Stephen Harper famous quotes

I think we're vastly over-invested in universities. Universities should be relatively small and provide excellent education and research in a number of specialized areas. I think the vast majority of young people should be going through non-university, post-secondary training.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Numbers #People

I do think that all economies need a sense of fiscal discipline especially over the midterm and if you are in the middle of a debt crisis you can't borrow your way out of a debt crisis. That's logically impossible.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Discipline #Needs

There's going to be a new code on Parliament Hill: bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison,
-- Stephen Harper

#Law #Abuse #Prison

I'm not trying to be diplomatic. I'm trying to be more nuanced and realistic. I think there has to be a serious examination of the shortcomings of the Euro structure. Euro central institutions, whether it be fiscal policy, monetary policy, financial regulation, are simply not as robust as they are in a currency that has a national government behind it.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Government #Trying

It`s all part of the pattern. This is a story of scandal and corruption, investigations, refusals to take responsibility. If this government continues in office, this will continue.
-- Stephen Harper

#Responsibility #Government #Office

The media is tremendously important for all governments that are able to communicate through the it. It doesn't mean there is a balance of editorial opinion that favors what you are doing or that the opposition doesn't have its voice, but you have to be able to effectively communicate your story through the media.
-- Stephen Harper

#Mean #Government #Media

But I'm very libertarian in the sense that I believe in small government and, as a general rule, I don't believe in imposing values upon people.
-- Stephen Harper

#Believe #Government #People

It's not sufficient in the internet age to communicate through the media; you have to be able to do it on the ground, door by door, coffee shop by coffee shop, shop floor by shop floor. You really have to do that as well.
-- Stephen Harper

#Coffee #Doors #Media

You have to remember that west of Winnipeg the ridings the Liberals hold are dominated by people who are either recent Asian immigrants or recent migrants from eastern Canada; people who live in ghettos and are not integrated into Western Canadian society.
-- Stephen Harper

#Ghetto #People #Riding

Whether Canada ends up as o-ne national government or two national governments or several national governments, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion.
-- Stephen Harper

#Government #Two #Canada

America, and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world,
-- Stephen Harper

#Country #Inspiration #America

I believe that all taxes are bad.
-- Stephen Harper

#Believe #I Believe #Taxes

As a religion, bilingualism is the god that failed. It has led to no fairness, produced no unity, and cost Canadian taxpayers untold millions.
-- Stephen Harper

#Unity #Cost #Bilingualism

It's past time the feds scrapped the Canada Health Act.
-- Stephen Harper

#Past #Canada #Feds

Human rights commissions, as they are evolving, are an attack on our fundamental freedoms and the basic existence of a democratic society... It is in fact totalitarianism. I find this is very scary stuff.
-- Stephen Harper

#Rights #Scary #Fundamentals

In terms of the unemployed, of which we have over a million-and-a-half, don't feel particularly bad for many of these people. They don't feel bad about it themselves, as long as they're receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.
-- Stephen Harper

#People #Long #Unemployment

I think because we're such a trading nation, I think Canadians understand that first and foremost we're part of the global economy.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Firsts #Economy

I've always been clear, I support the traditional definition of marriage.
-- Stephen Harper

#Support #Definitions #Clear

I think people should elect a cat person. If you elect a dog person, you elect someone who wants to be loved. If you elect a cat person, you elect someone who wants to serve.
-- Stephen Harper

#Dog #Cat #Thinking

Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status ...
-- Stephen Harper

#Country #Canada #Mask

Canada is a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it
-- Stephen Harper

#Proud #Canada #Welfare

Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it.
-- Stephen Harper

#Wall #Bangs #Next

Look, I think the worst case scenario is obvious. I think first of all it doesn't work for very long. It's an unstable government that raises taxes and destroys the image we're building for Canada as a strong place to invest.
-- Stephen Harper

#Strong #Thinking #Government

My own views on abortion, I'm not on either pole of that and neither of the interest groups on either end of this issue would probably be comfortable with my views.
-- Stephen Harper

#Views #Issues #Abortion

We'll support the government on issues if it's essential to the country but our primary responsibility is not to prop up the government, our responsibility is to provide an opposition and an alternative government for Parliament and for Canadians.
-- Stephen Harper

#Country #Responsibility #Government

Withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan... Collect our own revenue from personal income tax... Resume provincial responsibility for health-care policy. If Ottawa objects to provincial policy, fight in the courts... [E]ach province should raise its own revenue for health... It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta...
-- Stephen Harper

#Responsibility #Fighting #Income

I was asked to speak about Canadian politics. It may not be true, but it's legendary that if you're like all Americans, you know almost nothing except for your own country. Which makes you probably knowledgeable about one more country than most Canadians.
-- Stephen Harper

#Country #May #Speak

The time has come to recognize that the U.S. will continue to exercise unprecedented power in a world where international rules are still unreliable and where security and advancing of the free democratic order still depend significantly on the possession and use of military might.
-- Stephen Harper

