Who Is Stephen Harper?

Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada and was sworn into office in February 2006. Harper was born in 1959 in Toronto, but later moved to Alberta where he graduated from the University of Calgary with a Master's degree in economics.

Harper was first elected as a Member of Parliament in 1993, as part of the upstart, right-wing Reform Party. Harper was, however, part of Reform's more moderate branch. Harper did not see eye to eye with Reform's leader, Preston Manning, and he resigned as an MP in 1997.

Harper returned to parliamentary politics in 2002, when he won the leadership of the Canadian Alliance, the Reform Party's successor, and became Leader of the Official Opposition. In 2003, Harper engineered the merger between the Alliance and the smaller Progressive Conservative Party to form the new Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected leader of the new Tory party and although he lost the general election in 2004 to Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, he toppled the Liberal minority government in November 2005 and went on to win the elections in January 2006. Harper ended 12 years of Liberal Party rule in Canada and now leads a minority Conservative government.

Add Comment

Report