Richard M. Harris
Member of Parliament for Cariboo—Prince George
Incumbent
Assumed office  1993
Preceded by	Brian Gardiner
Born	September 6, 1944 (1944-09-06) (age 65) Vancouver, British Columbia
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Patricia Harris
Residence	Prince George, British Columbia
Profession	Businessman (Tire sales)

Richard M. "Dick" Harris (born September 6, 1944 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian politician. He is a Member of Parliament and member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He also was a member of the Reform Party of Canada and the Canadian Alliance. He represents the electoral district of Cariboo—Prince George, and formerly Prince George—Bulkley Valley. He was first elected during the 1993 federal election and was re-elected in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2008. He challenged Reform Party leader Preston Manning for leadership when Manning proposed merging the party with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. He later campaigned for Stockwell Day to become leader. The most prominent position he held with his party was Chief Opposition Whip from 2001 to 2002. He has served a member on several parliamentary committees, including the 'Standing Committee on Finance' during the 36th and 37th Parliaments and the 'Standing Committee on Natural Resources' during the 39th Parliament. He was accused of financial irregularities during a nomination race in 2004 and generated controversy when he appointed an unelected, Conservative Party member to represent a neighbouring electoral district in governmental affairs, though the electoral district had an elected Member of Parliament, but from an opposition party.

[edit] Before becoming a Member of Parliament

Dick Harris worked as a self-employed businessman in the tire industry and owned two businesses in Prince George. One of his businesses, RMH Home Innovations, became insolvent and Harris was sued in 1995 for non-payment of debts.^[1] Harris had joined the Reform Party of Canada in 1989 and served on his riding's executive council from 1991 to 1993.^[2]

[edit] 35th Parliament

In 1992, Harris won the Reform Party nomination to stand for election in the next federal election in the Prince George—Bulkley Valley riding. That federal election was held in October 1993 and Harris was successful in defeating the incumbent MP, Brian Gardiner (NDP). However, his party placed third and the Liberal Party of Canada formed a majority government. In both sessions of the 35th Parliament Harris sat on the 'Standing Committee on Government Operations' and the 'Standing Committee on Transport'. In the first session he also sat on 2 subcommittees: the 'Subcommittee on the St. Lawrence Seaway' and the 'Subcommittee on the Consideration of the Objections Filed on the Proposed Electoral Boundaries for the Western Provinces'. In addition to committee work, Harris joined Mike Scott and John Duncan to form a three member Reform Party critic team for native affairs in 1994. The three member team was unable to draw sufficient attention to the Reform Party's position on native affairs, so the team was disbanded in December 1994 and Harris re-assigned to the "Reform Posse", a special team of Reform Party MPs meant to investigate government spending, similar to the Liberal Party of Canada Rat Pack. Harris, with the assistance of a forensic accountant investigated the Department of Indian Affairs. The Reform Posse was disbanded in August 1995 and Harris re-assigned as the deputy critic of public works.

[edit] 36th Parliament

The next election was held in June 1997 and Harris won re-election with 54% of the vote in the Prince George—Bulkley Valley riding. The Liberal Party again formed a majority government but Harris' Reform Party formed the Official Opposition. Harris became the Vice-Chair of the 'Standing Committee on Finance' in both sessions of the 36th Parliament, as well as being the Reform Party's assistant critic on Finance. He served as the Reform Party's assistant critic on Transport between February and June 1997.

Meanwhile, a division formed within the Reform Party as the leader, Preston Manning, explored merging the party with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. In April 1999, Harris became the 13th Reform Party MP to publicly oppose a merger,^[3] saying "There's nothing wrong with our product. There's nothing wrong with our brand-label. Maybe the salesmen communicating the message are not the right people out there."^[4] Harris was concerned that they would have to compromise on their opposition to official bilingualism and positions on Senate reform, family values, and justice issues.^[5] A referendum within the Reform Party on whether to explore a merger plan was called and Harris debated Manning on the issue at Reform Party events. Harris paid for national advertising opposing the merger idea and co-signed a letter distributed to all 59 Reform Party MPs which said "A Yes vote in May would be a tactical disaster... [the] Reform [Party] will be perceived as having already decided to commit suicide".^[6] The referendum passed with 60% voting in favour of a merger, dubbed the 'United Alternative'.^[7] Committees were formed to investigate a plan for merger and Harris joined the policy committee.

