Stephen Harper Quotes

I make it a point to go home every weekend so I can meet with Georgians and hear from them directly.

Indeed, though people increasingly learn and interact online, we retain a fundamental need to engage in person.

What I like to do is have an opportunity to talk with people in neighborhoods and answer their questions one-on-one. I think it's one of the places I have greatest strength.

Relationships are at the core of any political system and economic system - any family - and I think we drifted away from understanding that in our country. The people-to-people level is critical. It is ironic, though - we can text with anybody in the world, we can have a videoconference with anybody in the world, but [there should be] an even higher premium on showing up and getting to know someone.

I like to have met someone in real life before being their Facebook friend.

I believe that the best way to campaign is one-on-one with people.

I never was for telephones. Just don't like them, that's all. Anybody wants to talk to you, they can come to see you.

In my neighborhood, when you've got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.

The best thing about the Congress is that it is the last place where you can have face-to-face interviews and interaction with the newsmakers themselves.

I spend a lot of time visiting local organisations.

The power of being in the physical presence of another person delivers real benefits.

There's something different about looking someone in the eyes and doing something dishonest to doing it over the phone or screen.

I always do my interviews face to face.

It's been proven with consistency. The only way to win [municipal elections] is to walk. You have to like going out and pressing the flesh and placing yourself at risk.

My job is to make life better for people, and you cannot make life better if you are in a helicopter. You can't make life better for them if you can't touch them.

I wanted to talk face-to-face with as many people as would see me. Some actors were so busy they could only give me an hour on the phone. But my feeling is that if you're actually in the room with them, they get comfortable and you get more.

Now, I'm a pretty fast and avid reader. But you can't learn the same things in a book or on the Internet that you can in a personal talk with somebody.

What I have to say, I say face to face.

Grass-roots work is not flashy, and rarely celebrated on the national media level, but that is where change begins.

I'm always entrenched in the community. I'm always working with the high schoolers, no matter what school they're at. I'm always in my community.

I read every single comment that comes in.

People are tweeting, texting, and e-mailing - and not connecting. There are very few ways for communities to come together. It happens at concerts and at sporting events.

People en masse have lost the ability to go out there and meet people in real life.

So much of our audience is on mobile and online platforms, but there's something special, unique, and unexpected about engaging with such great content at the street level.

The biggest part of why I am where I am today is not only because people can relate to me and my story but because I hit the road and actually saw them face to face and shook their hands.