What Stephen Harper thinks he is and what "The Economist" says he is are at totally different ends of the reality scale

Stephen Harper

The political predator

WHEN Stephen Harper led his Conservatives to victory in 2006 and formed a minority government, few Canadians expected it to last. The Liberals, who had dominated national politics for much of the past century, saw it as an interregnum. They did not have the measure of Mr Harper. Through the force of his personality and his ideas, the prime minister kept his party in power, winning a second minority in 2008 and then a majority in 2011. By the middle of this month he will have been in office longer than all but seven of Canada’s 22 prime ministers. Love him or loathe him, as Canadians do in equal measure, no one can deny that he is a remarkably successful politician.

But as parliament reconvenes this month for the last complete session before a general election, scheduled for October 2015, Mr Harper is in trouble. The baggage accumulated by all long-serving governments is weighing him down. The economy, supposedly a Conservative strong point, is fragile. For the first time in a decade Mr Harper is facing a popular Liberal leader, in Justin Trudeau. Mr Harper dismisses speculation that he might resign as “surreal”. But the window may be closing on his long-term project to remake Canada in the Conservative image.

A Liberal triumph would be a bitter blow for Mr Harper, who in his youth was a keen supporter of Pierre Trudeau, Justin’s father. He shifted to the Progressive Conservatives after he moved to the energy-rich western province of Alberta, and then road-tested a few right-leaning parties before deciding to set up his own. In 2003 he orchestrated a merger of the centrist Progressive Conservatives and the right-leaning Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. Uniting the fractured right-of-centre parties into a new Conservative party gave him the clout in 2006 to displace scandal-stained Liberals.

READ MORE: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21616945-canadas-prime-minister-formidable-operator-he-has-fight-his-hands-political


But the prime minister’s biggest failing is his scant progress in moving the soul of Canada further to the right. Surveys indicate that Canadians feel government has a big role to play in their lives and they are not averse, at least theoretically, to paying higher taxes to make that happen. On social issues, they remain deeply liberal (see table). Mr Harper has changed people’s opinions of his own political prowess since 2006. But if he wants to change Canada, he may be running out of time.