(Okay Laureen is way braver than I would ever be, those horses are huge!)
I met PM Harper some months ago, and I found him to be very easy to talk to in a one on one conversation. I suspect he is most comfortable in that situation. As an introvert myself, I can understand how he feels. My blog gives me a chance to talk to people without having to face a crowded room of people I do not know.
I remember him as the opposition leader coming to Edmonton and giving a speech. He give a very good speech, and helped serve the food, but you could tell he wasn't very comfortable with the whole situation. Laureen fit right in, talked to everyone and held peoples attention with ease. I really admire her. She is the power behind the man. Others have been able to meet him as well and have formed their own opinions of him.
Unnatural politicians
There were gasps across the nation last weekend when the Prime Minister sang a Beatles song in public. Could it really be? Stephen Harper is having fun.
That Harper is quite possibly a human being, capable of experiencing the attendant emotions, is a disorienting revelation for many Canadians. Harper has always been a figure of icy cool -- restrained, private, unapproachable. When he was photographed some years ago sending his children off to school with a handshake, it confirmed for conspiracists that the prime minister was a droid.
The truth is less sensational: Harper is merely an introvert. I figured that out when I met him 15 years ago, after he was first elected to Parliament as the Reform member for Calgary West. I was a graduate student researching political populism, and the 35-year-old Harper, one of the architects of the Reform movement, agreed to speak with me.
We met outside the House of Commons. He was gracious but extraordinarily serious. I don't exude frivolity myself, but Harper is so solemn and sober that I felt like Adam Sandler.
I suspect that PM Harper does not suffer fools easily. He expects his Ministers to know their files and work hard to keep on top of their portfolios. If he was a really tough taskmaster we would have heard grumblings from the backbenchers by now. I hope our Conservative MP's have as much admiration for Stephen Harper as a leader as I do, as a voter.
Lefties go for the empty headed but dynamic speakers like Obama. All platitudes, no action. Look at how many promises the Liberals made to get elected and then promptly forgot about, like the GST, childcare, and especially Kyoto. Big promises, no results.
It doesn't matter who they elect as a leader, no one believes them anymore. No one cares what they think or want anymore, they have no policies and most importantly, they have no morals. They talk about Canadian values, but they have lost contact with actual Canadians, so they have no idea what our values really are. They scoff at Tim Horton's, and fail to realize that all those cars lined up at the Tim Horton's drive thru are typical Canadian voters. They blame their leader and sit on their duffs expecting Canadians to vote for them just because they are Liberals. They want back at the trough so badly, they do not see how we are viewing them. OINK!
