# Stephen Harper **Stephen Harper** (born April 30, 1959, Leaside, Ontario) was Conservative prime minister from February 2006 to November 2015. He was the chief organizer of the modern Canadian right. A Toronto-born economist who made his career in Calgary, he came out of [[Preston Manning]]'s [[Reform Party of Canada]] and turned its insurgency into a governing coalition. ## From Reform to merger Harper won Calgary West for Reform in 1993 and did not run again in 1997. He spent 1998–2002 running the National Citizens Coalition, a small-government advocacy group. He returned as leader of Reform's successor, the Canadian Alliance, in March 2002. On **December 7, 2003** he completed the merger with the Progressive Conservatives that created the unified [[Conservative Party of Canada]]. That ended a decade of vote-splitting on the right that had kept the Liberals in power since the collapse of [[Brian Mulroney]]'s coalition. He became the new party's leader in March 2004. ## In power Harper governed by incremental conservatism rather than the sweeping change his critics feared. He cut the GST to 5%, hardened criminal-justice and immigration policy and championed the Alberta oil economy. His signature constitutional gamble came in **December 2008**. Facing a Liberal–NDP coalition backed by the Bloc Québécois, he had Parliament prorogued until late January 2009 to avoid a confidence vote he was likely to lose. He won a majority in 2011 and lost to [[Justin Trudeau]] in 2015. He resigned his seat in August 2016. ## After office Harper founded the consultancy Harper & Associates in December 2015. In February 2018 he became chair of the International Democrat Union, the global alliance of center-right parties. That made him a connective node between Canadian conservatism and parties such as the U.S. Republicans and the British Conservatives. ## 2026: the unity question Harper has been pulled into the Alberta separation fight. In early February 2026, on an Arctic-sovereignty panel alongside former Liberal PM Jean Chrétien, he said he had **not** signed the petition to force a separation referendum. He warned that "domestic policies that threaten our unity" were a danger alongside external threats from the United States, and he said Canada should make "any sacrifice necessary" to preserve its independence. [[Pierre Poilievre]] invokes him as proof that conservative government can hold the country together, arguing that there was no Alberta separatist movement under Harper. ## Why he matters here Harper is the bridge figure: the Reform insurgent who became the disciplined establishment, embodying [[Western Alienation]]'s march from protest to power. He is also the most direct Canadian analog to an American movement-conservative institution builder. His coalition is the one Poilievre inherited. ## Related - [[Preston Manning]] · [[Pierre Poilievre]] · [[Brian Mulroney]] - [[Conservative Party of Canada]] · [[Reform Party of Canada]] · [[Liberal Party of Canada]] - [[Western Alienation]] · [[Canada]] · [[Canadian History Hub]]