Canada Strong & Free Network (CSFN) – (Formerly the Manning Centre)

Background

The Canada Strong and Free Network (CSFN) was founded as the Manning Centre for Building Democracy (MCBD) in 2005 “to support Canada’s conservative movement by networking best practices and ideas pertaining to limited government, free enterprise, individual responsibility, and a more robust civil society.”¹

The group has described its purpose as supporting “conservative and libertarian activists and ideas in Canada” through research, training, and networking.²

“From public policy research and training activists on how to run campaigns, to our annual conference in Ottawa, the Manning Centre is an integral part of Canada’s conservative movement,” its 2016 annual report noted.

Then-chair Rick Anderson was quoted in the annual report, describing the role of the Centre:

“As political parties and party funding are increasingly focused on fighting elections, it is up to ‘political infrastructure organizations’ like the Manning Centre to generate the ideas, the skilled workers, and movement connections for conservative-oriented parties to be successful.”

According to the Manning Centre’s corporate documents filed with the government of Canada, its purpose has included the “development of educational material and delivery systems to strengthen knowledge and skills of those involved in Canada’s democratic process, including the next-generation of leaders” and “exporting of Canada’s democratic experience and expertise abroad.”³

The Canada Strong & Free Network also operates the Manning Foundation, a registered charity.

Its founder, Preston Manning, requested the name change in July 2020 to reflect the group’s “exclusive focus going forward” of “greater and more explicit networking and relationship building among the various components of the conservative movement in Canada.” Manning announced he would retire that year.⁴

The Canada Strong and Free Network was listed as a member of the Atlas Network as recently as 2021, the last year Atlas publicly recorded its members on its website.⁵

Stance on Climate Change

2016

While CSFN has not released a public statement on climate change, it has regularly invited economist Ross McKitrick to its annual conferences to speak about climate change. In the 2016 conference, McKitrick declared:⁶

“The comment about ‘we shouldn’t question the science,’ no. We should encourage people to discuss the science, but do it in a deep way and not with slogans like the 97% consensus, which is another one of these phoney statistics that emerges.”

“We have a problem of overkill in some areas including, for instance, the coal phase-out in Ontario. That was a huge overkill in response to the air emissions issue. […] They didn’t need to phase out those coal-fired power plants, but its the alarmism that made it impossible to have that debate at the time.”

“Canada needs its Conservatives to go all in against environmental alarmism, including climate alarmism, and here I would point out that when governments start hauling out the issue of extreme weather, there is nothing mainstream about that kind of science. The mainstream science including the IPCC does not draw a connection between greenhouse gas emissions and extreme weather events.”

He added:

“Even after all these years of propaganda and browbeating, Canadians are roughly evenly split on whether global warming is mostly anthropogenic, but so is the scientific community.”

2014

After Preston Manning suggested in a Globe and Mail interview that “We also need to address environmental concerns, particularly as they interface with resource development,”⁷ and floated the idea of a carbon price in another article, he faced criticism from Sun TV’s Ezra Levant.⁸

Ezra Levant repeated twice that the Manning Centre is “bankrolled by the oil and gas industry.”

“Today, skepticism about the science and economics behind the theory of man-made global warming has been largely vindicated,” Levant added in a Sun News column. “And yet Manning chose this moment to switch sides.”⁹

Funding

“Unlimited Donations”

In its 2016 annual report, the Canada Strong and Free Network, then the Manning Centre, offered a “solution” to donations to political parties by “left-wing organizations”:

“The Manning Centre can legally accept unlimited donations and use the funds to support free-market ideas, train like-minded activists and conduct research. With your help, we can start to compete with well-financed left-wing organizations in Canada!” The Manning Centre suggested.

Below is a screenshot of the page:

_{Source: Manning Centre 2016 Annual Report, page 7.}

Annual Reports

Key People

DeSmog collected the following data through listings on the Canada Strong & Free Network / Manning Centre websites via the Internet Archive:

For additional information and sources, see the attached spreadsheet for Canada Strong & Free Network people by year (.xlsx).

