NEWSMAKER-Canada's Harper united the right, won top prize
30 Sep 2008 15:38:48 GMT Source: Reuters
By David Ljunggren OTTAWA, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose Conservatives are likely to retain power in the Oct. 14 election, reaped enormous benefits after uniting the country's two fractious right-wing parties in 2003. Harper, a cold figure who opponents charge is hiding an extreme agenda, won a minority government in January 2006 and since then has tried to nudge the country more to the right. The 49-year-old economist and policy wonk is ideologically uncomfortable with Canada's generous welfare state and industrial subsidies. But has grown to accept them at least for now as he broadens his political base. "I think the Canadian public has become more conservative ... (but) I don't want to say the Canadian public is overwhelmingly conservative or that it is necessarily as conservative as everybody in our party," he recently told supporters. "Our party has to make sure that it continues to govern in the interests of the broad majority ... That means not only that we want to pull Canadians to conservatism but Conservatives also have to move toward Canadians." He is pushing a slate of tough-on-crime, low-tax and pro-family policies, but is regularly forced to deny accusations he wants to criminalize abortion and overturn laws allowing gay marriage. He also dismisses the charge that he is running a one-man government where only his decisions count. "Prime ministers are either accused of two things -- of being too heavy-handed or not being in control ... if I had to choose between those two things I'd rather be accused of being in control than not in control," he said earlier this month. While Harper is far removed from the traditional image of a cheerful politician happy to shake hands and make small talk, he is a skilled tactician. Born in Toronto, Harper now hails from the western province of Alberta -- which long felt itself to be excluded from Ottawa's power base -- and he first rose to prominence in the 1990s as a legislator for the Reform Party, which campaigned under the slogan "The West wants in". He quickly became frustrated and returned to Alberta, where he urged that the province erect a firewall to prevent interference from the federal government. Yet he was soon back on the national stage, winning the leadership of the Canadian Alliance -- the successor to Reform -- in 2002 and then pushing through a merger with the once-mighty Progressive Conservatives to form the new Conservative Party. At the time, in late 2003, the then ruling Liberals had been in power a decade and still looked invincible. A few months later the party was rocked by a patronage scandal and called an election for June 2004. The Liberals hung on to power but lost in 2006. Harper, who as opposition leader in 2003 made clear his support for the U.S. war in Iraq, has had a relatively easy time in power and managed to neutralize most problems. He is a strong supporter of the Canadian combat mission in Afghanistan and on several occasions promised the country would "not cut and run". Yet faced with increasing opposition as the number of Canadian deaths grew, he brokered a compromise whereby all the troops will be withdrawn in 2011. Harper is deeply distrustful of what he sees as often biased and lazy journalists and his relations with the press are generally poor. He told reporters that when he goes into a classroom, a child will ask the best thing about being prime minister. "I always say, 'Running the government' ... You always forget the obvious," he said. "That's the essence of it for me. It's not the celebrity thing ... which is the thing I will, when this is all over, I assure you I will not miss for one minute." Stephen Joseph Harper was born on April 30, 1959. He is married and has two young children. (Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Rob Wilson)