#Military #Exercise #Order

I think it's a typical hidden agenda of the Liberal party... They had the courts do it for them, they put the judges in they wanted, then they failed to appeal -- failed to fight the case in court... I think the federal government deliberately lost this case in court and got the change to the law done through the back door.
-- Stephen Harper

#Party #Fighting #Thinking

I don't know all the facts on Iraq, but I think we should work closely with the Americans.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Iraq #Facts

Redirect federal spending aimed at fulfilling the terms of the increasingly irrelevant Kyoto Protocol.
-- Stephen Harper

#Kyoto #Spending #Term

What we clearly need is experimentation with market reforms and private delivery options [in health care].
-- Stephen Harper

#Care #Reform #Needs

Now 'pay equity' has everything to do with pay and nothing to do with equity. It’s based on the vague notion of 'equal pay for work of equal value,' which is not the same as equal pay for the same job.
-- Stephen Harper

#Jobs #Equal Pay #Equity

The single most important duty of the federal government is to protect and defend our national sovereignty. There are new and disturbing reports of American nuclear submarines passing though Canadian waters without obtaining the permission of, or even notifying, the Canadian government.
-- Stephen Harper

#Government #Water #Navy

I don't know if for sure in absolute terms if Jim Flaherty is the best Finance Minster in the world, but I am sure that he is the best Finance Minster per inch in the world.
-- Stephen Harper

#World #Finance #Inches

Carbon dioxide does not cause or contribute to smog, and the Kyoto treaty would do nothing to reduce or prevent smog.
-- Stephen Harper

#Kyoto #Smog #Causes

I think I have been perfectly clear in saying that I hope Canadians do elect a majority government. I think this cycle of election after election, minority after minority is beginning to put some of the country's interests in serious jeopardy.
-- Stephen Harper

#Country #Thinking #Government

A transition is taking place in Egypt. In my judgement, there is no going back. I think the old expression, "They're not going to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Egypt #Expression

Faith teaches that there is a right and wrong beyond mere opinion or desire. Most importantly, it teaches us that freedom is not an end in itself, that how freedom is exercised matters as much as freedom itself
-- Stephen Harper

#Desire #Matter #Opinion

The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history... Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.
-- Stephen Harper

#Children #School #Home

When Ralph Goodale tried to tax Income Trusts they showed us where they stood, they showed us their attitude towards raiding Seniors hard earned assets and a Conservative government will never allow either of these parties to get away with that.
-- Stephen Harper

#Senior #Attitude #Party

Those of different faiths and no faith should seek areas of common agreement based on their different perspectives.
-- Stephen Harper

#Agreement #Perspective #Different

Corruption is not a Canadian value!
-- Stephen Harper

#Corruption #Values

Mr. Speaker, I am sure the picture of the hon. member of the NDP [Svend Robinson] is posted in much more wonderful places than just police stations.
-- Stephen Harper

#Police #Wonderful #Members

Even if people are suspicious of the motives I think that learning and speaking two languages can only be a good thing for people.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Two #People

The continued increase in many crime indicators and the fact that the overall crime rate has not seen a marked decrease while the Liberals have been in power is a clear indication that the Liberal approach to combating crime, as on so many other issues, has failed.
-- Stephen Harper

#Issues #Facts #Crime

Buying pollution credits is folly; it doesn't help the environment. Instead of using tax dollars to buy credits overseas, we'll use them at home.
-- Stephen Harper

#Home #Dollars #Use

Canada is big enough to make a difference but not big enough to threaten anybody. And that is a huge asset if it's properly used.
-- Stephen Harper

#Differences #Making A Difference #Canada

It's the government's obligation to look really to the third parties to get the support to govern.
-- Stephen Harper

#Party #Government #Support

But the Progressive Conservative is very definitely liberal Republican. These are people who are moderately conservative on economic matters, and in the past have been moderately liberal, even sometimes quite liberal on social policy matters.
-- Stephen Harper

#Past #People #Matter

It [the Iraq invasion] was absolutely an error. It's obviously clear the evaluation of weapons of mass destruction proved not to be correct. That's absolutely true and that's why we're not sending anybody to Iraq.
-- Stephen Harper

#Iraq #Errors #Invasion

The world is now unipolar and contains o­nly o­ne superpower. Canada shares a continent with that superpower. In this context, given our common values and the political, economic and security interests that we share with the United States, there is now no more important foreign policy interest for Canada than maintaining the ability to exercise effective influence in Washington so as to advance unique Canadian policy objectives.
-- Stephen Harper

#Exercise #Unique #Political

I just think it would be unrealistic to suggest we're going to eliminate every last domestic insurgent in Afghanistan. Certainly, the history of the country would indicate that's not a very realistic objective, and I think we have to have realistic objectives.
-- Stephen Harper

#Country #Thinking #Would Be

I think first and foremost everybody should understand that Canadians are strongly committed to the system of universal health insurance, to the principle that your ability to pay does not determine your access to critical medical service.
-- Stephen Harper

#Thinking #Principles #Doe