Rebel to realist

How politics changed Stephen Harper

and how he is changing Canada

Stephen Harper began his political career in the 1980s as a conservative renegade advocating a fiscal and democratic revolution. But over time, he appeared to bend his explicitly held principles to the demands of political power. Even so, he has deftly - perhaps permanently - stamped his brand of conservatism on the country.

Mark Kennedy, parliamentary bureau chief for Postmedia News in Ottawa, examines how - 20 years after Harper was first elected to Parliament, and 10 years after he took over the leadership of his party - the once-impatient revolutionary has changed, and how Canada has changed with him.