Listen to enough Stephen Harper speeches and you will hear him refer to one man over and over again: John Diefenbaker, “the Chief” from Prince Albert, Sask., who was Canada’s 13th prime minister from 1957 to 1963.
Prime Minister Harper talked about the Chief again just this week in the midst of his annual Arctic tour, noting that Diefenbaker’s northern vision was one where “traditional activities like hunting and fishing co-exist alongside cutting-edge scientific research.”
Diefenbaker, in fact, made the North one of the central themes of the 1958 general election, the one in which he would triumph with what is still the largest majority of seats in Canadian history when measured as a percentage of the seats in the Commons.
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Harper’s annual Arctic tour, which touched down in Resolute, Nunavut, Wednesday, is his way of underlining the commitment Diefenbaker first made.
Harper sees more in common, though, with Diefenbaker than just the North.