Three things I like about Stephen Harper

While most of the other newspapers were urging Canadians to vote for Harper in 2008, the Straight sent a different message.

It's not those creepy eyes.

It's not $28 million of public funds going into commemorating the War of 1812.

It's certainly not the decision to padlock Parliament twice or the firing of government watchdogs or the hostility to the science around supervised-injection sites and climate change.

But I can cite three things that I like about Stephen Harper.

The prime minister hasn't listened to caucus members who want to reopen the debate over abortion and restrict a woman's right to choose.

Harper also hasn't invoked the notwithstanding clause in the constitution to override the legal right to same-sex marriage.

And he hasn't stacked the Supreme Court of Canada with right-wing religious fanatics.

There are a couple of other things I like about Harper. He appears to give his wife Laureen complete freedom to live the life that she chooses—which stands in contrast to his public image as a control freak.

There's one other thing—several years ago, Harper dropped his opposition to turbans in the RCMP. So I won't call him a bigot.

Often, the Harpercons (as Bob Rae so eloquently describes them) accuse me of having nothing good to say about the prime minister.

I still think he's an economic incompetent, a mean-spirited punishment freak, and an absolute fool for not recognizing the reality of global warming in the face of tons of evidence to the contrary.

But hey, he's not all bad.

Follow Charlie Smith on Twitter at twitter.com/csmithstraight.