Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper is a former Canadian prime minister, born in 1959 in Leaside, Toronto. He moved to Alberta and earned degrees in economics at the University of Calgary. A founder of the Reform Party, he was an MP from 1993 to 1997, then led the National Citizens Coalition. He became Canadian Alliance leader in 2002, merged it with the Progressive Conservatives in 2003 and led the new Conservative Party from 2004. He was prime minister from 2006 to 2015 and left Parliament in 2016. Since 2018 he has chaired the International Democracy Union, an alliance of centre-right parties, and since 2024 the Alberta Investment Management Corporation; he holds no elected office.

Supporters credit Harper with uniting the Canadian right, steering Canada through the 2008 recession, from which The Economist judged it emerged stronger than any other G7 country, lowering taxes, expanding trade and taking firm stands against Russian aggression and for Israel. Critics accuse him of concentrating power in his office and weakening Parliament: he prorogued it twice in 2008 and 2009, and his government was the first in Canadian history found in contempt of Parliament in 2011. Scientists objected to federal research cutbacks, statisticians criticised the scrapping of the mandatory long-form census, and environmentalists condemned the Kyoto withdrawal. His government also faced the Senate expenses and robocall scandals.