Ottawa

Is Stephen Harper poised to resign? Here’s the latest thinking

The question keeps coming up: “Will he or won’t he?”

Is Stephen Harper poised to resign?

The question keeps coming up: “Will he or won’t he?”

The Prime Minister has said that reading the speculation has been “surreal.”

“One day I open the paper and see that I’m planning to resign, the next day I open the paper and see that I’m calling a snap election ahead of the legislated date,” he said during a year-end interview with Global News. “We have an election scheduled in 2015 and I plan to lead the party in that.”

In case you missed it, Paul Wells has some ideas on the retirement rumours. “In 2014,” he writes, “Harper has one more full year to turn his luck around.”

Rick Mercer also had some thoughts when we asked him to speculate on the year ahead.

Writing in the Toronto Star this weekend, Tim Harper says the question will dominate the political scene in 2014.

 “Stephen Harper’s future will be analyzed, all actions and pronouncements mined for signals, every move by anyone who may one day succeed him will take on oversized importance. And there won’t be a thing Harper can do about it.”

The CBC’s Greg Weston took on the issue in a piece titled “Is ‘a walk in the snow in Stephen Harper’s future?” Weston adds one more question to the mix: “Can the Conservatives dig themselves out of this mess before the next election in 2015?”

Sun columnist Michael Coren dismisses the rumours — and the journalists who are contemplating the scenario:

“The rumours of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s death are grossly exaggerated! Liberal journalists pour out the “walk in the snow” predictions and promise Harper’s resignation, but what they refuse to say is that he is one of the most successful Canadian politicians of modern history. He took a new party whose predecessor had been moribund and turned it into the natural party of government.”

For the record, Coren doubts the PM will leave — “but if he does it will be on a point of triumph and not defeat.”

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