Just before Christmas 2013, a motorcade of three black cars stopped in front of a nondescript ranch house in the Varsity Village neighbourhood of Calgary. Plain-clothes RCMP stood guard as a figure emerged from one of the vehicles and knocked on the front door.
“There was enough warning to get coffee ready,” says Jim Hawkes.
Nobody would have faulted him for hating the tall, blue-eyed man standing on his front step.
That man, of course, was Stephen Harper. And those around Hawkes — including Harper’s then-girlfriend — balked at the apparent betrayal. But 22 years later, there’s not a hint of bitterness in the older politician’s voice.
“He was better than anybody I’ve ever employed,” says Hawkes in a phone interview from the retirement home in Calgary where he now lives. “I’m proud of him.”
Hawkes’s wife Joanne had died only a few months before that visit. Harper came in, handed his former mentor a copy of his new book, A Great Game, and for an hour they chatted, one on one.
“A good part of it was talking about life,” says Hawkes, “not political things – family things.”
This image — the prime minister relaxing with a cup of coffee and talking marriage and parenting with an old man — would be hard for most Canadians to picture. Rarely has a figure as guarded as Stephen Harper ascended to the highest political office of a Group of Seven nation.
Behind closed doors, Canada’s 22nd prime minister can swear like a “longshoreman,” is known to greet unwelcome news with “volcanic” outbursts of fury and has an uncanny talent for pitch-perfect impersonations. But to most Canadians he is a poker-faced cipher: never angry, rarely laughing, awkward in social settings and most comfortable when talking fiscal policy.
more
The nerd who came from nowhere: Stephen Harper knows you don’t need to like a politician to elect him | National Post
and..."Frazier Crane wit"
what's not to like?
“There was enough warning to get coffee ready,” says Jim Hawkes.
Nobody would have faulted him for hating the tall, blue-eyed man standing on his front step.
He’d ditch all the public obligations that come with the job
As a Progressive Conservative MP for Calgary West, Hawkes had given him his first political job as a chief aide in Ottawa. But the young man soon defected to the upstart Reform Party and mounted a challenge to his old boss’s seat. On election day in 1993, a 34-year-old “Steve” sent his mentor to a humiliating third place.
That man, of course, was Stephen Harper. And those around Hawkes — including Harper’s then-girlfriend — balked at the apparent betrayal. But 22 years later, there’s not a hint of bitterness in the older politician’s voice.
“He was better than anybody I’ve ever employed,” says Hawkes in a phone interview from the retirement home in Calgary where he now lives. “I’m proud of him.”
Hawkes’s wife Joanne had died only a few months before that visit. Harper came in, handed his former mentor a copy of his new book, A Great Game, and for an hour they chatted, one on one.
“A good part of it was talking about life,” says Hawkes, “not political things – family things.”
This image — the prime minister relaxing with a cup of coffee and talking marriage and parenting with an old man — would be hard for most Canadians to picture. Rarely has a figure as guarded as Stephen Harper ascended to the highest political office of a Group of Seven nation.
Behind closed doors, Canada’s 22nd prime minister can swear like a “longshoreman,” is known to greet unwelcome news with “volcanic” outbursts of fury and has an uncanny talent for pitch-perfect impersonations. But to most Canadians he is a poker-faced cipher: never angry, rarely laughing, awkward in social settings and most comfortable when talking fiscal policy.
more
The nerd who came from nowhere: Stephen Harper knows you don’t need to like a politician to elect him | National Post
and..."Frazier Crane wit"
what's not to like?