A second referendum was set for the Reform Party's convention in March 2000 to decide on whether to pursue the merger. Harris, in January 2000, still opposed to the United Alternative, and announced his candidacy for leader of the party — a challenge to party leader Manning who was campaigning for the merger.^[8] Harris immediately assigned a campaign chairman and launched a nationwide membership and fund-raising drives. The 55-year old Harris viewed his campaign as staying true to the Reform Party's roots in populism and rejecting the Progressive Conservative Party's "elitist politics".^[9] Manning and those who favoured the United Alternative, like Reform Party MP Jay Hill (Prince George—Peace River) with whom Harris shared a constituency office in Prince George, saw the merger as the best way to form a government. Harris viewed the push for the United Alternative as a top-down initiative by Manning and a small group of advisers^[10] and called the United Alternative an "unholy alliance".^[11] At a late-January meeting, party members voted against launching a leadership review, ending Harris' leadership bid. At a later meeting, in March, party members voted in favour of dissolving the Reform Party of Canada and re-forming as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance with a new constitution and policy planks better suited for a merger with the Progressive Canadians. When it came time to select a leader, Harris endorsed Stockwell Day, an Albertan provincial politician who went on to defeat Manning.

[edit] 37th Parliament

In the November 2000 election Harris, as a member of the Canadian Alliance, was again re-elected in the Prince George—Bulkley Valley riding, this time with 59% of the vote. The Canadian Alliance again formed the Official Opposition to the Liberal Party's majority government. In the first session of the 37th Parliament, Harris served as a vice-chair of the 'Standing Committee on Finance', and a member of the 'Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs', the 'Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages', and the 'Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations'. Fellow Canadian Alliance were criticizing the performance of their leader, Stockwell Day, during the election. In response, Day shuffled the responsibilities of his MPs in April 2001, demoting Opposition House Leader Chuck Strahl and promoting Harris to Chief Opposition Whip. Day and Harris took aggressive stances by forbidding public criticism.^[12] Art Hanger immediately spoke out against them to the media and was subsequently removed from caucus. On May 16, several Day loyalist, including Harris, co-signed a letter directed at the remaining caucus members acknowledging rumours of a parallel caucus being formed but that could not be "tolerated". The letter re-stated the formal responsibilities that all Canadian Alliance MPs agreed to and that "members will be breaching their formal written word, given to the leader, the party and their constituency, as a condition of their nomination" if they were found to "publicly attack any other colleague, the leader or the party". ^[13] Hanger was followed by Chuck Strahl, Gary Lunn, Jim Pankiw, Val Meredith, Grant McNally, Jay Hill and Jim Gouk who all publicly criticized Day and withdrew or were removed from the Canadian Alliance caucus. Five more members left in June and July, including Deborah Grey. Grey accused Harris of seizing her computer and reviewing her files without her knowledge. Speaker of the House Peter Milliken investigated and ruled that Grey's "rights had been violated".^[14] In September, the dissident Canadian Alliance members formed a parallel caucus called the Democratic Representative Caucus and Day eventually conceded to a formal leadership review. Harris resigned as whip in January 2002 in order to campaign for Day's re-election as party leader.^[15] Stephen Harper won the leadership contest in April 2002 with 55% of the party votes. Under Harper, Harris remained the assistant critic on finance but his committee roles were reduced to solely the 'Standing Committee on Finance' which he was a vice-chair in the 2nd session and a member in the 3rd session. Harper led the merger of the Canadian Alliance with Progressive Canadian Party to form the Conservative Party of Canada which Harris joined.

