This is just plain, well, weird …
… Prime Minister Stephen Harper is completely naked.
The oil on canvas painting, entitled Emperor Haute Couture by artist Margaret Sutherland, is raising eyebrows at the Kingston, Ont., library where it is currently on display in a room. Continue reading The nude Stephen Harper. No, really. The NUDE Stephen Harper.
University of Calgary professor Frank Atkins once supervised the masters thesis of a student named Stephen Harper. The thesis was an exploration how government intervention in an economy produced distortions, distortions that were unwanted and produced negative results. Of course, that student would go on to introduce arguably the most massive federal government intervention in the economy ever. Professor Atkins seems forgiving — sort of..
Angelo Persichilli, who quit life as a journalist last August to become Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s director of communications, has just announced his resignation. Here is the letter released to the Parliamentary Press Gallery: Continue reading PM Harper searches for 7th comms director in 7 years
A decade ago this week, Stockwell Day lost his leadership of the Canadian Alliance to Stephen Harper, an event which turned out pretty well for both men. On that anniversary, I spoke to Day (below) who was in Mumbai, India when I reached him. We talked about that Harper decade but we also reflected on another leadership race — the race New Democratic Party’s race to name a new official opposition leader this week. In our papers today, I argue that more Canadians have moved left than right during the Harper decade. Day, in our interview, welcomes the disappearance, if you will, of the centre because he believes it will focus policy debate in Canada and may even mean fewer ad hominem political attacks and more back-and-forth focused on policy. “What it will mean is much clearer lines of debate for Canadians. Clearer policy differences.” Watch the video…
Here’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaking in Shanghai at a dinner organized by the Canada-China Business Council. It is Dec. 4, 2009. After spending most of his speech talking about the importance of boosting the trading relationship between the two countries, there is this bit:
But ladies and gentlemen, just as trade is a two-way street, so too is dialogue. Our government believes, and has always believed, that a mutually beneficial economic relationship is not incompatible with a good and frank dialogue on fundamental values like freedom, human rights and the rule of law. Continue reading Canada and human rights in China: Are we making a difference?
Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Beijing leading a corporate Canada dream team. The Chinese have definitely noticed. Press reports here have consistently noted that Harper is leading “a strong delegation.”
On Wednesday here, Harper led a “business roundtable” with the following Canadian executives: Continue reading In China, here's the roster for corporate Canada's dream team
I’ve travelled to a lot of spots around the world covering Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s international travels and I cannot recall him ever generating the kind of positive press he’s getting in this morning’s China Daily, the English-language state-run daily newspaper here. Continue reading Free trade and a praying PM: Canada is front page news in China
The minute Prime Minister Stephen Harper said this in Davos yesterday:
We have already taken steps to limit the growth of our health care spending…. We must do the same for our retirement income system. Continue reading PMO pushback on speculation to Old Age Security Changes
He doesn’t use the term “northern European welfare state” but anyone who’s followed Stephen Harper’s career will know that he’s not a big fan of the concept. Today, in Davos, Switzerland, in a speech at the World Economic Forum, Harper did not use the phrase “welfare state” but it’s pretty clear from this section of his speech that that’s what he’s talking about: Continue reading In Davos, Harper warns welfare states that the party's over
Newt Gingrich won the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday night and gave a long, rambling, and, if you ask me, odd victory speech. But this chunk of his speech, is sure to be of interest to Canadians: Continue reading In Newt's eyes, Harper is America's best buddy