Stephen Harper Quotes

Some of you may have been hoping that today I would speak about Lucien Bouchard's latest economic theories. But I have decided to spare him for the time being: after all, he is a man.

Nations in general, even under governments of the more popular kind, usually commit the administration of their finances to single men or to boards composed of a few individuals, who digest and prepare, in the first instance, the plans of taxation, which are afterwards passed into laws by the authority of the sovereign or legislature.

The federal government cannot maintain a budget surplus any more than an alcoholic can leave a fresh bottle of whiskey untouched in the cupboard.

Let's pass a bill to cover the moon with yogurt that will cost $5 trillion today. And then let's pass a bill the next day to cancel that bill. We could save $5 trillion.

We combine fiscal responsibility with social responsibility.

I'd love to do a comedy - something where a character has to use humor to navigate the absurdities of life.

To reduce the burden on the state exchequer, we increased the price of rice. I find nothing wrong in doing so in the best interests of the people and for the overall development of the state.

Nobody believes that Justin Trudeau is trying to save taxpayers' money.

I love comedy. It's something that I think Marvel does so well, and it's one of the reasons I love Marvel so much is the quips that you get: that kind of underlying everything and cutting through the very heavy emotional stuff.

A finance minister should have a basic understanding of the country, know where the shoe pinches and, hence, have some compassion in policy formulation. An ability to understand economic issues should certainly be there.

Pretty soon I may have to go back to Canada and buy that lumberyard I've always wanted. I'll probably sell some lumber, bring in some lumber... look at exploiting that lumber somehow. I'm not very schooled in it, but being an actor I feel that I have a keen sensibility with regard to the world of lumber because those two businesses are so similar.

The role of the president is to take care of your money, and that's what I intend to do.

This country doesn't have a revenue problem - it has a spending problem.

Stay on the path that the Democratic Party has us on, we're going to be in a mountain range of debt.

I balanced the budget for four straight years, paid off $405 billion in debt - pretty conservative. The first entitlement reform of your lifetime - in fact, the only major entitlement reform now is welfare.

The president says we need to raise the debt ceiling because America pays its bills. No if we paid our bills we wouldn't have all this debt. The reason we have to raise the debt ceiling is because we can't pay our bills and we have to borrow money because we don't have any money to pay our bills.

We are not going to let Donald Trump bankrupt America the way he bankrupted his casinos.

My pan plays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt.

[S]ound policy condemns the practice of accumulating debts.

We ought to pay down the national debt, ... The American people are tired of people who make promises about cutting taxes that they cannot keep.

... everything written is at least in part fantasy. Except maybe the national budget. That's horror.

There are some people who seem to think that the way you reduce the cost of living in this country is for the state to spend more and more taxpayers' money. It is as if somehow you measure the compassion of the government by the amount of other people's money it can spend.

We need to balance the budget and force Washington to stop spending more than it takes in.

I was the world's ugliest baby. When I was born, the doctor slapped everybody.