Stephen Joseph Harper was born on the 30th April 1959, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and is an entrepreneur and politician, who is best recognized for serving as the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He was the head of the Canadian Alliance, later the leader of the modern Conservative Party of Canada and for being the first prime minister to come from that party.
So, have you ever wondered how rich Stephen is, as of early 2017? According to authoritative sources, it has been estimated that the total size of Stephen’s net worth is over $7 million, accumulated through his successful career in politics, and as an entrepreneur.
Stephen Harper Net Worth $7 Million
Stephen was born and raised in a middle class family. He attended Northlea Public School then John G. Althouse Middle School and Richview Collegiate Institute in Central Etobicoke. While he was in high school, he got interested in politics so joined the Young Liberals Club. Upon matriculation, he enrolled at the University of Toronto, but left after only two months, and moved to Alberta where he worked in the petroleum industry for three years before attending the University of Calgary, where he graduated with both BA and MBA degrees in Economics.
While he was still at the university, he became a member of the Reform Party, and later the policy chief, and the next year ran for seat in the Canadian Parliament, but lost. Five years later he ran for the same seat again and won, which lead to him spending the next four years in opposition to the Liberal Party, which had won a majority. In 1997, he stepped down from Parliament to become vice president of the conservative activist group the National Citizens’ Coalition, and soon became its president. While he was on ‘vacation’ from Parliament, he changed his political strategy and realized that the Reform Party could never win a nationwide majority on its own, and its principles needed to be combined with the Progressive Conservatives. A few years later, he engineered such a merger, as he was elected to Parliament again, and became the official leader of the opposition. In 2003, Harper negotiated with the leader of the Progressive Conservatives to merge the two parties, co-founding the Conservative Party of Canada, of which he became head in 2004.
In the national elections in 2004, Liberals won, but at the next elections the Conservatives won, but didn’t get a majority in Parliament, so Harper became the leader of a minority government. The neoconservative Harper government focused on enlarging the military, securing Arctic waters for their energy resources, and reducing taxes, which is given credit for steering the Canadian economy through the 2008 financial crisis.
To speak about his recent career, he was ousted by a candidate from the Liberal Party at the national elections in 2015 due to a fraud scandal involving a member of his government and some other similar things. Harper retained his seat in the House of Commons, but resigned as Conservative leader, and became a backbencher.
Thanks to his accomplishments in the politics, Stephen won a great number of awards, but some of the most impressive ones are Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for Canada (2001) for being the leader of Her Majesty’s loyal opposition, Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for Canada (2012) for being the Prime Minister of Canada and member of the House of Commons of Canada, and in 2016 the president of Ukraine gave him the greatest award for foreigners – “Order of Liberty”.
Speaking about his personal life, Stephen Harper has been married to Laureen Teskey since 1993; the couple has two children. Previously, he was in marriage to Neil Fenton from 1985 to 1988. He is known as a huge fan of ice hockey and of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and published the book “A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs And The Rise Of Professional Hockey”, and still occasionally writes articles on the subject. His current residence is in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
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