Leadership Quote by Stephen Harper

Harper’s phrasing is a masterclass in making a parliamentary necessity sound like a civic virtue. “It’s the government’s obligation” frames coalition-building not as political horse-trading but as duty, a moralized baseline for legitimacy. In a minority-government context, that word “obligation” does heavy lifting: it shifts the burden from the opposition (“stop obstructing”) onto the governing party (“we must earn enough consent to rule”), while still implying a clear hierarchy. The government governs; “third parties” exist as supports, not co-authors.

The interesting subtext is how bloodless the language is. He doesn’t say “listen,” “compromise,” or “share power.” He says “look…to the third parties to get the support,” which reads like a transactional supply chain: identify the needed votes, secure them, proceed. The democratic ideal is present, but in managerial form. It’s cooperation without intimacy, pluralism without celebration.

Contextually, it reflects Canada’s minority-parliament reality in the mid-2000s, when Harper’s Conservatives had to survive confidence votes and pass budgets without a majority. The line doubles as a preemptive defense against accusations of backroom dealing: if support-seeking is an “obligation,” then negotiations become not opportunism but responsible governance. Yet the syntax also hints at control. “Support to govern” suggests the government remains the principal actor; smaller parties are instrumental, legitimizing partners only insofar as they enable continuity.

It works because it launders political math into political ethics, making pragmatism sound like principle.