Author puts end to PM birthdate controversy

OTTAWA • An enduring conspiracy theory about Stephen Harper’s date of birth was revived this week when his wife sent out an email inviting supporters to wish the prime minister a happy 56th on April 30.

“Needless to say, with the election coming up in less than 200 days, it’s been quite busy in Ottawa,” Laureen Harper wrote. “Adding your name will be a BIG show of support for him and the whole Conservative team.”

The satirical news magazine Frank pointed out that, contrary to the date his wife quoted, Harper’s date of birth had been repeatedly ascribed to April 20, the same date the Hitler family celebrated the birth of Adolf in 1889.

But for about the past 10 years, the April 30 date has been used. In April 2005, the year before he became prime minister, someone from the Detroit, Mich., area edited Harper’s Wikipedia page entry and changed the date from the 20th to 30th.

The confusion has set off all manner of theories among Harper critics, alleging that the date was rewritten to quash any attempt to tie him to the most hated person in human history.

In fact, the misapprehension can be traced back to the biography, The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper, by former Ottawa journalist Lloyd Mackey, who wrote, “April 20, 1959 is the exact date that Margaret Harper gave birth to little Stephen Joseph in Toronto.”

Mackey said he realized his error only after the book was republished with the title, Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance. “... There was no attempt at revisionism. I concluded that I had hit the wrong key and it never got corrected, not even by the publisher’s proofreaders or editor.”