The Rumoured Lesbianism of Laureen Harper, Canada's First Lady
I'd wager that less than 20% of Canadians even know Laureen Harper's name, let alone think she's a lesbian. It's one of the huge contrasts between American and Canadian politics... If a considerable rumour started that Michelle Obama had secretly moved out of the White House to shack up with a lady, it would be on the cover of everything... But in Canada, where Laureen Harper is indeed the wife of our Prime Minister, it barely scratches the media surface (not even trashy gossip fare). For some time there's been rumours that Laureen had moved out over a year ago, taking residence at the Chateau Laurier to shack up with a female mountie. Considering there's an election going on, where Laureen's conservative husband is the frontrunner (and not exactly a friend of queer people), you'd think people would jump all over this.
Toronto Life finally and subtly became the first print publication to actually reference the rumour in a piece that focuses on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's wife Renata and how little we know about her. It reads:
So is the media discreet, or merely cowardly? You be the judge: a rumour has been circulating for months now about the infidelity of a high-level political wife in Ottawa, possibly involving a female RCMP officer. And yet not a whiff has made it into print (until now). It’s the kind of rumour tabloids and talk shows love in the U.S., Britain and France, and for good reason: a politician’s home life speaks to his character.
In Canada, deference to authority is embedded in our political DNA. We’ve never fought a war of independence, guillotined a king and queen or rammed a Magna Carta down the throat of a recalcitrant monarch. That doesn’t mean we aren’t curious about the personal lives of politicians. A literal bedfellow is a confidante, someone with a potential influence on public policy.
Whether the article is referencing Laureen is not 100% clear (though c'mon), it brings up an excellent question: Is the media scared of breaking this story, or respecting privacy? Outing folks in politics has been a huge no-no in the mainstream media, and not just in Canada: Kirby Dick's "Outrage" made that ridiculously clear with reference to the United States. That movie full fledged proved Charlie Crist was a homo and somehow people still totally ignored it. But this is the wife of a country's leader who is a huge proponent of family values, and as that Toronto Life quote notes, the rumour hasn't officially made print anywhere (Crist's "alleged" homo-ness at least made some waves in the gay press).
It's not like the lives of our politicians wives have never become tabloid topics (see Margaret Trudeau), and as unenthusiastic about our politicians' lives as we are, surely if someone did some research and broke this story in some capacity, it would be huge by Canadian standards. And clearly Harper's opponents would have reason to get a story like this out: It's the kind of scandal that would lead the family values folks that provide Harper's voting contingency backbone to consider a new option. But instead everyone seems to be playing way too nice. In the midst of an election that I've wanted so badly not to bore me to tears, y'all might be sitting on the most juicy thing to hit Canadian politics since Margaret smuggled drugs in the prime minister's luggage and made scantily clad appearances at Studio 54 and no one's doing anything about it!? That said, I'm sure Harper's team has gone to crazy-powerful measures to ensure whatever the full truth behind Laureen is never gets out, and I doubt it will anytime soon. They have a lot to lose, and despite the fact that I just rambled on about these rumours for five paragraphs, I get the whole respecting-privacy thing (to a degree, clearly). And maybe it is all simply rumours. But rumour or not, it just blows my mind that in this day and age something like this doesn't get bigger play. Especially with this photo just begging to be captioned along with it:
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41 Comments
glenn maguire | May 20, 2013 8:13 PM
Who care's who the Harper harpee makes whoopee with?
Anything beats watching the P.M. strip off that suit, only to be treated to the sight of another suit underneath. Yuk.
Has anyone noticed that Harper is looking alarmingly like an aging drag queen?
They really are the perfect millenium gay couple.
Doug | April 15, 2013 1:02 AM
If it is true, who cares. I suspect it isn't because the media has full on hate for the Harpers because they are outsiders. In "The Big Shift", John Ibittson and Darrel Bricker compared the media's irrational hatred to that of the Birthers down in the States. At least Laureen didn't hook up with the Rolling Stones or Ted Kennedy.
Ummm | April 5, 2013 8:58 PM
I hope you have a good lawyer because you could easily be sued for defamation based on this article you wrote. Every newsroom in Ottawa has investigated this rumour. It appears to be false. That is the difference between mainstream media and some amateur blogger. Real journalists have ethics, standards, fact checking, codes of conduct and they contact the parties involved for comment. You are a rumour-monger with no scruples.
Andrea B | February 22, 2013 11:18 AM
Who cares. It has nothing to do with Harpers job. The media are ignoring it as they should. She is doing nothing illegal or immoral.
Who Cares Man | January 12, 2013 8:57 AM
Who really cares if shes gay or not. Her business. Rick Mercer is lesbian too.......lol. Start a whole story on him now bored people.
ellinor | December 4, 2012 6:57 PM
Only in Canada, eh!!!!!
Azaelea | September 17, 2012 2:49 PM
Maybe she can't go public about it because Steve has told her then she'll never get to be around her kids.
