Well, at least someone likes him...

Even if he is British. The otherwise sound Daniel Hannan:

I’m delighted that my party has caught up with this blog’s hitherto niche interest in Canadian Toryism. Canada is the only truly successful G8 economy, having determinedly lived within its means. George Osborne is reported to be interested in the record of its previous Liberal government, but the record of the excellent Stephen Harper – perhaps the most Anglophile leader anywhere in the world – merits just as much attention.

Harper is a magnificent fiscal conservative, but he lacks an overall majority, and so has had to rely on Liberal support. The Liberals have insisted on a number of measures that have increased spending, and then turned around and complained about the ensuing deficit. George Osborne should study that experience.

Yeah, things are pretty bad in the mother country when a self-described "Whig" calls Stephen Harper "a magnificent fiscal conservative." It's like calling Gordon Brown "a brilliant and charismatic leader," or Jean Chretien "a visionary and articulate statesman." In politics, at least practical politics, all truth is relative. 

Compared to most G8 leaders Stephen Harper does look like a genius. This is, as you've guessed, damning by the faintest of praise. Barack Obama is an avowed socialist, who described his one real job in the private sector as working "behind enemy lines." Japan has been governed by a series of interchangeable non-entities for the better part of the last decade. In most of Europe, and certainly the English speaking world, Silvio Berlusconi would be awaiting sentencing. Angela Merkel rivals Helmut Schmidt in the visionary department. Sarko is a living embodiment of every mistake the French have made since Diem Bien Phu: A domestic policy summed up by the quintessentially French term "dirigiste," and a foreign policy consisting of German guilty tripping and sophomore anti-Americanism. If Stephen Harper looks taller than others, it is because he is standing on the shoulders of midgets. 

Comments

[Nicholas]

Thanks. I've got my QotD posting for tomorrow . . .