Harper leaving provincial politics

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Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper ended his career in provincial politics last week with hints he may move into the federal arena as a national candidate for the New Democratic Party.

"When the time comes, if the Great Spirit is willing for me to run in that forum, I'll do so," Harper told reporters at a press conference ending an illustrious 11-year career in the Manitoba house.

The 42-year-old New Democrat representative for the northern Rupertland riding said he was leaving active politics to spend more time with his family and mourn his mother's recent death.

Harper's announcement came suddenly and he was praised by political friends

and opponents for his contribution to Manitoba's politics.

Gary Doer, the Manitoba NDP leader, praised Harper for the mark he left on Manitoba history as the first treaty Indian to win a seat.

Sharon Carstairs, provincial Liberal leader, said he had a strong record of accomplishments and called him an "eloquent spokesman for his people."

Harper's future with the NDP, especially at the federal level, is an open question

at the moment. The former Red Sucker band chief broke openly with the party line twice during the last five years of constitutional debate.

Most recently, he urged first nation voters to boycott the referendum on the Charlottetown accord after raising concerns about the agreement's ultimate effect on Native sovereignty. The NDP supported the unity package at the national level.

And then there is his famous rejection of the Meech Lake accord, in which he

used technical rules to block the Manitoba legislature's acceptance of the NDP-approved package.

Harper has also come under criticism from his constituents, who have complained his national role as a first nations' spokesman took his attention away from local problems.

But Phil Fontaine, head of the Assembly of Manitoba legislature in the early 1980s. In 1986 he was appointed minister of Native and northern affairs in the NDP government of Howard Pawley.

He was forced to resign a year later after he was charged with leaving the scene

of an accident and refusing to take a breathalyzer test. Harper was returned to the Pawley cabinet just before the government was defeated in a non-confidence vote.

Harper served on the back benches of the opposition in relative obscurity until thrust into the national spotlight for his role in defeating the Meech Lake accord.