Stephen Joseph Harper was born on April 30,1959 and is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015.
144 Facts About Stephen Harper
2.
Stephen Harper studied economics, earning a bachelor's degree in 1985 and a master's degree in 1991.
3.
Stephen Harper was one of the founders of the Reform Party of Canada and was first elected in 1993 in Calgary West.
4.
Stephen Harper did not seek re-election in the 1997 federal election, instead joining and later leading the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative lobbyist group.
5.
In 2003, Stephen Harper negotiated the merger of the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the Conservative Party of Canada and was elected as the party's first leader in March 2004.
6.
From 2002 to 2015 as party leader, leader of the Official Opposition, and then prime minister, Stephen Harper represented the riding of Calgary Southwest in Alberta.
7.
The 2006 federal election resulted in a minority government led by the Conservative Party with Stephen Harper becoming prime minister of Canada.
8.
Stephen Harper officially stepped down as party leader on October 19,2015, and resigned his seat on August 26,2016.
9.
Since then, Stephen Harper has taken on a number of international business and leadership roles, founding a global consulting firm, appearing in US and British media, and being elected leader of the International Democrat Union.
10.
Stephen Harper was born and raised in Leaside, a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, the first of three sons of Margaret and Joseph Harris Stephen Harper, an accountant at Imperial Oil.
11.
Stephen Harper graduated from high school in 1978, and was a member of Richview Collegiate's team on Reach for the Top, a televised academic quiz show for high school students.
12.
Stephen Harper studied at the University of Toronto's Trinity College before moving to Alberta.
13.
Stephen Harper took up post-secondary studies again at the University of Calgary, where he completed a bachelor's degree in economics in 1985.
14.
Stephen Harper later returned there to earn a master's degree in economics, completed in 1991.
15.
Stephen Harper became involved in politics as a member of his high school's Young Liberals club.
16.
Stephen Harper later changed his political allegiance because he disagreed with the National Energy Program of Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government.
17.
Stephen Harper became executive assistant to Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament Jim Hawkes in 1985 but later became disillusioned with the party and the government of Brian Mulroney, citing the administration's economic policy.
18.
Stephen Harper was then recommended by the University of Calgary's economist Bob Mansell to Preston Manning, the founder and leader of the right-wing populist Reform Party of Canada.
19.
Stephen Harper became the Reform Party's chief policy officer, and he played a major role in drafting the 1988 election platform, otherwise known as the Blue Book, which helped form the principles and policies of the party.
20.
Stephen Harper was influenced by his political mentor, Tom Flanagan, when writing the book.
21.
Stephen Harper ran for the House of Commons in the 1988 federal election in Calgary West and losing by a wide margin to Hawkes, his former employer.
22.
Stephen Harper remained prominent in the Reform Party's national organization in his role as policy chief, encouraging the party to expand beyond its Western base and arguing that strictly regional parties were at risk of being taken over by radical elements.
23.
Stephen Harper delivered a speech at the Reform Party's 1991 national convention, in which he condemned extremist views.
24.
Stephen Harper opposed the accord on principle for ideological reasons, while Manning was initially more open to compromise.
25.
Stephen Harper criticized Manning's decision to hire Rick Anderson as an adviser, believing that Anderson was not sufficiently committed to the Reform Party's principles.
26.
Stephen Harper stood for office again in the 1993 federal election and defeated Jim Hawkes amid a significant Reform breakthrough in Western Canada.
27.
Stephen Harper emerged a prominent member of the Reform Party caucus.
28.
Stephen Harper was active on constitutional issues and played a prominent role in drafting the Reform Party's strategy for the 1995 Quebec referendum.
29.
Stephen Harper later argued that the "no" side's narrow plurality was a worst-case scenario, in that no-one had won a mandate for change.
30.
Stephen Harper has expressed some socially conservative views on certain issues.
31.
At the Reform Party's 1994 policy convention, Stephen Harper was part of a small minority of delegates who voted against restricting the definition of marriage to "the union of one man and one woman".
32.
Stephen Harper opposed both same-sex marriage and mandated benefits for same-sex couples, but argued that political parties should refrain from taking official positions on these and other "issues of conscience".
33.
Stephen Harper was the only Reform MP to support the creation of the Canadian Firearms Registry at second reading in 1995, although he later voted against it at third reading stage.
34.
Stephen Harper said at the time that he initially voted for the registry because of a poll showing that most of his constituents supported it, and added that he changed his vote when a second poll showed the opposite result.
35.
Stephen Harper was formally rebuked by the Reform executive council despite winning support from some MPs.
36.
Stephen Harper resigned his parliamentary seat on January 14,1997, the same day that he was appointed as a vice-president of the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative think-tank and advocacy group.
37.
Stephen Harper was promoted to NCC president later in the year.
38.
