CALGARY—An unapologetic Prime Minister Stephen Harper, waving the banner of Senate reform on a day when his appointees to the Red Chamber brought fresh embarrassment, said “the courts” were now among those standing in his way.

“We were blocked by the other parties in the minority parliaments, and now we are being blocked in the courts,” said Harper in a lengthy keynote speech to the Conservative party faithful Friday night.

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In a massive room at the BMO Centre, Harper told the 2013 policy convention he is more determined than ever to punish those senators responsible for extravagant spending, dismissing concerns by some, including his own MPs, that due process against them must be followed.

“While we do not know whether these actions were criminal, that is not relevant. In private life you would be fired for doing anything resembling this.”

Hours after news broke of RCMP allegations of fraud against Sen. Pamela Wallin, the prime minister blamed Liberal senators for stalling a vote on suspending her and colleagues Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau without pay for two years.

Harper mocked his political opponents for demanding “every week” that he “immediately fire or expel people often on the flimsiest of allegations,” while now being squeamish in the face of “a case based on facts.”

“Our opponents then immediately accuse us of being unfair, nasty and ruthless, and they then portray the offenders as victims, or even martyrs.”

“I couldn’t care less what they say, we will do the right thing,” said Harper, in his prepared remarks.

He referred obliquely to the role played by the PMO and ex-top staffer Nigel Wright, saying he and Canadians expect accountability, “whether you are a parliamentarian or a staff member.”

The reference to “courts” now being an enemy of reform is noteworthy as it comes amid speculation within his own cabinet that Harper should call a nationwide referendum that would look past provincial leaders and judicial opinion and test the public’s appetite for abolition.

Harper’s designating “the courts” as an enemy appeared to stem from a decision last week by the Quebec Court of Appeal, which ruled reforms such as elections to select senators or term limits could not be legislated unilaterally — as Harper had proposed.

The highest court of appeal in that province found 5-0 that it requires a constitutional amendment with the approval of seven of 10 provinces having 50 per cent of the population. The ruling came in a reference case launched by the former Liberal provincial government and carried forward by the PQ government. Harper has since launched a court reference of his own to test a broader set of scenarios with the Supreme Court of Canada.

Faced with provincial opposition to his plan, Harper has asked the country’s top court to examine a number of scenarios, including outright abolition, and whether he can move ahead alone.

Overall, the speech was meant to be red meat for his core supporters, to highlight the prime minister’s resolve and to remind the approximately 3,000 delegates who came to Calgary of his government’s bigger picture, and downplay what in May he called “distractions” in the Senate.

Harper catalogued the big policy planks he’s delivered since taking power — GST cuts, tougher criminal laws, more money for the military and for families with children — and reminded that his changes have reduced the role of government in individuals’ lives, and in Ottawa.

He touted the Canada-European Union trade deal as “larger and more ambitious than the North American Free Trade Agreement” and took shots at the NDP who, he suggested, “can’t even figure out whether it supports free trade with the United States.”

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Harper trained more of his partisan shots at Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, however, casting the youthful leader as out of his depth.

“Could Justin Trudeau run the economy?” asked Harper. “In 2015, we’re not choosing the winner of Canadian Idol, we’re choosing someone to lead our economy.” He repeated a dig he’s been making since the summer, that the only trade policy Trudeau’s worked on “is the marijuana trade.”

He said his government laid out a “vision” in the recent throne speech that is not “some ivory-tower theory,” but focuses on aggressive pursuit of resource development to pay for “hospitals, schools and social services.”

After nearly eight years in power, Harper was at pains to stress his everyman credentials in the eyes of the party’s rank and file, casting himself as still an outsider in Ottawa who hasn’t lost his way.

The Conservative party is “not the party of entitlement, not guided by power or privilege, and we never should be.” He stressed the “private sacrifice” of public service, saying “that’s why Laureen and I first left our home here in Calgary.”

“We didn’t go to Ottawa to join private clubs or become part of some ‘elite.’ That’s not who you are; it’s not who we are.”

Harper’s speech earned several rounds of rousing applause, especially his criticisms of the Senate.

“I was thinking he would back off on that,” said John Hof, a delegate from Langley, B.C. “But he called it what it was.”

Hermina Dykxhoorn, of Calgary, said Harper “proved he is a leader.”

“Even though they are members of his own party, he showed he was dealing with it, and that’s what these delegates needed to hear,” Dykxhoorn said.

Cathay Wagantall, of Esterhazy, Sask., said Harper “has the confidence of the room, even though his decisions aren’t always popular.”

Stephen Taylor, of the conservative National Citizens Coalition, said Harper’s speech hit many strong themes, but on the Senate, he said, “action remains to be seen on any sort of reform, and I’m still waiting.”

This convention in Harper’s political stomping grounds was supposed to have been the first of a three-part kick-start to the government’s agenda, leading to a cabinet shuffle and a new parliamentary session, but June’s flood booted it to November, and the Senate expense scandal has overshadowed all.

Whether the speech will be enough to send delegates back to their home ridings with renewed determination to work for the party and not sit on their hands in the lead-up to the next election will be clear in the coming months. But with the high court set to take several months before it decides on the Senate reference, Senate reform can’t likely come soon enough for Harper.

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