Stephen Harper leaves a mixed-bag legacy for those on the political right

On his last dayaddressing the Conservative caucus as party leader, Stephen Harperdelivered a "well-received" speech,took responsibility for the party's loss in the recent Canadian election, received severalstanding ovationsandthen quietly slipped out of themeeting, avoiding any media attention.

RonaAmbrose, the newly elected interim leader of the party, said the former prime minister"delivered an incredibly passionate, emotional and touching speech to all of us" after the Oct. 19 election that saw JustinTrudeau'sLiberals win a majority.

Harper will remain an MP for the riding of Calgary Heritage, following in the footsteps of former prime minister Paul Martin, who stayed on as MP after his 2006 defeat. In fact, Harper is moving into Martin's former office on Parliament Hill.

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"I think he is going to go down in Canadian politicalhistory as one of our best prime ministers ever,"said Peter Van Loan, the former government House leader, about Harper.

That may well be the view of a number of true Harper stalwarts.

Many on the political rightand that includes a disparate group ofred Tories, social conservatives, right-wingpopulists andlibertarianshad high hopes for Harper when he became leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in 2004, following the merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties.

It was hoped that Harper, the first chief policy officer of the Reform Party, would not only revitalize the Conservative brand under the new party but govern in a way that was true to right wing principles.

Yet for some, Harper'sdeparture isa bittersweetreminder of a mixed bagof political and policyachievements.

Harper's achievements

Many in those groups say theformer prime minister should be given credit for sage stewardship of the economyduring the 2008-09 downturn, and for gettingthe country back into balance relatively quickly.

This was done in partbyreininginthe rate of growth of government spendingafter years of stimulus,leaving Canada"with the best economic standing of any of our major trading partners," saidRohitGupta, a onetimeeconomic policy adviser to Harper.

But most importantly, he said,Harper's economic legacy will bethe "breadth and depth" ofthe multiple free-trade deals signed under his watch. Those include, if ratified, the comprehensive European Union trade deal and the recently negotiated Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

"That over time will be his biggest lasting impact on the economy for the good,"Guptasaid.

On cutting taxes, another policy priorityof the right,Harper deserves praisefor lowering the tax burden overall, saysAaronWudrick, federal director of theCanadian Taxpayers Federation.

"Theinstinct of the governmentand this primeministerwas generally to find ways to lower the tax burden rather than raise taxes."

Harperalso clampeddown on MPs' pensions,lowered the corporate tax rateand implemented tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs).Conservatives also cheered that he scrapped the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly, championed the development of theoilsands, and seemed to give mostly lip service to any concrete actiononclimate change.

His tough-on-crime approach was welcomed by many on the right, as was a new, muscular foreign policy which was unabashedly pro-Israel, took a tough stance against Russia's incursions, extended the military mission in Afghanistan, and, most recently, joined the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Disappointments for the right

But Harperalso served up a number ofdisappointments, assomefelt he often ignoredconservative tenetsand betrayedfree-market principles.

The biggest legacy in terms of his political career is the Conservative Party itself.I don't thinkit could have existed without him.- Gerry Nicholls, worked with Harper at National Citizens Coalition

"I laughwhen people say he was a hard rightwinger. Really? What did he do?" saidGerry Nicholls, who worked with Harperat theNational Citizens Coalition think-tank.

"I always say they're the relative Conservatives. Relatively speaking,they'reconservative compared to the Liberals or the NDP."

Harper's initial goal was to create atrueideologically right-winggovernment, Nichollssaid, butthat was soon abandonedin the pursuit of power.

"Somewherealongtheline,he dumpedthatidea," Nicholls said. "His goals become less ideologicaland more politicallypragmatic. Instead, hewanted to create a strong Conservative Party that could win elections."

Harperdidlittle to reduce the size and scope of government, Nicholls said.Instead, to thehorror of fiscalconservatives,thegovernment racked up deficits and addedbillionsto the overall debt.

Following the global recession, the debt-to-GDP ratioclimbed to 33.9 per cent by 2010-2011. But it has slowly shrunk and now sits at around 31 per cent.

However, Wudrick said that's a metric that allgovernmentswanttohide behind.

"And that's not good enough. We want to see the ratiolower, but we want to see actual nominal decreaseat some pointin the debt."

Social conservatives let down

His boutique tax credits to certain demographic groups and cuts to the GSTwere also criticized by those, like Wudrick, who favoured broad-based income tax relief. Harperwas also slammedfor the government'smeddling in the marketplace.Wudricksaid that beforeHarper becameprime minister, hespoke powerfullyabout ending corporate welfare. But once in office, he expanded it.

"We welcomed his focus on lowering taxes generally and on trying tofind ways to empower Canadians individually rather than have governments do things for them,"Wudrick said."We're disappointed [in that]we think a lot of times he opted for politicalexpediencyratherthan leadership, especially after winning a majority."

Social conservatives as well may feel they gottheshortshriftfrom the former prime minister.

Hegave them the odd scrap, for example,choosing not to fund global abortion services. Yetheclamped down on any effort by any member of his party to raisethe controversial issue of abortion in Canada.

Party itself his parting legacy

But hismost significant achievementthat all conservatives wouldlikely agree onis the nearly 10 yearsof Conservative Party rule.

"The biggest legacy in terms of his political career is the Conservative Party itself," Nicholls said."I don't thinkit could have existed without him.

"The real politicalgeniusof StephenHarper, and I don't think he gets enough credit for this, is that he held this party together for nine years," said Nicholls.