Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have been a member of the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, being the party's co-founder and serving as its first leader from 2004 to 2015. Since 2018, he has been the chairman of the International Democracy Union.

Born in Leaside, now a neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Harper studied economics, earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1985 and 1991, respectively, from the University of Calgary. He was a founder of the Reform Party of Canada and was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1993 federal election in the riding of Calgary West. He did not seek re-election in 1997 and instead joined and later led the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative lobbyist group. In 2002, Harper defeated Stockwell Day to become leader of the Canadian Alliance, the successor to the Reform Party, and returned to Parliament as the leader of the Opposition. In 2003, Harper and Progressive Conservative Party leader Peter MacKay agreed to merge the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservatives to form the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper was elected as the party's first leader in 2004. He led the Conservatives in the 2004 federal election, which it lost to Paul Martin's Liberal Party. In the 2006 federal election, Harper led the Conservatives to a minority government.