Harper Campaign Portrays Softer Image

Leading up to the federal election the Harper Conservatives were, not surprisingly, the first off the mark with a national advertising campaign. Their media onslaught did not highlight their record or their plans for the future, as most election advertising tends to do but instead make an all out attempt to soften the Harper image.

The Conservative media blitz is now fully underway in an all out attempt to frame the Prime Minister as some sort of warm and fuzzy family man rather than the often talked about characterization of him as a cold hearted George W. Bush style Republican.

The ads, featuring the PM in an arm chair or wearing a vintage “Mr. Rogers” sweater, rather than serving to define him as a warm family man clearly portray a politician desperately hoping to bury his biggest disadvantage, his ultra right wing conservative views.

Anyone who has followed Stephen Harper’s career need only recall some of the less than fuzzy statements he’s made in the past. Statements you definitely won’t hear in any of the party’s current campaign advertisements.

"Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on ourfundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society…" (BC Report Newsmagazine, January 11, 1999)

In 1997, Harper bragged that he was opposed to government programs to eliminate child poverty:

“…billions … for social assistance in the name of “child poverty” and for more business subsidies in the name of “cultural identity”. In both cases I was sought out as a rare public figure to oppose such projects.” (The Bulldog, National Citizens Coalition, February 1997)

“If Ottawa giveth, then Ottawa can taketh away…” (National Post,December 8, 2000)

“Whether Canada ends up as one national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion…” (National Citizens Coalition, 1994)

"There is a dependence in the region (Atlantic Canada) that breeds a culture of defeatism," (CBC News, May 30, 2002)

"You've got to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada: people who live in ghettoes and who are not integrated into western Canadian society." (Stephen Harper, Report Newsmagazine, January 22, 2001)

“I don't know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.” (Report Newsmagazine, March 25 2002)