Stephen Harper was a prominent opponent of the Calgary Declaration on national unity in late 1997, describing it as an "appeasement strategy" against Quebec nationalism.
39.
Stephen Harper called for federalist politicians to reject this strategy, and approach future constitutional talks from the position that "Quebec separatists are the problem and they need to be fixed".
40.
In late 1999, Stephen Harper called for the federal government to establish clear rules for any future Quebec referendum on sovereignty.
41.
Stephen Harper led the NCC in several campaigns against the Canadian Wheat Board, and supported Finance Minister Paul Martin's 2000 tax cuts as a positive first step toward tax reform.
42.
In 1997, Stephen Harper delivered a controversial speech on Canadian identity to the Council for National Policy, a conservative American think tank.
43.
Stephen Harper argued that the speech was intended as humour, and not as serious analysis.
44.
Stephen Harper considered campaigning for the Progressive Conservative Party leadership in 1998, after Jean Charest left federal politics.
45.
Stephen Harper eventually decided against running, arguing that it would "burn bridges to those Reformers with whom I worked for many years" and prevent an alliance of right-wing parties from taking shape.
46.
Stephen Harper was sceptical about the Reform Party's United Alternative initiative in 1999, arguing that it would serve to consolidate Manning's hold on the party leadership.
47.
Stephen Harper expressed concern that the UA would dilute Reform's ideological focus.
48.
Stephen Harper expressed reservations about Day's abilities and accused Day of "[making] adherence to his social views a litmus test to determine whether you're in the party or not".
49.
Stephen Harper endorsed Tom Long for the leadership, arguing that Long was best suited to take support from the Progressive Conservative Party.
50.
When Day placed first on the first ballot, Stephen Harper said that the Canadian Alliance was shifting "more towards being a party of the religious right".
51.
Stephen Harper subsequently accused Trudeau of promoting "unabashed socialism", and argued that Canadian governments between 1972 and 2002 had restricted economic growth through "state corporatism".
52.
Stephen Harper wrote an editorial in late 2000 arguing that Alberta and the rest of Canada were "embark[ing] on divergent and potentially hostile paths to defining their country".
53.
Stephen Harper called for a "stronger and much more autonomous Alberta", while rejecting calls for separatism.
54.
Stephen Harper announced his resignation from the NCC presidency in August 2001, to prepare a campaign.
55.
Stephen Harper emerged as Day's main rival, and declared his own candidacy on December 3,2001.
56.
Stephen Harper eventually won the support of at least 28 Alliance MPs, including Scott Reid, James Rajotte and Keith Martin.
57.
Stephen Harper argued that "the French language is not imperilled in Quebec", and opposed "special status" for the province in the Canadian constitution accordingly.
58.
Stephen Harper endorsed greater provincial autonomy on Medicare, and said that he would not co-operate with the Progressive Conservatives as long as they were led by Joe Clark.
59.
Stephen Harper described his potential support base as "similar to what George Bush tapped".
60.
Stephen Harper described Day's governance of the party as "amateurish", while his campaign team argued that Day was attempting to win re-election by building a narrow support base among different groups in the religious right.
61.
The Day campaign accused Stephen Harper of "attacking ethnic and religious minorities".
62.
Stephen Harper was elected without difficulty over New Democrat Bill Phipps, a former United Church of Canada moderator.
63.
Stephen Harper told a reporter during the campaign that he "despise[d]" Phipps, and declined to debate him.
64.
Stephen Harper officially became the leader of the Official Opposition in May 2002.
65.
Stephen Harper refused to apologize, and said that much of Canada was trapped by the same "can't-do" attitude.
66.
On January 12,2004, Stephen Harper announced his resignation as the leader of the Official Opposition in order to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.
67.
Stephen Harper was elected the first leader of the Conservative Party, with a first ballot majority against Belinda Stronach and Tony Clement on March 20,2004.
68.
Two months after the federal election, Stephen Harper privately met Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton in a Montreal hotel.
69.
On March 26,2011, Duceppe stated that Stephen Harper had tried to form a coalition government with the Bloc and NDP in response to Stephen Harper's allegations that the Liberals may form a coalition with the Bloc and the NDP.
70.
Stephen Harper had been rumoured to be shifting his ideology closer to that of a Blue Tory, and many thought he'd wanted to move the party's policies closer to the centre.
71.
Stephen Harper was criticized by a group of law professors for arguing that the government could override the provincial court rulings on same-sex marriage without using the "notwithstanding clause", a provision of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
72.
Stephen Harper argued, in general, for lower taxes, an elected Senate, a tougher stance on crime, and closer relations with the United States.
73.
Stephen Harper was criticized for supporting his caucus colleague MP Gurmant Grewal.
74.
Later that month, Stephen Harper introduced a motion of no confidence on the Martin government, telling the House of Commons "that this government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons and needs to be removed".
