Prime Minister Stephen Harper

The cartoonists are having a field day: Stephen Harper went to New York and nobody noticed. Or hardly anybody outside Fox News and the Canadian media: the newspapers this morning are full of cartoons showing just what a nonentity the Canadian prime minister is. That probably shouldn’t be a surprise. Even President Obama’s visit to Ottawa didn’t get much coverage south of the border. Oh, The New York Times had a story , but my cousin Cathy in Reno says his visit received little notice because... Read Full Story

“Hey dude - I gotta take a leak…make sure they don’t snap the photo until I’m back ok? Cause that would be super awkward…can you imagine? I’d look like such a tool if I was the only leader not in the picture…right? right? hahaahh…hilarious. Nice hat by the way.” Harper misses G20 group photo Read Full Story

On October 14, Canadians gave our Conservative government a fresh mandate to continue with our plan to take action on the economy. We are injecting billions of stimulus in the Canadian economy by cutting taxes, investing in infrastructure and strengthening the banking system.  Our first concern is to protect peoples’ jobs and savings, but the Opposition parties are interested only in power and entitlements. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc want to use your tax dollars to pay for political... Read Full Story

Yann Martel just sent Stephen Harper a collection of short stories by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, Fictions , as the end-of-year offering in his campaign to provide the PM with some good bedtime reading. It’s the 45th in the series, and it’s not even a book that Martel likes. Doesn’t sound like a present sent with much holiday good feeling to me. But, as those who’ve been keeping track know, Martel accompanies his fortnightly gifts with a letter of introduction. This time he... Read Full Story

Stephen Harper, Canada's Prime Minister. Photo/PM Office OTTAWA, Canada (Blue MauMau) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Saturday that Canada will provide C$4 billion (US$3.29 billion) in loans to bail out the Canadian subsidiaries of American car manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler. read more Read Full Story

Is Stephen Harper just like former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon? This is William Neville’s suggestion in The Winnipeg Free Press ( “Harper finally gets his comeuppance,” Dec. 5, 2008), and thanks to bastard.logic for pointing me to that piece, where Neville writes: Like Richard Nixon, Harper seems obsessed not merely with defeating his opponents, but with destroying them. The fact that he could not restrain himself, even in a minority position, bespeaks a kind of sickness better... Read Full Story

Watching Stephen Harper and his guys carrying on yesterday I was reminded of how easy it is to start believing what you want to believe. Harper was absolutely enraged about something that he was quite willing to consider four years ago: an accommodation with the Bloc Québécois in order to make some parliamentary changes. Whether this went so far as an actual letter to the Governor General as some claim, I don’t know, but even Heritage Minister James Moore, talking on As It Happens , conceded... Read Full Story

"The Saskatchewan government has introduced legislation that would let people select who they want to represent them in the Senate." CBC Saskatchewan "The Conservative government is applauding Saskatchewan's new Senate election legislation but can't guarantee Prime Minister Stephen Harper won't appoint a new senator from the province before the Senate vote is ever held, according to the federal minister of state for democratic reform." Regina Leader-Post Saskatchewan's new right wing Premier... Read Full Story

The basic idea behind the Harper budget infrastructure plan is good—heaven knows we need to replace roads, bridges and add better rail and commuter links—but it would have been a lot better if the $3 billion earmarked for tax cuts was in large part added to the infrastructure program. We’d get a whole lot more bang to our buck in terms of stimulus as well as have something to show or it ten years from now. Don’t forget how much we are still profiting from the stimulus programs of the 1930s... Read Full Story

“At some point, you know, you get up every day and you get kicked in the balls and, you know what, you get tired of it. So when people stop fighting back, I’m telling you, that’s a most dangerous, dangerous, dangerous day” – Insider in the Canadian Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has suspended parliament. (Robert Benzie, The Toronto Star: “PM partisan, passionate and profane,” Dec. 6, 2008) ••••••• “Like Richard Nixon, Harper seems obsessed not merely with... Read Full Story