This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Laureen Teskey is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Laureen Harper | |
 Spouses of G8 leaders pose for a photograph at Konstantinvosky Palace in Strelna, Russia, Sunday, July 16, 2006. From left, they are: Laura Bush; Bernadette Chirac; Sousa Uva Barroso; Flavia Franzoni, Lyudmila Putina, Laureen Harper, and Cherie Booth.
|
|
| Born | 1963 Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada |
|---|---|
| Title | Current Spouse of the Prime Minister of Canada |
| Spouse(s) | Stephen Harper |
| Children | Ben Harper (born 1996), Rachel Harper (born 1999) |
Laureen Teskey Harper (born 1963) is the wife of Stephen Harper, who is leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and Prime Minister of Canada since February 6, 2006. Teskey was born in Turner Valley, a rural town southwest of Calgary, Alberta. Her parents were ranchers and owned an electrical contracting company.
After graduating from Oilfields High School, she attended the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology where she studied journalism and photography.1
She was first married to New Zealander Neil Fenton from 1985 to 1988.2
Teskey joined the Reform Party of Canada in the late 1980s, and met Stephen Harper at the Reform assembly in Saskatoon in 1990. They married in 1993. Some of Harper's earliest political contemporaries, including Jim Hawkes, Preston Manning and Deborah Grey, have said that the 'intensely cerebral' Stephen Harper appreciably 'mellowed' after their marriage.3 Media reports have generally credited her as far more personable and friendly in front of the cameras than her husband.
Teskey offers her home to the SPCA as a foster home for kittens, and in her spare time enjoys riding her motorcycle.
Teskey and her husband have two children, Ben (born 1996) and Rachel (born 1999).
Name
There was considerable confusion in the Canadian media about which surname she uses — at different times, media references to her have called her Teskey, Harper or Teskey Harper (not hyphenated). On January 26, 2006, she advised Canadian Press that she wishes to be known as Laureen Harper in her public role as a spouse of the Prime Minister.4
Maureen McTeer, the wife of former Prime Minister Joe Clark, also found some controversy in 1979 when she became the first wife of a Prime Minister to use her own surname rather than her husband's.
References
- ^ Gignac, Tamara, "From Turner Valley to 24 Sussex Dr.", Calgary Herald, p. A1, January 28, 2006.
- ^ Kingston, Anne, "Wife of the party", Maclean's, August 13, 2007
- ^ Ryan, Carolyn, "Stephen Harper and the road to power", CBC.ca
- ^ "It's 'Mrs. Harper', thank you", Toronto Star, January 26, 2006
External links
| Honorary titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sheila Cowan Martin |
Spouse of the Prime Minister of Canada 2006-present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Harper, Laureen Teskey |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Teskey Harper, Laureen (alternate form); Teskey, Laureen (birth name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Canadian political figure |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1963 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Turner Valley, Alberta, Canada |
| DATE OF DEATH | living |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 20 November 2008, at 06:25.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Laureen Teskey".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.