75.
Stephen Harper stated that he had told the Conservative Party representatives that they were unlikely to succeed.
76.
Stephen Harper denied any wrongdoing and subsequently filed a civil libel suit against the Liberal Party.
77.
The Conservatives began the campaign period with a policy-per-day strategy, contrary to the Liberal plan of holding off major announcements until after the Christmas holidays, so Stephen Harper dominated media coverage for the first weeks of the election.
78.
Stephen Harper was sworn in as Canada's 22nd prime minister on February 6,2006.
79.
Stephen Harper said before the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce that Canada and the United Kingdom were joined by "the golden circle of the Crown, which links us all together with the majestic past that takes us back to the Tudors, the Plantagenets, the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, petition of rights, and English common law".
80.
Journalist Graham Fraser said in the Toronto Star that Stephen Harper's speech was "one of the most monarchist speeches a Canadian prime minister has given since John Diefenbaker".
81.
On December 4,2008, Stephen Harper asked Governor General Michaelle Jean to prorogue Parliament to avoid a vote of confidence scheduled for the following Monday, becoming the first Canadian prime minister to do so.
82.
On December 30,2009, Stephen Harper announced that he would request the governor general to prorogue Parliament again, effective immediately on December 30,2009, during the 2010 Winter Olympics and lasting until March 3,2010.
83.
Stephen Harper stated that this was necessary for Canada's economic plan.
84.
Stephen Harper's Cabinet was defeated in a no-confidence vote on March 25,2011, after being found in contempt of Parliament.
85.
Stephen Harper was re-elected in Calgary Heritage, essentially a reconfigured version of his former riding.
86.
Hours after conceding defeat on election night, Stephen Harper resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and returned to the backbench.
87.
Stephen Harper resigned as Prime Minister during a meeting with Governor General David Johnston, who accepted the resignation, after which Johnston invited Trudeau to form a government on November 4,2015.
88.
In 2004, Stephen Harper said "the Upper House remains a dumping ground for the favoured cronies of the prime minister".
89.
Between 2006 and 2008, by which time Stephen Harper was prime minister, he did not put any names to the governor general for appointment to the Senate, resulting in 16 Senate vacancies by the October 2008 election.
90.
When Stephen Harper took office, he advised the governor general to appoint Michael Fortier to both the Senate and the Cabinet, arguing the government needed representation from the city of Montreal.
91.
In 2006, Stephen Harper implemented the New Veterans Charter passed with all party support by the previous Liberal government.
92.
Stephen Harper reduced defence spending to 1 per cent of Canadian GDP.
93.
On September 11,2007, Stephen Harper visited Australia and addressed its Parliament.
94.
On January 20,2014, Stephen Harper addressed the Israeli Knesset in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.
95.
Michael Ignatieff criticized Stephen Harper for cutting foreign aid to Africa by $700 million, falling short of the UN Millennium Development Goals, and cutting eight African countries from the list of priority aid recipients.
96.
On March 11 and 12,2006, Stephen Harper made a surprise trip to Afghanistan, where Canadian Forces personnel had been deployed as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force since late 2001, to visit troops in theatre as a show of support for their efforts, and as a demonstration of the government's commitment to reconstruction and stability in the region.
97.
Stephen Harper returned to Afghanistan on May 22,2007, in a surprise two-day visit which included visiting Canadian troops at the forward operating base at Ma'Sum Ghar, located 25 kilometres south of Kandahar, making Stephen Harper the first prime minister to have visited the front lines of a combat operation.
98.
Stephen Harper has shown admiration for Israel since the early 1990s.
99.
Stephen Harper asserted that Hezbollah's objective is to destroy Israel through violence.
100.
The media noted that Stephen Harper did not allow reporters opportunities to ask him questions on his position.
101.
In March 2009, Stephen Harper spoke at a Parliament Hill ceremony organized by Chabad-Lubavitch to honour the Jewish victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which included an attack on the Nariman House.
102.
Stephen Harper expressed condolences over the murder at Chabad's Mumbai centre of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
103.
Stephen Harper described the killings as "affronts to the values that unite all civilized people".
104.
Stephen Harper added that the quick instalment of a new rabbi at the Chabad centre in Mumbai as a signal that the Jewish people will "never bow to violence and hatred".
105.
Stephen Harper then said that he would take a pro-Israeli stance, no matter what the political cost to Canada.
106.
Ignatieff accused Stephen Harper of steering the discussion away from implementing the two-state solution, and instead of rendering all discussion into a competition "about who is Israel's best friend".
107.
Stephen Harper backed Israel's 2014 war in Gaza and condemned Hamas.
108.
Shortly after being congratulated by George W Bush for his victory, Harper rebuked US Ambassador David Wilkins for criticizing the Conservatives' plans to assert Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic Ocean waters with armed forces.
109.
