Stephen Harper Quotes

In our system of government, an opposition party doesn't have the ability to pass legislation, but it has the ability to massively screw things up.

It is … not unconstitutional for the House of Representatives to refuse to fund the government, or for the Senate to deny confirmation to all presidential nominees. But since only the House can originate money bills, and only the Senate can confirm nominees, the system cannot tolerate such intransigence for long.

Charles Miller cannot bring down my government.

Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, it is possible for other parties to change the direction of a government without bringing a government down.

Unified party control of the organs of government has proved no panacea.

This part of Brazil offered the curious spectacle of a great evil, which has been long suffered to exist and is now advancing, gradually yet surely, to that state which must entail inevitable destruction on the existing Government of the country.

Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion.

A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.

We can't have the government of the United States shut down when a group doesn't like something. This is almost an act of insurrection.

The House Republicans are not the enemy, they’re the opposition. The Senate is the enemy.

Simply eight young men … standing amidst the ruins of one administration with the foundation of another not yet laid …. No police were functioning through the country, no system of justice was operating, the wheels of the administration hung idle, battered out of recognition by the clash of rival jurisdictions.

What does it mean to have a Republican majority in the House? A lot of people think 'So what?' They should think again.

In 1995 the whole political situation was very complicated. I was the first deputy prime minister, and at the same time I had very low influence in the government.

We already have a sabbatical system. It's called opposition, and I've had enough of it.

The military destabilised my government on politically motivated charges.

The government is tottering. We must deal it the death blow an any cost. To delay action is the same as death.

Fiji had experienced the ordeal of two military coups.

To understand why dictators fall, it helps to recognise factors that produce a perfect anti-dictatorial storm. Barring missteps such as those that led to Gaddafi's undoing, a dictator's survival can be at risk because of newness in office, poor health, or old age combined with economic trouble.

The Congress is a dysfunctional institution; it's broken. One of our three branches of government is broken.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is, that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us.

The election of the President and the Vice-President of the United States has passed,—not only from the college of electors to which the constitution confided it, and from the people to which the practice under the constitution gave it, and from the House of Representatives which the constitution provided as ultimate arbiter,—but has gone to an anomalous, irresponsible body [the convention], unknown to law or constitution, unknown to the early ages of our government.

It doesn’t make things easier badgered for a meeting of Parliament by the two Oppositions & Winston [Churchill] who is the worst of the lot.

We have moved toward a kind of scorpions-in-a-bottle Government where you have two branches [executive and legislative] that don't understand many of the legitimate needs of the other branch.

This is all that we want ... to nullify the nullifyers [in Congress].

An uncontrollable situation, in which there are no clearly defined spheres of authority, has come about in the country. Under these conditions, normal life is impossible.