Inside The Mind Of Stephen Harper

Harper was different. More approachable. He'd been born in Leaside, a Toronto suburb, in 1959 and moved west -- first to Edmonton when he was 19, then to Calgary two years later. He was with this crew of Reformers, but not really of them. His suits weren't flashy or custom-tailored, but they did fit his lean and slouchy frame like real clothes, not like somebody's idea of a joke. He didn't make a show of being folksy and down-home. Didn't make any show at all, really. He spoke passable French. Best of all, Harper was capable of insight, which is better than mere book learning and at least as rare on Parliament Hill as anywhere else. Once, in the run-up to the 1995 Quebec secession referendum, I called him to discuss the Parti Québécois' glib assurance that the rest of Canada would offer up an economic association on terms favourable to a seceding Quebec. Harper called this evidence of "the profound unilateralism of the Quebec separatists": the belief that the rest of the world would gather round to cheerfully help the separatists on their way when the great day came. It wasn't just a tactic, Harper said, they actually believed the world was supposed to help them with their little project. It was as compact a critique of separatist logic as any I'd heard. All of these characteristics made Harper the first-call Reformer for most Ottawa reporters during the first Chrétien government. And when we called, Harper wasn't stingy with his opinions. In fact, when Harper shows up in Manning's autobiography, Think Big, it is often because Manning is complaining about what a flap-jawed gossip his young charge could be. Harper didn't like Manning's choice for national campaign director in 1993, Rick Anderson, and he "was prepared to air his objections in the media," Manning writes. In 1994, Manning came under fire for alleged abuse of his expense account. Harper joined the chorus of critics. "Even though procedures existed for handling any complaints about the use of party funds," Manning writes, "Stephen went to the media." Today, almost no MP serving under Harper would dare mouth off to reporters as freely as he did. If it's any defence, Harper's impatience wasn't contrived. It was real. When he quit the Reform caucus in 1997, he was genuinely frustrated with electoral politics. And if the truth be told, he was getting pretty good at quitting by that point. In fact, in trying to understand Harper's career, it helps to split it into two parts, with the dividing line running through 2001, when he decided to take a run at the Canadian Alliance leadership. A play in two acts. http://www.macleans.ca:80/topstories/politics/article.jsp?content=20061106_135797_135797

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