Stephen Harper's first meeting as prime minister with the US president occurred at the end of March 2006.
110.
Stephen Harper has denied that Brodie was responsible for the leak, and launched an investigation to find the source.
111.
In December 2011, the Stephen Harper government announced that Canada would formally withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol.
112.
In 2006, Stephen Harper introduced a Public Transit Tax Credit, where individuals could claim 15 per cent of the cost of a transit pass each year.
113.
From 2006 to 2013, the Stephen Harper government invested over $5 billion towards public transit projects in Canada.
114.
Stephen Harper chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the governor general:.
115.
Stephen Harper returned to Ottawa as a Conservative backbencher and addressed a meeting of the Conservative caucus that included defeated MPs in November 2015.
116.
Interim leader Rona Ambrose stated that Stephen Harper would be in the House for key votes as the member for Calgary Heritage, but had earned the right to keep a low profile after his service as the prime minister.
117.
In February 2018, Stephen Harper stated that he could have still "easily" been leader of the Conservative Party, but he chose not to amass too much power in order to secure the party's fortunes in the future.
118.
Stephen Harper announced in May 2016 that he planned to resign his seat in the House of Commons during the summer before the fall session of Parliament.
119.
In October 2017, Stephen Harper received media attention for criticizing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's handling of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement started by the United States under President Donald Trump, stating that Trudeau was too unwilling to make concessions to the US, sided too closely with Mexico, and tried to advance left-wing policies through the renegotiations.
120.
On March 26,2018, Stephen Harper attended the international Fellowship of Christians and Jews Gala at Mar-a-Lago where he stated that he expressed support for US President Donald Trump's speech on Jerusalem.
121.
On November 19,2018, Stephen Harper appeared on a show hosted by Ben Shapiro, where he made comments on issues such as populism, immigration and nationalism.
122.
In January 2019, Stephen Harper appeared on a PragerU video explaining why Donald Trump was elected to the presidency in the 2016 United States election.
123.
On March 11,2021, during a virtual gathering hosted by the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, Stephen Harper claimed that the world has entered into a Second Cold War between the United States and China, and that middle-power countries such as Canada are a part of the rivalry between the two main powers.
124.
In 2021, Stephen Harper appeared on the podcast American Optimist, hosted by Joe Lonsdale.
125.
On July 25,2022, Stephen Harper endorsed his former cabinet minister Pierre Poilievre for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
126.
In September 2022, Stephen Harper attended Elizabeth II's state funeral, along with other former Canadian prime ministers.
127.
Stephen Harper received the Woodrow Wilson Award on October 6,2006, for his public service in Calgary.
128.
Stephen Harper Handelman wrote "that the prime minister who was once dismissed as a doctrinaire backroom tactician with no experience in government has emerged as a warrior in power".
129.
On June 27,2008, Stephen Harper was awarded the Presidential Gold Medallion for Humanitarianism by B'nai B'rith International.
130.
Stephen Harper is the first Canadian to be awarded this medal.
131.
On July 11,2011, Stephen Harper was honoured by Alberta's Blood tribe.
132.
Stephen Harper was made Honorary Chief of the Kainai Nation during a ceremony, in which they recognized him for making an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada for the residential schools abuse.
133.
On September 27,2012, Stephen Harper received the World Statesman of the Year award.
134.
In December 2019, it was announced by Governor General Julie Payette that Stephen Harper had been appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada.
135.
Stephen Harper was formally invested on September 18,2022, by Governor General Mary Simon in London in a ceremony attended by incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and former prime ministers Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and former Governors-General Michaelle Jean and David Johnston.
136.
Stephen Harper is the third prime minister, after Pierre Trudeau and John Turner, to send his children to Rockcliffe Park Public School, in Ottawa.
137.
Stephen Harper published a book, A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs and the Rise of Professional Hockey, which chronicles the growth of professional hockey, particularly in Toronto, and writes articles occasionally on the subject.
138.
Stephen Harper was interviewed and expressed his views on the state of hockey and his preference for an overtime period in lieu of a shoot-out.
139.
In February 2010, Stephen Harper interviewed former National Hockey League greats Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe for a Saskatoon Kinsmen Club charity event.
140.
Stephen Harper had a cameo appearance in an episode of the television show Corner Gas, which aired March 12,2007.
141.
Stephen Harper was accompanied by Herringbone, an Ottawa band with whom he regularly practices.
142.
Stephen Harper received a standing ovation after providing the piano accompaniment and lead vocals for the song.
143.
In October 2010, Stephen Harper taped a cameo appearance in an episode of the television show Murdoch Mysteries, which aired July 20,2011, during the show's fourth season.
144.
Stephen Harper was the first prime minister to employ a personal stylist, Michelle Muntean, whose duties range from coordinating his clothing to preparing his hair and makeup for speeches and television appearances.