Stephen Harper: National Citizens Coalition

Tony Blair Dept: It made no sense to me even then. Scandinavia was doing extremely well, awash in oil money, at a cultural high point, a self-assembled model of peace and fabulous hair. The U.K. had just voted in Tony Blair and was blissfully floating a foot off the pavement, the way Americans would, briefly, in 2008. You could have done worse and most countries did, according to The Star. All I did in 1997 was make a mental note to one day visit northern Europe and check up on these Nordic layabouts and lONDON In 1997 Stephen Harper, then of the National Citizens Coalition, made a remark to a group of Americans that mystified me. Canada is a northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it, he told the extremist Council for National Policy in a crisp, airless dissection that simultaneously mocked Canada, grovelled before Americans and misunderstood Europe s uppermost edge. The U.S. would soon vote for George W. Bush and fritter away its patrimony. Canadians were a study in naivete and ripe for Harper s picking. I ll give Harper credit, the most driven, dogged, cunning politician in our history set out to remake Canada into a less interesting and less ambitious place a Husky made into a small waddling domestic-type dog and he kept at it, finding success beyond measure. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.