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Quotes by Stephen Harper

And I think the real problem that we're facing already is that the government doesn't accept that it got a minority.
– Stephen Harper
As a religion, bilingualism is the god that failed. It has led to no fairness, produced no unity, and cost Canadian taxpayers untold millions.
– Stephen Harper
Atlantic Canada's culture of defeat will be hard to overcome as long as Atlantic Canada is actually physically trailing the rest of the country.
– Stephen Harper
But I'm very libertarian in the sense that I believe in small government and, as a general rule, I don't believe in imposing values upon people.
– Stephen Harper
But I've been very clear in this campaign - I don't believe the party should have a position on abortion.
– Stephen Harper
Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status.
– Stephen Harper
Canada remains alienated from its allies, shut out of the reconstruction process to some degree, unable to influence events. There is no upside to the position Canada took.
– Stephen Harper
First of all, I can't forget my first responsibility - which is to be the Leader of the Opposition and that's to provide an alternative government.
– Stephen Harper
Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it.
– Stephen Harper
Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack o-n our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.
– Stephen Harper
I do not intend to dispute in any way the need for defence cuts and the need for government spending cuts in general. ... I do not share a not in my backyard approach to government spending reductions.
– Stephen Harper
I don't believe an Alliance government should sponsor legislation on abortion or a referendum on abortion.
– Stephen Harper
I don't get into that second guessing of myself publicly.
– Stephen Harper
I don't know all the facts o-n Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.
– Stephen Harper
I have no difficulty with the recognition of civil unions for non-traditional relationships but I believe in law we should protect the traditional definition of marriage.
– Stephen Harper
I think in Atlantic Canada, because of what happened in the decades following Confederation, there is a culture of defeat that we have to overcome.
– Stephen Harper
I think the way to change it is to handle issues individually when it's essential to do so.
– Stephen Harper
I think there is a dangerous rise in defeatist sentiment in this country. I have said that repeatedly, and I mean it and I believe it.
– Stephen Harper
I will strive to make this not the highest-spending country in the world, but instead the lowest taxing o-ne.
– Stephen Harper
I've always been clear, I support the traditional definition of marriage.
– Stephen Harper
If Ottawa giveth, then Ottawa can taketh away.
– Stephen Harper
If you want to be a government in a minority Parliament, you have to work with other people.
– Stephen Harper
In my judgment Canada will eventually join with the allied coalition if war o-n Iraq comes to pass.
– Stephen Harper
In this context, given our common values and the political, economic and security interests that we share with the United States, there is now no more important foreign policy interest for Canada than maintaining the ability to exercise effective influence in Washington so as to advance unique Canadian policy objectives.
– Stephen Harper
It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction.
– Stephen Harper
It was the removing of a regime that was hostile, that clearly had the intention of constructing weapons systems.
– Stephen Harper
It's the government's obligation to look really to the third parties to get the support to govern.
– Stephen Harper
Make no mistake. Canada is not a bilingual country. In fact it is less bilingual today than it has ever been.
– Stephen Harper
My own views on abortion, I'm not on either pole of that and neither of the interest groups on either end of this issue would probably be comfortable with my views.
– Stephen Harper
On the justification for the war, it wasn't related to finding any particular weapon of mass destruction.
– Stephen Harper
That's my personal view I would say most in my caucus agree with that but there are some who don't and I've always said that on these kinds of moral issues, people have the right to their own opinions.
– Stephen Harper
The government can only be brought down because it alienates several parties in the House.
– Stephen Harper
The government will join, notwithstanding its failure to prepare, its neglect in co-operating with its allies, or its inability to contribute. In the end it will join out of the necessity created by a pattern of uncertainty and indecision. It will not join as a leader but unnoticed at the back of the parade.
– Stephen Harper
The Leader of the Opposition's constitutional obligation - the obligation to Parliament - it's the reason we did the merger! - is to make sure Canadians have an alternative for government.
– Stephen Harper
The nature of our constitution is that everyone is supposed to be able to do their own thing in their own area of jurisdiction.
– Stephen Harper
The world is now unipolar and contains o-nly o-ne superpower. Canada shares a continent with that superpower.
– Stephen Harper
There is a Canadian culture that is in some ways unique to Canada, but I don't think Canadian culture coincides neatly with borders.
– Stephen Harper
This party will not take its position based o-n public opinion polls. We will not take a stand based o-n focus groups. We will not take a stand based o-n phone-in shows or householder surveys or any other vagaries of pubic opinion.
– Stephen Harper
Toryism has the historical context of hierarchy and elitism and is a different kind of political philosophy. It's not my favourite term, but we're probably stuck with it.
– Stephen Harper
Universality has been severely reduced: it is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy.
– Stephen Harper
We have in this country a federal government that increasingly is engaged in trying to determine which business, which regions, which industries will succeed, which will not through a whole range of economic development, regional development corporate subsidization programs.
– Stephen Harper
We should have been there shoulder to shoulder with our allies. Our concern is the instability of our government as an ally. We are playing again with national and global security matters.
– Stephen Harper
We'll support the government on issues if it's essential to the country but our primary responsibility is not to prop up the government, our responsibility is to provide an opposition and an alternative government for Parliament and for Canadians.
– Stephen Harper
Well there are lots of things that could bring the government down, but my opposition can not bring the government down.
– Stephen Harper
What the government has to do, if it wants to govern for any length of time, is it must appeal primarily to the third parties in the House of Commons to get them to support it.
– Stephen Harper
Whether Canada ends up as o-ne national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion.
– Stephen Harper
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
We've got to see a state where the Afghan government can handle its own day-to-day security.
– Stephen Harper
The job numbers are positive. We've had more jobs created now than were lost during the recession. We're seeing that the creation, we're seeing those numbers not only grow but shift toward the private sector and shift toward full-time employment and these are all signs that the recovery is taking some hold but we're not out of woods.
– Stephen Harper
Look, I think the worst case scenario is obvious. I think first of all it doesn't work for very long. It's an unstable government that raises taxes and destroys the image we're building for Canada as a strong place to invest.
– Stephen Harper
I think first and foremost everybody should understand that Canadians are strongly committed to the system of universal health insurance, to the principle that your ability to pay does not determine your access to critical medical service.
– Stephen Harper
I just think it would be unrealistic to suggest we're going to eliminate every last domestic insurgent in Afghanistan. Certainly, the history of the country would indicate that's not a very realistic objective, and I think we have to have realistic objectives.
– Stephen Harper
I forget what the relevant American rate is, but I can tell you that our goal is to have a combined federal-provincial corporate tax rate of no more than 25 percent. We're on target to do that by 2012. We will have significantly - by a significant margin the lowest corporate tax rates in the G-7, and that's our - our government's objective.
– Stephen Harper
Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.
– Stephen Harper
Canadians know that the promise of a recession didn't happen because of anything we did here. If you look at all the causes of the recession, problems in mortgage markets, the problems in the banking sector, the problems in government finance in countries like Greece, none of those problems were in present Canada.
– Stephen Harper
After all, enforced national bilingualism in this country isn't mere policy. It has attained the status of a religion. It's a dogma which one is supposed to accept without question.
– Stephen Harper