Harper planning to step down as MP
Posted May 25, 2016 8:23 am.
Last Updated May 25, 2016 3:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper is preparing to say good-bye to the House of Commons.
Reports say the MP for Calgary-Heritage will resign sometime before the fall sitting of parliament.
Harper is apparently exploring new career options, which include corporate boards and establishing a foreign policy institute.
Duane Bratt, chair of Mount Royal University’s Board of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, says Harper’s next career choice will be some sort of leadership role.
“Probably a pro-Isreal foreign policy think-tank, which is what we’ve been hearing,” Bratt said. “It makes a lot more sense. This is a man who likes to be in charge, even if it was something as small as the National Citizens Coalition, where he was before he became prime minister, so I could see him going back to that.”
He also says, unlike many prime ministers before him, Harper doesn’t have a stand-out moment to be remembered by during his 10-year career as head of the country.
“While there’s no big single achievement that you can point to, like free trade with (Brian) Mulroney, or the (Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) with Pierre Trudeau, or the flag or medicare with Lester Pearson, what you saw was a series of steps to make Canada a more conservative country,” he said.
Bratt adds, one of Harper’s most memorable policies was lowering the GST.
There are also reports Harper might set up his own institute, and will stay in Calgary, where he owns a home and where his daughter attends school.
He’ll be making what’s likely to be his final public speech to the Conservative party at their convention in Vancouver on Thursday.
