AskBiography Logo   Latest News  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Google Buzz  Became Fan - Facebook  Subscribe to RSSRSS   Bookmark and Share

Stephen Harper

Personal data
Date of birthApril 30, 1959(age 56)
Place of birthToronto, Canada
Political partyConservative Party (2003 � present)
Other partyLiberal Party (Before 1985)
Progressive Conservative Party (1985 � 1986)
Reform Party (1987 � 1997)
Canadian Alliance (2002 � 2003)
SpouseLaureen Teskey
(1993 � present)
ChildrenBenjamin
Rachel
Residence24 Sussex Drive (Official)
Calgary (Private)
Alma materUniversity of Calgary
ProfessionEconomist
ReligionChristian and Missionary Alliance
22nd Prime Minister of Canada
Assumed officeFebruary 6, 2006
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byPaul Martin
Leader of the Opposition
In officeMarch 20, 2004 - February 6, 2006
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime ministerPaul Martin
Succeeded byBill Graham (Acting)
Preceded byGrant Hill (Acting)
In officeMay 21, 2002 - January 8, 2004
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime ministerJean Chrétien
Paul Martin
Succeeded byGrant Hill (Acting)
Preceded byJohn Reynolds (Acting)
Assumed officeJune 28, 2002
Preceded byPreston Manning
In officeOctober 25, 1993 - June 2, 1997
Succeeded byRob Anders
Preceded byJim Hawkes

     Home | Office Holder | Stephen Harper







Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election. He is the first prime minister from the newly reconstituted Conservative Party, following a merger of the Progressive Conservative and Canadian Alliance parties.

Harper has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Calgary Southwest in Alberta since 2002. Earlier, from 1993 to 1997, he was the MP for Calgary West. He was one of the founding members of the Reform Party, but did not seek re-election, and instead joined, and shortly thereafter led, the National Citizens Coalition. In 2002, he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance (the successor to the Reform Party) and returned to parliament as Leader of the Opposition. In 2003, he reached an agreement with Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay for the merger of their two parties to form the Conservative Party of Canada. He was elected as the party's first non-interim leader in March 2004.

Harper's Conservative Party won a stronger minority in the October 2008 federal election, showing a small increase in the percentage of the popular vote and increased representation in the Canadian House of Commons, with 143 of 308 seats. The 40th Canadian Parliament was dissolved in March 2011, after a no-confidence vote that found the Cabinet in contempt of parliament was passed by the opposition parties.

On May 2, 2011, Harper's Conservative Party won a majority government in the May 2011 federal election, by winning 166 seats.


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Stephen/Harper?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 410 Gone in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Stephen/Harper?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10" in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Fatal error: Call to a member function children() on a non-object in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 260