It is quite possible that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was obliged by fate to reopen the debate over gun control in Canada this week.

The man who was talking up the need for citizens to be armed has come a long way from the Reform MP who cast a considered vote in favour of the Liberals’ old gun registry in the 1990s.

Once again, we may be seeing the law of opposites at work in Canadian prime ministerial history: whatever reputation or impressions you made before gaining office, you will be remembered for the reverse. Harper appears to have been working extra-hard these past few months to follow in that pattern — not just on the gun issue either.

Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, some may remember, came to Ottawa in the 1960s as the man of “reason over passion,” keen to lead with ideas rather than emotion. When Trudeau died in 2000, many of his policies had been jettisoned, but he was eulogized for the passion he inspired in the Canadian populace.

Brian Mulroney assumed power in the 1980s as the affable businessman with many friends, but not too many ideas. He would be remembered as the most disliked PM in Canadian polling history, but his policies, from free trade to the GST, would endure to this day.

Paul Martin, as a finance minister, was hailed for his single-minded focus on getting Canada’s fiscal house in order. As prime minister, Martin would be pilloried for running off in too many directions, with multiple “priorities,” all quickly unravelled by his successor.

Which brings us to Harper, who has spent much of his prime ministerial tenure turning the institutional memory about him upside down, especially in recent days.

In the 1990s, Harper was an often singular voice on the Reform party benches, known as the MP friendliest to the media, Quebec and urban, progressive conservatives. While others in his party were regularly getting into trouble for spouting off about abortion, guns or immigration, Harper was the calm, quiet voice of moderation.

“From my own personal standpoint I believe there are elements of gun control and specifically of this bill that could be helpful,” Harper told the Commons in 1995, as he was explaining why he voted in favour of the gun-registry bill at first reading.

Incidentally, Harper also chided the Liberals in those remarks for proceeding without proper consultation with the provinces on such large legislation.

But that was the 1990s version of Harper — diligent consultation with the provinces will not be a legacy achievement for the current prime minister. Just this week, Harper was chastised by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard for his statements on the gun issue, as well as for Ottawa’s failure to consult the provinces on the anti-terror legislation now before the Commons.

Speaking of Quebec, it’s been a while since Harper was seen as he once was cast, as the conservative politician most in tune with the aspirations of modern Quebec. Many of those bridges were bombed during the election of 2008 and in the “coalition crisis” shortly afterward, when Harper decided to save his political fate by demonizing Quebecers as lefty separatists.

Lately, it’s seemed like Harper may be trying to get on the good side of Quebec again — or at least some dubious elements of it — pressing hot buttons against the niqab and Muslim culture. Once again, it’s difficult to reconcile this Harper with the MP who barely disguised his embarrassment over Reform colleagues who talked about putting visible minorities at the back of the shop and so on in the 1990s. (Yes, that really did happen.)

As for other 180-degree reversals, it’s old news now that the Stephen Harper who cultivated journalistic contacts and sought out spots on TV-pundit panels has done more than any of his predecessors to wage war with the media. And to be fair, some of his reputational reversals have been positive — the travel-averse politician who had only rarely ventured out of the country when he took office is now an experienced hand on the international stage.

But here in Canada, Harper has recently been playing a brand of politics that would have been foreign to his style before he gained power. The latest wave of Conservative fundraising emails, for instance, on issues ranging from guns to tolerance of minorities, contain many sentiments that would have elicited cringes from the moderate, 1990s version of Harper.

The popular wisdom is that Harper is staking out all this territory on guns, terrorism and tolerance to play to the Conservative base before this year’s election.

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If that’s true, however, it also proves the point that power — or the quest to keep it — turns Canadian prime ministers and their pre-power reputations upside down, and inside out.

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