Actions

March 22–24, 2023

Pierre Poilievre and former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper were among the speakers listed for CSFN’s 2023 “Networking Conference.” CSFN listed the following speakers on its website:

Aaron Gunn
Aaron M. Renn
Aaron Wudrick
Adrienne Batra
Andrea van Vugt
Andrew Lawton
Benjamin Lamb
Brian Dijkema
Bryn Tenasco-Teixeira
Chi Nguyen
Chris Spoke
Clint Thomas
Conrad Black
Daniel Gray
David Boudeweel-Lefebvre
Derek Robinson
Alika Lafontaine
Leslyn Lewis
Matthew Rowley
Murray Bessette
Ed Whittingham
Elie Cantin-Nantel
Emma Haynes
Éric Duhaime
Erin Bonokoski
Franco Terrazzano
Garnett Genuis
Gordon Lee
Danielle Smith
Preston Manning
Rebecca Schulz
Tony Clement
Jamil Jivani
Jasraj Singh Hallan
Jocelyn Bamford
John Pasalis
Jonah Davids
Jonathan Bradley
Kate Harrison
Kathryn Marshall
Kaveh Shahrooz
Larry Gray
Leam Dunn-Opper
Lindsay Wilson
Matt Spoke
Matthew Bondy
Melissa Lantsman
Michael Binnion
Michael Bourque
Noah Jarvis
Paige MacPherson
Paul DeJong
Pierre Paul-Hus
Reihan Salam
Renze Nauta
Rizwan Mohammad
Ronald Nehring
Sally Zhou
Sam Duncan
Sean Speer
Senator Leo Housakos
Steven Sutton
Surajreet Signh
Takdeer Brar
Tara Henley
Pierre Poilievre
Stephen J. Harper
Yaroslav Baran
Youri Chassin

The website listed the following sponsors:

Sponsorship Level	Sponsor Name
Premier	Intuit
Premier	Modern Miracle Network
Premier	Labatt
Gold	Meta
Gold	Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Silver	The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA)
Silver	Telus
Silver	Nigel Wright.
Silver	Air Canada
Bronze	Boudeweel Public Affairs
Bronze	Bruce Power
Bronze	Cardus
Bronze	DoorDash
Bronze	Earnscliffe Strategies
Bronze	Equal Voice
Bronze	Loyalist Public Affairs
Bronze	Manulife
Bronze	Pathways Alliance
Bronze	Summa Strategies
Bronze	Toronto Sun
Bronze	Wellington Advocacy
Partners	ARPA Canada
Partners	C2C Journal
Partners	Campaign Compass
Partners	Campaign Life Coalition
Partners	Canadian Conservatives Abroad
Partners	Christian Heritage Party
Partners	Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism
Partners	Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms
Partners	Ladies of Liberty Alliance
Partners	Macdonald-Laurier Institute
Partners	Conservateur
Partners	Rights 4 Vapers
Partners	The News Forum
Partners	SecondStreet.org
Partners	True North

April 10, 2021

Michael Shellenberger, Wildrose Party leader Danielle Smith, Canadian Conservatives party leader Erin O’Toole, and former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper were among those who spoke at Canada Strong and Free’s online 2021 Networking Conference.¹⁰

Speakers were listed as follows:

Brian Lilley
Bruce Pardy
Chief Michael LeBourdias [sic]¹¹
Chief Willie Sellars
Christine Van Geyn
Dale Swampy
Danielle Smith
Douglas Murray
Hon. Monte McNaughton
Hon. Tony Clement
Jack Mintz
Jamil Jivani
Joanna Baron
Lilly Obina
Marian Tupy
Matt Bufton
Michael Binnion
Michael Shellenberger
Peter St. Onge
Tanya Granic Allen
Tenzin Khangsar
The Hon. Erin O’Toole
The Right Honourable David Cameron
The Right Honourable Stephen J. Harper
Walter Robinson

November 7, 2020

Ross McKitrick was among the speakers at CSFN’s online “Regional Networking Conference.” He spoke on a panel titled “How Do We Dig Out of this Fiscal Catastrophe and Get the Economy Moving Again?” ¹²

CSFN published the segment on YouTube.¹³

CSFRNC20: “How Can Canada Dig Out of This Fiscal Catastrophe?” Source: YouTube¹⁴

“Things that were a bad idea before the pandemic are still a bad idea,” McKitrick said. “People are opportunistically saying, well now we’re in a phase of recovery where we’re looking at introducing policies to support the recovery, and people with this green agenda want to overload their ideas onto what should actually be an agenda running in the opposite direction.”

