Party, in 2004.

Whatever wisdom Harper can espouse will emerge as Western democracies continue to see the proliferation of populist movements.

It was during an appearance in Ottawa before the 2016 election that former U.S. president Barack Obama quibbled with modern definitions of “populism,” suggesting in a thinly veiled criticism of then Republican candidate Donald Trump that people were using the word indiscriminately.

“They don’t suddenly become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes. That’s not the measure of populism. That’s nativism, or xenophobia. Or worse. Or it’s just cynicism,” he had said.

Nonetheless, the word “populism” is what many modern leaders — including Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — have seized upon to describe popular movements such as the rise of now-President Trump and Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union. It is the concept of “populism” that Trudeau has said he is fighting against by promoting international trade and multilateralism.

Although Harper has rarely spoken publicly since his defeat in 2015, he has occasionally made his views known. In a New York Times full-page ad this week, Harper and other former politicians praised Trump for his decision to exit a nuclear deal with Iran.

Harper is already a published author. In November 2013, while he was prime minister, he published a book about hockey called A Great Game.