harper's radical ties

Stephen Harper is Trying to Hide his Radical Ties
January 13, 2006
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Stephen Harper yesterday soft-peddled his June 1997 speech before the Council for National Policy (CNP) - an ultra-conservative American political advocacy group - as "the leader of a conservative organization addressing another conservative organization."

In describing the similarities between the National Citizen's Coalition, which Mr. Harper once led, and the CNP, Mr. Harper said, "[Y]ou know, obviously, we admire values of freedom and democracy and the promotion of our traditional values and I think we've, we all understand that."

THE FACTS

The Council for National Policy was founded in 1981 by Tim LaHaye, an anti-Catholic, social conservative author of the bestselling Left Behind apocalyptic novels in the United States, which have sold over 60 million copies.

The Council is described as "a secretive group of wealthy donors that has funnelled billions of dollars to right-wing Christian activists." At its meetings, it "unites right-wing billionaires with scores of conservative Christian activists and politicians, and these encounters have spawned countless campaigns and organizations."

Jerry Falwell, the founder of the virulently anti-abortion Moral Majority, speculates that the CNP has been the key organization behind the power of social conservatives in the United States: "My guess is that literally billions of dollars have been utilized through the Council for National Policy that would not otherwise have been available."

The group has also "funded an army of Christian organizers," Mr. Falwell said.

Actually, Mr. Harper, we don't all understand it. Could you explain it to us?

(Source: Robert Dreyfuss, "Reverend Doomsday," Rolling Stone, January 28, 2004, available at http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/5939999)

To reach the CNP's website, go to http://policycounsel.org/24508.html.