National Citizens Coalition

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This article is about the Canadian conservative lobby group. For the Zambian political party, see National Citizens' Coalition.

The National Citizens Coalition is a Canadian libertarian-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 reports that it has an annual budget of $2.8 million.

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.
closed-shop unions
the Member of Parliament "gold-plated" Pension Plan, which allowed former MPs as young as 30 to collect a pension that was fully indexed to inflation, and would have been illegal in private industry in Canada
government waste, in general

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.

The NCC was founded in 1967 by Colin M. Brown, a wealthy life 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.

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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 a Reform Party Member of Parliament 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.