Harper Interview with Macleans

[August1991]

In case you missed this (as I did), I thought I'd provide a link. I found Harper's comments frank, refreshing and appropriate:

In the first few days after you became Prime Minister, there was that photo of you shaking your son's hand as you dropped him off at school. You received a lot of criticism for that photo. Was that hard for you?

I just laughed at it. Nobody who wrote a critical comment has a son in Grade 4. You would not hug a Grade 4 son going into a schoolyard. So anybody who wrote that doesn't know anything about children and schoolyards. But shaking hands is a little bit of a family tradition -- it goes back to my dad and has a bit of an "in" meaning for us.

I think the challenge is, because of the nature of the media drive in this business, you have to respond, frequently, to short-term things. The key is to figure out which short-term things really require a response versus which won't matter a week from now. And that's just an art form.

But everything you are doing has to be serving the public interest. And you'll have to, in due course, justify it to the population. I've been attacked so much in the past few years it doesn't really matter to me. I always ask myself what will the public's reaction be to such-and-such a decision or such-and-such a move by the time we get to the next election, when the public actually makes a judgment. So the temporary reaction of a columnist or whatever today doesn't really mean anything.

The best word to use to describe my dad is integrity. Almost to a fault. He was one of those people who would wait at a street corner obeying the "don't walk" sign when there was no traffic. He would pay a tax bill that nobody knew he actually owed. That was the kind of guy he was. He raised all of us with a strong sense that if you compromise your integrity to get ahead, you haven't gotten ahead.

Macleans

[Canuck E Stan]

Throughout the Macleans interview Harper shows how he thinks about the media.

Their brief love-in during the election may have ended.

The world here is driven by media demands to have instantaneous news.

Most of the anger has not come from there. Most of it has come from the Liberal party, the opposition parties, and elements of the media.

Part of the restriction you are under in government is that it is a media fishbowl, and you are trying all the time to guard against the leak of information.

I think the challenge is, because of the nature of the media drive in this business, you have to respond, frequently, to short-term things.

So the temporary reaction of a columnist or whatever today doesn't really mean anything.

Macleans

[GostHacked]

]Q - But as Prime Minister, you are public property now. You are our top cultural icon. Are you comfortable with that?

A - Well, that takes a lot of getting used to. I'm not in public life to be a celebrity. I understand that it is a huge part of the job but it is not part of my motivation.

Anyone care to explain what this means exactly? Top cultural icon?

[geoffrey]

]Q - But as Prime Minister, you are public property now. You are our top cultural icon. Are you comfortable with that?

A - Well, that takes a lot of getting used to. I'm not in public life to be a celebrity. I understand that it is a huge part of the job but it is not part of my motivation.

Anyone care to explain what this means exactly? Top cultural icon?

I think he's trying to portray Harper as our cultural leader, which is ridiclous.

[Montgomery Burns]

Top cultural icon?

Wtf?

[August1991]

Top cultural icon?

Wtf?

Among the few Canadians who could possibly be well-known everywhere in Canada (both in English and French speaking Canada) are federal politicians and hockey players. I suppose you could add Celine Dion, too.