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Right: With Senator Pamela Wallin
I don't think we would see Aline Chrétien (or everyone's model
First Lady, Jackie Kennedy) standing or sitting like that.
Recently, the pugnacious Ezra Levant, the one-man-fighter of the Human Rights Commission, was in Ottawa where he got to attend a soirée at 24 Sussex Drive with a few others as guest to Laureen Harper, Prime Minister Harper’s wife.
We don't hear too much from Laureen Harper. Here is a long and descriptive article on her. She is apparently media shy (or media savvy). She doesn't give too many interviews, and prefers to stay away from the limelight and let her husband do his work.
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She ran a successful graphic design company for a while, and was the breadwinner for her family at one time while Harper was honing his political skills. Now, she has become a housewife, although active in her children's school projects. I don't know if it is a rural Alberta thing (she grew up on a ranch), but she apparently owns a dirt bike, and still likes to ride it even as the wife of the Prime Minister.
I am sorry to say that I am a little biased against Mrs. Harper. I didn’t like the stories of her dirt bike hobby, which I thought she would have graciously given up once in Ottawa. Later on, I read that she was instrumental in Harper’s decision to make a formal apology to the Chinese community for the head tax levied on Chinese workers in the late 19th century to prevent (or discourage) them from entering Canada after the Canadian Pacific Railway was built.
In one of his commentaries, which unfortunately I cannot find online, but which I remember distinctly, Harper talks about a “family friend” of his wife’s, an elderly Chinese man, who was imposed this tax. It was an anecdotal, familiar story about one Chinese man, who I am sure was a good and loyal “friend”, although Harper’s description made him out to be more of an employee, who struck a personal chord with the Harper family.
I was of course surprised and disappointed that a conservative Prime Minister would find it necessary to apologize about a decision made by his predecessors whose intention was to preserve Canadian sovereignty and society. Too many Chinese had entered Canada in those early years, taking jobs away from ordinary citizens, and encouraging their family members from China to join them in their new homes. Harper either misunderstood this, or felt it necessary to make this apology in order to maintain votes and support from the Chinese community for his newly formed government. I cynically think it was more likely the latter.
But, his anecdotal story of the good Chinese friend made his decision even harder to take. It is as though he (and his wife) were saying that previous Canadians were heartless and cruel by making life difficult for these Chinese who had contributed so much to the nation’s growth, just like their kind, nice friend here. He was tugging at our hearts to make his case more valid.
I think it was mostly Laureen Harper who encouraged this personalized aspect to the whole unnecessary decision. For all her declaration that she doesn’t involve herself in her husband’s decisions, she sure made an impact with her Chinese friend story.
Dirt bikes aside, she unfortunately is no toughened rancher’s daughter, but the usual liberal sentimentalist who couldn’t see the tradition her ancestors were trying to maintain, and the Canada they were trying to build.