“Which is, we really need to make a priority of profitable investment, business creation, job creation… In the past, for instance 2008, there was a whole lot of climate policy on the agenda then, and a lot of policymakers around the world realized when the financial crisis hit, ok, we’re going to put all that on the back burner because it’s expensive, so now is not the time to do all that. That should be the reasoning now.”

“With so much stress in the economy, when people realize how much things like the clean fuel standard cost, they’re going to be unhappy that the government is choosing now of all times to implement these things.”

“There’s a lot of sloganeering around it. I mean, you said ‘build back better,’ ‘a resilient recovery’ and all that, and really that’s just using this particular moment in the policy agenda—where we’re looking for governments to come up with a plan—it’s kind of a Trojan Horse where they can say well we’re going to present a recovery plan, but it’s actually just a whole lot of old shop-worn green policy ideas that were a bad idea previously, but we think we might be able to get away with it now because everybody’s expecting us to implement a big policy agenda.”

October 2019

CBC News reported the Manning Centre “gave a total of $312,450 to a network of related third-party advertising groups” on Facebook and Instagram.¹⁵

“In most cases, the centre was the sole donor listed by those groups in disclosure forms filed with Elections Canada,” CBC News found.

$240,500 of those donations went to Canada Strong and Proud, “the network’s national politics-focused page,” which spent more than $103,000 on Facebook ads between late July and October 2019.

Affiliated pages, including New Brunswick Proud, Nova Scotia Proud, NL Strong, and Quebec Fier, also got funding from the Manning Centre.

“Alberta Proud, BC Strong and Ontario Strong are also part of the family of organizations. The various groups often post and share similar contents and ads.”

Those ads included a large portion of spending on videos promoting the Canadian oil and gas sectors. They later moved to a “more narrow, personalized critique of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau during the formal campaign period.”

March 23, 2019

According to its program, the Manning Centre’s 2019 Networking Conference included a presentation titled “New Approaches to Tackling Climate Change” that included Ross McKitrick as a speaker and was moderated by Danielle Smith.¹⁶

November 24 2018

At its annual Networking Conference, the Manning Centre featured Stephen Buffalo, President and CEO of the Indian Resource Council, and Vivian Krause as speakers.¹⁷

Speakers listed on the conference website included:¹⁸

Danielle Smith
Éric Duhaime
Garnett Genius
Jamil Jivani
Jason Kenney
Jim Dinning
Mark Milke
Michael Binnion
Michele Austin
Natalie Pon
Pat Nelson
Preston Manning
Rex Murphy
Ryan Hastman
Scott Hennig
Stephen Buffalo
Suzanne Sexton

February 2016

Ross McKitrick and Andrew Coyne were among those who spoke at the Manning Centre’s annual conference on the topic of “Green Conservatism.”¹⁹

Manning Centre Conference: “Green Conservatism”²⁰

The Manning Foundation for Democratic Education is a charity run by the Manning Centre (now the Canada Strong & Free Network).
Conservative Values Tomorrow is the “leadership development program” of the Canada Strong & Free Network. Applicants are limited to those under 29 years old.²¹

Partners

Canada Strong & Free Network has listed the following as “partners” on its website.

The Canada Strong & Free network does not outline the nature of its relationship with organizations listed as “partners.”

