The Tories
1998 was a crucial year for the Progressive Conservative Party. After nearly failing to finish fourth in seats and second in the popular vote in 1997, Tory hopes were down and the party was deeply in debt from their previous campaigns. Former Deputy Prime Minister Jean Charest resigned as an MP, with the provincial Quebec Liberals desperate for someone with the stature to take on Lucien Bouchard. The question was, who would want to take up such a job? Few Tories had seats that you could call safe, and many were just elected in the 1997 election. As the controversial Christian democratic populist Elsie Wayne took over as the Acting Leader, time was tight. With party funds low, there was no possibility of a leadership convention as almost every other Tory leader had been decided, instead, the leader would be decided by a “one member, one vote” system in a teleconference.
The one issue surrounding the Tories in 1998 was to merge, or not to merge. Preston Manning and his Western Reformists had been organizing a United Alternative convention, feeling that it would be the only way to defeat the Liberals. Many Tories attempted to draft a “Unite The Right” candidate, and as they went through the various options, they settled on Stephen Joseph Harper. At the beginning of his career, Harper considered himself not to be a politician, but he was hired by the then-unknown Preston Manning as his main policy advisor for the Reform Party; and given how strong the Reform Party was in 1988, he was a paper candidate. However, in 1993, he was elected. Despite being a protege of Manning, Harper was more moderate and proved to be a thorn in his side with social issues. Harper couldn’t take it and left electoral politics in 1997 to join various think tanks. However, the former Reform MP was selected to take on his former foe.
Stopping Harper was the figure that all Canadians (at least those who remembered that he existed) admired, and the Tories felt was a last-ditch effort to save the party - former Prime Minister Joe Clark. Like Charest, he was a Red Tory and was adamantly opposed to any merger or discussion with Reform. In the end, Clark and the PC establishment defeated Harper, the Mulroney-era strategist Hugh Segal, and the agrarian protectionist David Orchard (whose campaign achieved great success from Liberals buying $10 memberships to waste PC funds holding a second ballot).
Despite being out of Parliament, Joe Clark still had ambitions to become Prime Minister again...somehow. Harper, meanwhile, decided that his brief return to federal politics was a mistake, returning back to think tanks.