[edit] 38th Parliament

In preparation for the 2004 election Harris was challenged by Williams Lake dentist Elmer Thiessen for the Conservative Party nomination. Thiessen actually won the ballot by 3 votes but the party order a second ballot take place due to voting irregularities, such as accusations that Harris improperly signed up new members and that constituency association officials purposely restricted voting to Williams Lake only.^[16][17] Harris won on the second ballot by 16 votes but the RCMP launched an investigation into Harris for financial irregularities. Harris went onto win the election in the Cariboo—Prince George riding with 46% of the vote and his party again formed the Official Opposition to the Liberal Party. Harris was given no critic duties or committee roles during the 38th Parliament but Harris did introduce one bill into the House of Commons: Bill C-275 An Act to amend the Criminal Code (failure to stop at scene of accident). Bill C-275 received first reading on November 15, 2004.^[18] In his sponsor's speech Harris said,

[The bill] would ensure that perpetrators of such violent and criminal acts are held responsible and accountable for their actions. The bill is long overdue. It would eliminate plea bargaining for hit and run offences, which is sorely needed. It would provide a minimum sentence of seven years in prison for those convicted of hit and run causing death, which is sorely needed. It would provide a minimum of four years in prison for those convicted of hit and run causing bodily harm, which again is sorely needed. To date, perpetrators of hit and run offences causing bodily harm or death have almost never received more than two years for this violent crime. The tragedy of our justice system is that it has become so sick that people who commit violent crimes are simply not dealt with in a manner that is acceptable to our society. Whenever we read something like this in the paper where the convicted person was let off with a slap on the wrist for a violent crime they committed, I, like Canadians all across this country, just roll our eyes and ask where the justice is. What is wrong with our justice system that this could be allowed to happen over and over again? Bill C-275, Carley's law, would bring sentences for hit and run offences in line with sentencing guidelines for other violent crimes, namely manslaughter and attempted murder, because it is as serious a crime as manslaughter or attempted murder.

—Mr. Richard Harris (Cariboo—Prince George, CPC), March 8, 2005^[19]

The Minister of Justice did not support bill based on its lack of distinction between intentionally and unintentionally not stopping at the scene of accident and its dis-proportionality to other crimes, so the bill was voted down, 194 to 94, on June 22, 2005.^[19][20] Meanwhile, his constituency association formed a committee to investigate the financial irregularities charges, eventually finding charges to be valid.^[2] The constituency association held an election in February 2005 for their board of directors. Harris supporters filled 27 of the 30 seats and the new board withdrew the previous board's findings against Harris.^[21] A month later, the RCMP dropped its investigation due to "insufficient information".^[22] A new constituency office was opened in Williams Lake in September 2004^[23] and an office in Quesnel in November 2005.^[24]

[edit] 39th Parliament

No one challenged Harris for the Conservative Party nomination for the January 2006 election. He went on to win the the Cariboo—Prince George riding with 45% of the vote and this time Harris' party won the formed the government. In the 39th Parliament, he served as a member of the 'Standing Committee on Natural Resources' for both sessions and as a member on the 'Legislative Committee on Bill C-2' (Tackling Violent Crime Act) during the second session. Harper appointed Harris to be the chair of the British Columbia Conservative Caucus and the party's forestry caucus.

Harris generated controversy in August 2007 when, as chair of the BC Conservative Caucus, he appointed Houston mayor as the "government go-to person" in neighbouring electoral district Skeena-Bulkley Valley.^[25] He told residents, through the media, to approach Smith rather than elected local MP Nathan Cullen, a member of an opposition party, for help with government services or lobbying for federal funding. The Conservative Party denounced the move with government spokesman Ryan Sparrow saying it was not sanctioned by the party and that local residents should use their elected member of parliament.^[25] Another controversy arose when it was discovered that the Conservative Party used an "in-and-out" plan to have regional offices pay for national advertising, meant to avoid campaign financing limits and attain reimbursement for the costs through Election Canada. Harris' office participated with $30,000 (36% of his total campaign expenses for advertising), though Harris and the party maintained that they kept within the law.^[26][27]

[edit] 40th Parliament

In the October 2008 election Harris was re-elected in the the Cariboo—Prince George riding with 55% of the vote and his party again formed a minority government. In the 40th Parliament, he served as a member of the 'Standing Committee on International Trade' and retained his chairmanship of the Conservative's forestry caucus.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Synopsis of federal political experience from the Library of Parliament
• Member of Parliament Profile
• Dick Harris' official website
• Bill C-275 An Act to amend the Criminal Code (failure to stop at scene of accident) introduced by Dick Harris during 38th Parliament