Sources

Contact & Address

The CSFN and the Manning Centre have listed a variety of addresses over the years:

2019 – 2023

According to the CSFN website:²²

Manning Centre
404 – 919 N Centre St
Calgary, AB T2E 2P6
Tel: 403.255.8100

2018

According to its website:²³

514 11 AVE SW
Calgary, AB T2R 0C8
Tel: (403) 255-8100

2017

According to registration forms from Industry Canada:

10th Flr., 850 – 2 Street S.W.
Calgary, AB
T2P 0R8

2015

According to registration forms from Industry Canada:

209, 10836 – 24 Street S.E.
Calgary, AB
T2Z 4C9

2014

According to registration forms from Industry Canada:

5000, 150 – 6th Avenue S.W.
Calgary, AB
T3P 3Y7

Registration documents also listed an additional office address in that year:

Suite 300, 1550 – 8th Street
Calgary, AB
T2R 1K1

Canada Strong & Free Network

Canada Strong and Free Network (@strongandfreenetwork) on Facebook
@canstrongfree on Twitter
Canada Strong & Free Network on LinkedIn

Manning Centre (former accounts)

@manningcentre on Twitter (Account suspended)
@manningcentre on Facebook

Other Resources

“Manning Centre for Building Democracy,” Corporate Mapping Project.
“Canada Strong and Free Network,” Wikipedia.

Resources

1
“The Canada Strong and Free Network,” Canada Strong and Free Network. Archived February 11, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/lmuck
2
“2016 ANNUAL REPORT” (PDF), Manning Centre. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
3
Certificate of Continuance for The Manning Centre for Building Democracy, October 7, 2014. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
4
“Manning Centre for Building Democracy changes name to Canada Strong and Free Network,” Canada Strong & Free Network. Archived February 21, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/4cVF9
5
“Global Directory: Canada,” Atlas Network. Archived January 23, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/uxqh8
6
“Green Conservatism,” YouTube video uploaded by user “Canada Strong and Free Network,” March 14, 2016. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
7
Brenna Atnikov. “Preston Manning on reconciling economy and environment: ‘Canadians need a dose of realism,’” The Globe and Mail, November 14, 2014. Archived March 14, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/s6ErL
8
“VIDEO: Sun TV smears Preston Manning for speaking out on climate change,” PressProgress, November 25. 2014. Archived March 14, 2023. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/U71WR
9
Ezra Levant. “Manning doesn’t speak for conservatives,” Sun News, November 23, 2014. Archived February 13, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/ASfRH
10
“Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference 2021,” Canada Strong & Free Network. Archived February 11, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/rA344
11
“Chief Michael Lebourdais,” WIPG. Archived October 4, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qEkqN
12
“CONFERENCE AGENDA” (PDF), Canada Strong and Free Network. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
13
“CSFRNC20 How Do We Dig Out of this Fiscal Catastrophe and Get the Economy Moving Again?” YouTube video uploaded by user “Canada Strong and Free Network,” November 17, 2020. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
14
“CSFRNC20 How Do We Dig Out of this Fiscal Catastrophe and Get the Economy Moving Again?” YouTube video uploaded by user “Canada Strong and Free Network,” November 17, 2020. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
15
Christian Paas-Lang (The Canadian Press). “Manning Centre a primary backer for series of anti-Liberal Facebook pages,” CBC News, October 3, 2019. Archived March 9, 2021. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/gBUoQ
16
“Program MNC2019” (PDF), Canada Strong and Free Network. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
17
“Alberta MNC,” Manning Centre. Archived December 9, 2019. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/5A8ta
18
“Alberta MNC,” Manning Centre. Archived December 9, 2019. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/5A8ta
19
“Green Conservatism,” YouTube video uploaded by user “Canada Strong and Free Network,” March 14, 2016. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
20
“Green Conservatism,” YouTube video uploaded by user “Canada Strong and Free Network,” March 14, 2016. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.
21
“Leadership Development Program,” Conservative Values Tomorrow. Archived March 13, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/l427N
22
“Contact,“ Canada Strong & Free Network. March 14, 2023. Homepage, Manning Centre. Archived October 9, 2019.
23
“About,” Manning Centre. Archived September 4, 2018.

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