National Citizens Coalition
|
|
The National Citizens Coalition is a Canadian conservative lobby group. It supports the public advocacy of privatization, tax cuts, and government spending cuts. It also opposes so-called gag laws that limit spending by lobbying organizations during election campaigns.
The NCC claims a membership of between 40,000 to 45,000 individuals, but has refused to release any list of names. The NCC is enigmatic in that it is neither a citizen-based grassroots organization nor a coalition in the traditional sense.
The NCC does not have annual general membership meetings, nor does it provide financial statements to its members. The organization's constitution distinguishes between 'voting' and 'public' members. Public members pay dues but do not have formal mechanisms for influencing the organization's policies or priorities. Public members are not entitled to be notified of or to attend any meetings, and they are not entitled to vote at any such meetings.
The organization actively fights to keep information about itself secret. The NCC vigorously opposed proposed amendments to the Canada Elections Act that would have required the publication of names of all contributors donating more than $250 to third-party organizations such as the NCC.
Over its almost four decades of existence, the NCC has funded campaigns against:
- the Canada Health Act,
- the Canadian Wheat Board,
- the general strike organized by the Canadian Labour Congress against wages and prices controls imposed the Liberal government of Pierre Trudeau in 1975, and
- the allowing of Vietnamese refugees ("boat people") into Canada in 1979-1980.
The NCC founded and funded Ontarians for Responsible Government, a lobby group that played a large role in electing the Harris government in Ontario. It has also campaigned in the courts against any attempt at electoral financing legislation that would limit third-party advertising spending during elections. As few as four people control the organization and its self-reported $2.8-million annual budget.
The NCC was founded in 1967 by Colin M. Brown, a wealthy insurance executive from London, Ontario, to fight against the creation of public healthcare. Brown took out full-page advertisements in newspapers nationwide in an effort to recruit like-minded citizens. One of the NCC's early efforts was a anti-immigration campaign that focused on Vietnamese refugees arriving in the late 1970s, during which Brown made comments that many critics considered to be racist.
Stephen Harper, the current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, was at one time president of the NCC.
Timeline
- 1967 – National Citizens' Coalition founded by Colin M. Brown.
- 1987 – David Somerville takes over leadership
- 1993 – NCC successfully supports Stephen Harper's bid to become Reform MP for Calgary West
- 1997 – Harper resigns to join NCC
- 1997 – Stephen Harper becomes Vice-President of NCC
- 1998 – Stephen Harper becomes President of NCC, Gerry Nicholls becomes Vice-President
- 2002 – Stephen Harper resigns as President of NCC
External links
- NCC at StephenHarperSaid.ca (attack site run by the Liberal party) (http://www.stephenharpersaid.ca/pdf/ncc.pdf)