Harper's ugly personna is in the news in England too

Stephen Harper: Canadian Prime Minister accused of taking country too far to the right

Secretive, vindictive and patronising are not words in keeping with the popular stereotype of Canadians. Yet that’s how citizens of the world’s second-largest country are increasingly portraying the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, these days.

The Conservative leader, who has been in charge for nine years, called an election on 2 August with hopes of extending his right-wing reign. But his personality and policies have angered and alienated a broad swathe of Canadians.

A mock campaign poster making the rounds on social media sums up the collective mood of his critics, using his image – complete with his trademark hockey-helmet hair – in the same style as Barack Obama’s 2008 election poster, but replacing the word “hope” with “nope”.

The week has certainly not gone smoothly for Mr Harper. He started it by releasing a video of himself describing his love for the entertainment streaming service Netflix, and his particular fondness for the show Breaking Bad. In a move clearly designed to make the most of the popular service’s name, he said that his party would never implement a tax on it, or other streaming services, unlike “some politicians” who might be looking to make the move. But the Prime Minister was undercut by the fact that, after the message was released, both the Liberal Party and the New Democratic Party – the main rivals – said that they, too, had no plans to do such a thing.

The hashtag #HarperANetflixShow then started up on Twitter – with users imagining (mainly mockingly) artwork and titles for a show starring Mr Harper if one were to run on the service.

READ MORE: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/stephen-harper-canadian-prime-minister-accused-of-taking-country-too-far-to-the-right-10447023.html