The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
New Creighton and Denare Beach MP Jeremy Harrison was enjoying lunch with a friend two years ago when the acquaintance suggested he consider a run at the House of Commons. Harrison, then a law student at the University of Saskatchewan, probably would have been flattered no matter who made the comment. The fact that it was Stephen Harper, his mentor and the newly-minted leader of the Canadian Alliance, made it all the more special. "It hadn't really crossed my mind prior to that lunch," says Harrison, a staunch conservative with plenty of political experience and savvy. "But I thought that if Stephen Harper has confidence in my ability to be a Member of Parliament, I should do it." See 'I'm' P.# Con't from P.# Thanks to the flexibility of law school (he only had to be there for exams), the Meadow Lake, Sask. resident was able to craft an energetic campaign for the Alliance nomination in the Churchill River riding. His efforts paid off when he secured the nomination last summer, but there was more hard work to come. He would spend the next year campaigning, knocking on thousands of doors throughout Canada's fourth-largest riding. Along the way, he changed parties, in a sense, when the Alliance and Progressive Conservatives merged. Though recent election results indicate the riding isn't overly conservative, Harrison found common ground with many voters by wanting to get tougher on crime and taking a stand against same-sex marriage. He also spoke of tax cuts, solving the BSE crisis, and his strong opposition to the heavily criticized gun registry. "This is something that I don't think the Liberals or NDP have ever understood, just how central to people's lives guns are in some regions," he says. "Firearms are a way of life." About a month after Harrison earned his law degree from the U of S, Prime Minister Paul Martin dropped the writ. Canadians would head to the polls on June 28. The race heated up with four serious candidates vying for the seat, including twice-elected incumbent Rick Laliberte, who ran as an independent. When the final tally was in, Harrison had been elected with 37 per cent of the popular vote, nearly 1,500 ahead of his nearest opponent. "It really is quite an honour to be entrusted to be a representative of the people that you know best from your home riding," he says. "I'm going to do my absolute best to live up to their trust." At 26, Harrison is the third-youngest Member of Parliament and hopes to use his youth to his advantage. "I've often said if it only took people who had been in Ottawa for 30 years to solve all the problems, we would have solved them a long time ago," he says. Considering his roots, it's not all that surprising that Harrison has become successful in politics. "My grandfather worked for [former Tory prime minister] John Diefenbaker for 20 years, so you could say I was born into conservative politics," he says. "My parents were both very politically engaged, and we grew up talking about it over the kitchen table." When he hit university, Harrison became involved with the Reform Party. That led to work with Conservative MP and MLA campaigns and a spot on the Canadian Alliance National Council. As he became well known in Conservative circles, he eventually managed the Saskatchewan portion of Harper's campaign for the Alliance leadership. This year, he played a senior role in Harper's national campaign for the Conservative Party leadership. Needless to say, Harrison was disappointed his party did not do better nationally this past election, winning 99 of 308 seats ? much less than many analysts had predicted. But the result may not stand long, as he believes the minority Liberals will call another election as soon as next year. For that reason, Harrison is still in campaign mode, knocking on more doors and talking to more people. "I think those in the party are pretty confident we can form the government next time," he says. "In the meantime, I just want to represent the people in my riding to the best of my ability. I've said repeatedly that I'll do my best to reflect their points of view on issues."
