Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 20, 1959) is a Canadian politician and current leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.
He was born and raised in Toronto before finding employment in the oil and gas industry and moving to Alberta. He attended the University of Calgary, ultimately lecturing there and receiving a Masters degree in economics. Harper became involved in politcs in the mid-80s but became disillusioned with the government of Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada; he was especially critical on issues of fiscal policy.
Harper was recommended to Preston Manning, the founder of the Reform Party by one of Harper's professors. Manning was impressed by the young man and Harper was invited to participate in the founding of the party. At age 28 he gave an important speech at Reform's founding convention in Winnipeg, and is credited with creating the Party's 1993 election platform.
Harper has been described as a "policy wonk" and an "ideological conservative"; he also claims some identification with the libertarian intellectual tradition. Harper has considered the model of the socialist NDP which has had a major effect on Canadian policy even with only winning a few seats.
In the 1988 Canadian election Harper ran for a seat in Calgary, but lost by a wide margin to the Tory candidate. He fared better in the 1993 election where he won the riding of Calgary West. Harper arrived in Parliament with a large group of new MP's. Harper quickly became one of the core members of the parliamentary delegation.
Harper disagreed with party leader Preston Manning's approach that would give the Reform Party an increasingly populist, as opposed to conservative, bent, and decided to not run for reelection in the 1997 election. He left his seat before the election to take over leadership of the National Citizens' Coalition (NCC), a right-wing lobbying group. With the NCC, Harper launched a successful legal battle against Canada's third-party election gag laws.
On the heels of the poor showing in the 2000 election of the Canadian Alliance, Reform's successor, a disappointed Harper joined with other western figures to endorse a policy of strict adherence to constitutionally mandated separation of powers - what was termed a "firewall around Alberta" - in order to limit intrusion by the federal government into areas of strictly provincial jurisdiction.
With the collapse of Stockwell Day's leadership of the Canadian Alliance in the summer of 2001, Harper stood as a candidate in the subsequent Canadian Alliance leadership election. In the vote on March 20, 2002, Harper handily defeated Day on the first ballot to become leader of the Alliance and became Leader of the Opposition when he entered the Canadian House of Commons in a by-election.
On January 12, 2004, Harper announced his resignation as Leader of the Opposition to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada, the result of a merger of the Alliance and the Progressive Conservatives. He won the 2004 Conservative Party of Canada leadership race with a first ballot majority against Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement on March 20, 2004.
| Preceded by: John Lynch-Staunton (interim) | Conservative Party Leaders | Succeded by: in office |
| Preceded by: Stockwell Day | Canadian Alliance Leaders | Party dissolves into Conservative Party of Canada Leader - John Lynch-Staunton |
| Preceded by: Preston Manning, Reform/CA |
Members of Parliament from Calgary Southwest | Succeeded by: (incumbent) |
| Preceded by: Jim Hawkes, PC |
Members of Parliament from Calgary West | Succeeded by: Rob Anders, Reform/CA |