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| Stephen Harper, 46, was sworn in on Monday
as Canada's 22nd Prime Minister, the country's first Conservative prime
minister after a consecutive 12-year Liberal rule. (Photo:
xinhua/AFP) | OTTAWA, Feb. 6
(Xinhuanet) -- Harper's Conservatives won 124 seats in the 308-seat House
of Commons, beating the Liberals who got only 103 in the general vote on Jan.
23. The Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, 67, officially handed in his
resignation as the 21st Prime Minister to Governor General Michaelle Jean
earlier Monday.
Although the youngest among Canada's four main federal
party leaders, Harper is not new to the country's political arena with his 20
years' experience in politics.
In March 2004, Harper was elected leader of the
Conservative Party, which was formed in October 2003 through a merger of the
Progressive Conservative and Canada Alliance.
He was then plunged into an election in June 2004, in
which his party won 99 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons and became the
official opposition.
Born in 1959, Harper grew up in the Toronto suburbs of
Leaside and Etobicoke. After high school, he worked as a computer analyst in the
Alberta oil patch before enrolling at the University of Calgary, where he earned
his BA and MA in economics.
Politics beckoned the young man in 1985 when he accepted a
job as the executive assistant for Calgary West Progressive Conservative
Parliament Member Jim Hawkes. He later worked for Reform Parliament Member
Deboarh Grey.
After an unsuccessful attempt at winning the federal
riding of Calgary West in 1988, Harper won the seat for the Reform party in
1993. He did a lot of work in advancing fiscal responsibility and developing
Reform Party fiscal and taxation policy.
Harper's biggest legacy may be his role in reuniting the
right, which was divided into two different parties -- the Progressive
Conservative and Canada Alliance. In October 2003, he struck a deal with
Progressive Conservative Leader Peter MacKay to merge the two and become the
first leader of the new Conservative Party of Canada.
His friend Tom Flanagan once credited Harper with "a rare
strategic gift combined with a lot of brain power".
Harper is known for his conservative attitude on social
issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. He has pledged to cut GST (Goods
and Service tax), clamp down on crimes and transfer more power from the federal
government to provinces.
Harper has denied the Liberal saying that he is
pro-American and vowed to uphold Canada's interest in dealing with cross-border
issues.
Harper's wife is graphic designer Laureen Teskey. They have a nine-year-old son Benjamin and a seven-year-old daughter Rachel. Enditem [1] [2] [3] [4] | 
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