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PORTLAND, Maine – The only man named Harper who counts in Washington these days plays right field for the Nationals, hit 29 home runs last year and is soon to become a ridiculously rich free agent. On this Fourth of July – Donald Trump’s travelling carnival of atrocities notwithstanding – the big existential questions in the capital of this feverish country revolve around Bryce Harper.

Will he move to first base? Will he hit more home runs than last year? (He has 21 so far.) Will he save his talented but now struggling team?

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This season, though, he competes with another Harper in Washington. His name is Stephen. Although he was prime minister of Canada for 10 years, he is less interesting than Bryce.

This Harper angers rather than awes, which is why Canadians hoped he would disappear, like other former prime ministers, after they fired him in 2015. But for Stephen Harper, whose legacy is fading like a soft summer mist, it’s a long way from here to obscurity.