National Post

Harper set to become the ninth-longest-serving Canadian prime minister next week
Rising rapidly among his fellow members of Canada’s ultimate political pantheon, Stephen Harper is just days away from surpassing another of his 21 predecessors — this time John Diefenbaker — to become the ninth longest-serving prime minister in the country’s history.

Already in 2011, a year marked by Harper’s first electoral majority on May 2, the Toronto-born Calgarian who led the reunited Conservative Party of Canada to power in 2006 has topped the time in office of: Nobel Prize-winning Liberal prime minister Lester B. Pearson (1963-68); the country’s first Liberal prime minister, Alexander Mackenzie (1873-78); and Depression-era Conservative prime minister R.B. Bennett (1930-35).

Next Thursday, on Dec. 8, the 52-year-old Harper will complete his 2,132nd day as prime minister — five years, 10 months and two days since he was first sworn in as Canada’s head of government on Feb. 6, 2006.