B.C. observer | July 20, 2012 5:11 PM
So Harper has soured this poor woman on men ? Can't say I blame her. Imagine living with this guy. Harper seems to be very close to Ray Novak. Is something going on ?
Who really cares about this ? Their relationship should be of concern only if Harper is a wife abuser. Still gossip is entertaining.
RK | July 15, 2012 3:09 AM
How sad it must be to live like poor Cheena1. Living in a world full of fears that are seen as the evil of the Ku Klux Klan and where the malicious gossip and rumours of fevered harpies equates the truth. Sad indeed.
Tokyo Joe | July 13, 2012 9:48 AM
@Cheena - do you think I am not aware of the fact that the village idiot Nadine Lumley didn't write that? Pretty much all she does is cut and paste (including the doctored photos of herself). She is clearly not capable of independent thought. So perhaps you should take off your rose-coloured glasses and stop following rumour mongers like Nadine. What flavour is the kool-aid you have been gulping down? None of the bullshit that she has 'snip snip' produced has any real facts in it. This National Enquirer style crap has been floating around for years - maybe it's time to move on doncha think??????
M | June 29, 2012 7:52 AM
When John Edwards put HIS baby-mama in a hotel suite for a year, he was charged with misuse of funds. Who IS paying for Laureen's love nest?
Jean Hand | June 20, 2012 9:54 AM
Harper and his wife are high profile figures and always , more or less, in the spotlight. They should realize that actions in their personal life would be of media and public interest. It goes with the territory...
GM | June 10, 2012 11:38 PM
For better or for worse, my friend in federal politics says this is for real and every fed ol and national and Ottawa political journo knows it.
It's galling to me given the Cons' penchant for broadcasting their homophobia but moreso their hypocrisy on fiscal matters. The Canadian taxpayers are footing the bill for this special living arrangement including full staff and security at both official residences simultaneously.
dimples | June 8, 2012 4:49 PM
Well Pierre Trudeau was gay but it didn't stop him from having a lovely marriage!
Oh wait I forgot how it ended, she flashed her beaver and went insane didn't she.
Jean Worgan | April 17, 2012 3:22 PM
What people do in their bedrooms is their business. That is not to say I like Harper , he's a real loser as a politician.
I wish people would keep their stupid comments off this page , it just shows ignorance
DonnaC | February 10, 2012 3:22 PM
OMG.....this TOTALLY explains soooooooo much!!! Now we know why Harper is a woman hating dictator overwhelmed by bottled up anger, intent on punishing all of us!! Clearly the reason the man's judgement is totally impaired!!
Nadine Lumley | January 30, 2012 1:04 PM
Ray Novak: Steve Harperâs Closet Confidant
He used to live above Steve Harperâs garage. Now he may be the second most powerful man in Ottawa.
âRay is effectively the Prime Ministerâs closest confidant,â enthuses one government official. âNot only as a member of his staff, but as a personal and intimate member of the Prime Ministerâs life.â
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/07/20/who-knows-what-harper-is-really-thinking-ray-novak/
For nearly four years while Harper was opposition leader, Novak, then with the title of executive assistant, lived in a small loft above the detached garage at Stornowayâthe opposition leaderâs official residenceâeating meals with the family and growing close to Harperâs two young children.
This is the detail that has come to define an aide who, by some tellings, knows Harper better than all but the Prime Ministerâs wife and mother. âRay was with him more than anybody else for years and years and years,â says Brodie, who served as Harperâs chief of staff for three years. âThey were literally hardly ever apart.â
In addition to living with the Harper family at Stornoway, he oversaw Harperâs tour operations, coordinated with his security detail and served as the Prime Ministerâs envoy to the families of the Air India bombing. âRay will get it done,â says a former member of the PMO. âAnd he will do so with total discretion.â
When Harper returned to federal politics in 2001 to pursue the Alliance leadership, he tabbed Novak as his assistant.
As principal secretary, Novak travels with the Prime Minister abroad...
jessie kuehl | January 29, 2012 3:43 PM
I met Margaret T. in Toronto many years ago and she was a smart and gracious woman who loved to have a good time.
jessie kuehl | January 29, 2012 3:39 PM
the last thing that concerns me is Mrs. harper's sexual orientation, what concerns me is what her husband is planning to do to our pensions.
Nadine Lumley | December 16, 2011 1:12 PM
Repost from Not the Alliance - 12:18 PM on December 16, 2011
How would the sheep feel if a polling firm started calling people to ask if they were concerned about the rumours that Harper beats his wife?
How would the sheep feel about a polling firm asking about the "rumours" that Mackay uses Gov't paid resources to entertain high priced hookers? Or Tony Gazebos Clements gave millions in non-tendered contracts to personal friends in Huntsville? Or again, the rumours that Laureen has to "go on vacation" so many times a year until her bruises heal?
