Canada gets 'policy wonk enigma' as leader

OTTAWA - In Stephen Harper, Canadians have chosen a Prime Minister who few would call inspirational or charismatic. Rather, he has most commonly been described as a policy wonk who has only reluctantly allowed himself to be dragged into the rough and tumble of competitive politics.

Even as he prepares to enter the Prime Minister's residence in Ottawa, he also remains a bit of an enigma to most voters. An economist by training, his political resume reads like that of a right-wing ideologue. Yet he won this election by stepping closer to the centre.

The son of an oil company accountant, Harper was raised in Toronto where asthma kept him out of sports but a sharp brain made him an outstanding academic achiever. Once an admirer of former Liberal Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, he embraced the political right while at university in Alberta.

There he tied his fortunes to Preston Manning, the founder of the regionally based and deeply conservative Reform Party that is now defunct. Serving first as Manning's policy adviser at just 27 years of age, he eventually agreed to run for Parliament for his party and was elected in 2003. Later, he fell out with Manning and left Parliament to head a right-wing think-tank, the National Citizens' Coalition.

Harper, who is married, is not a Bible-thumper. He is writing a book on ice hockey and while hardly known as the funny-man of Canadian politics, he is apparently a talented mimic.

After returning to active politics, he engineered the merger of two struggling conservative parties in 2002 to create the Conservative Party. His first election as leader in 2004 ended in defeat to the Liberals, who dug up comments in his past that painted him as a right-wing ideologue who would destroy the liberal bedrock of Canadian society. This time he was credited with wearing a more moderate face. Now Canadians will find out whether his new, softer stance was for real.

Harper won his own seat with a majority of more than 30,000 votes. He also becomes the first Prime Minister from outside Quebec in 26 years. But faced with leading a minority Government, his honeymoon may be short.

- INDEPENDENT