Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a
Governor-General
Prime minister: Stephen Harper
The Conservative Party of Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a
third consecutive term in office in snap elections held in May
2011.
| Stephen Harper heads Canada’s Conservative government |
The party gained support, transforming its minorty in parliament
into a majority.
Mr Harper’s government had been toppled by the opposition in
March 2011. A motion, brought by the main opposition Liberal Party
and backed by two other opposition parties, declared the government
was in contempt of parliament and had lost its confidence in a row
centered on Mr Harper’s budget plans.
The opposition said Mr Harper’s government was in contempt of
parliament for failing to provide the estimated costs for a number
of spending programmes.
It was the first time that a Canadian government had been found
in contempt of parliament.
Mr Harper became prime minister in 2006, after elections that
brought to an end 12 years of Liberal government.
However, the Conservatives failed to win an overall majority and
had to work with opposition parties in order to govern.
Two years into his first term, Mr Harper called an early
election in an attempt to win a working majority. His party
improved its position in the October 2008 election, winning 16 more
seats than in the 2006 election, but still fell short of an overall
majority.
Two months later, Mr Harper came close to being toppled by an
alliance of the opposition Liberal and New Democrat parties over
his handling of the economic crisis, but avoided a no-confidence
vote by suspending parliament for a month.
He prorogued parliament for a second time in January 2010, this
time for two months. He described the suspension as “routine”, but
it drew an angry response from opposition leaders.
They said the move was aimed at avoiding a potentially
embarrassing debate on the government’s role in the torture of
Afghan terror detainees.
Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1959, Stephen Harper studied
economics at the University of Calgary in Alberta. He became an MP
in 1993 and became leader of the newly-merged Conservative party in
2004.
He is married and has two children. Aside from politics and
intellectual pursuits, he is passionate about ice hockey.
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