Free speech?
dogshit dad | December 14, 2011 3:54 PM
The Conservative Party has pushed an Americanization of Canada agenda for quite some time and part of that is the family values/christian religion hypocrisy. Tough on crime, return the Royal to out Armed Forces signage, Queen's picture in our Embassies ( should be John Baird - now there is a queen), increased military spending with its linkage to the American military industrial complex or at least its Canadian subsidaries,the list goes on. Laureen & Steve can't have it both ways.
Hell look at John Baird hiding in his closet with the likes of Vic Toews bellowing against homosexuality. No wonder John & Laureen are the sweetest couple in Official Ottawa.
Old Vic , defender of family values, can't keep his pecker in his pants & knocks up a young staffer in the Conservative Party. There goes his marriage in divorce court.
Does anyone see a pattern of hypocrisy here?
Our press is pathetic because it is in the hands of just a few owners and they are beholden to the pwers that be. Chickenshits!
RK | November 1, 2011 4:58 AM
Why am I not surprised that the village idiot Nadine Lumley is behind all of this. Is it any wonder that the Liberals tanked when you have whack jobs like Lumley supporting them?
Betty Mccann | July 10, 2011 1:52 AM
Does it speak of "Canadian niceness"? Or does it truly show how the media is controlled by politics. Long have Canadians wondered WHY something isn't getting reported and the suspicion that news medias are dictating content abound. Small town medias owned by bigger corporations that are disallowed from reporting more than 30% local content are a huge example of that.
Wag the Dog in reality
MoDo | June 7, 2011 9:00 AM
The story apparently has another angle; it has been rumoured that Stephen Harper's girlfriend is none other than Josee Verner. Yes the same Josee that he just put into the Senate on the public payroll. Really starts to smell, doesn't it.
spacialist | June 5, 2011 2:01 AM
Personally I think people who obsess about the intimate encounters of other human beings are just a little arrested in their development. still "pullin the puddin" with a magazine in hand, the other one. As for this activity referring to a politicians character is a red herring, is who a person rubs genital with really more important to the polis of a nation than say their beliefs on human rights, racism, sexism, sexual orientation, responsibility for the vulnerable in our "Canadian FAMILY"? I am grateful that our media do not sit up and bark excitedly at every rumour and aspersion cast upon the individual who step up to the glare of public scrutiny. Imagine the Americans having an equal fascination with other bodily functions such as a good crap. I am not grateful to the media I am grateful for the average mentality of the citizens of this country that is just not all that interested in who is dipping into who.
1
: to deprive of something valuable by the use of deceit or fraud
2
: to influence or lead by deceit, trick, or artifice
3
: to elude or thwart by or as if by outwitting
It would seem that in modern terms it is genital contact with one other than your spouse that would constitute cheating and not the conventional test of having broken agreed to rules. What if they have an unconventional agreement. Finally I would point out that if one accepts the premise that the government has no place in the nations bedroom than quid pro quo would hold that the nation has no place in the bedrooms of our politicians. Unless a crime is committed, mind your own business and don't sully our media with depraved voyeuristic "Poli-Porn". I want to know why who is filling whose crack(s) is central to my well being I don't need to be told why the questionable character suggested by pro-rogueing parliament in a democracy. Or the honour of a politician who accepts as victory a minority of votes in a system long determined to be elctorally flawed. In fact in my most cynical moments I think political scandals based on legal sexual behaviour is merely a distraction of the masses with a national soap opera from the important matters of state.
kelly | June 3, 2011 8:11 AM
That big bike that post hear looks great, and this my first time to like that. I hope I can see that in personal. http://www.mahut.co.il/?categoryId=640
Mia Frederiksen | May 28, 2011 9:00 AM
What a pathetic piece of abject drivel written by a mental midget who needs to crawl back under the rock from whence "he" came. Is this the best you can do? Really? Shame on you. Your folks must be really proud of you. NOT.
Andrea | May 11, 2011 2:12 AM
I think the reason it hasn't come out is that there's an agreement between Steve and the media: the media will leave Laureen alone and in exchange, Steve will leave gay rights alone. Brilliant!
U R A Joke | May 8, 2011 3:05 AM
Do you people believe in Santa Claus too? Nutjobs ....
Gripmaster | April 30, 2011 10:53 AM
Laureen for Prime Minister!
E Knight | April 30, 2011 9:05 AM
It better to have a hog between your legs than a prime minister...No wait isnt he a
hog...no wait....
Talk of Jack layton as PM...real funny
"is it premature eJack-uLayton" lol
and Libs and Cons attacking Layton.
They are "DUMB and DUMBER"
mgl82 | April 16, 2011 6:15 AM
Don't cry Laureen: It Gets Better.
Jeffrey Weinstein | April 16, 2011 5:03 AM
Being married to a scuz bucket like him is enough to make any woman go lesbo! Good for her! She cut loose and I hope this comes back in his face!
Nadine Lumley | April 16, 2011 3:54 AM
Nadine’s Notes: So the Harpers are Separated. It was no Big Secret.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e;_id=207777182585546