The Prime Minister’s wife isn’t usually much of a public figure. She receives far less attention than the First Lady does down south (NOT a double entendre). This is probably a good thing since much of the attention the First Lady receives is pretty weird. Please don’t misunderstand me—I can’t wait for Bill Clinton to be the first First Gentleman (if you could call him that), but I feel as though Michelle Obama probably wouldn’t mind a break every now and then. To that end, Canadian politics is preferable to its American counterpart. To be honest, I don’t think I could have named a single Prime Minister’s wife until I heard about Laureen Harper. Who is she? Let’s start there.
Laureen Harper is Stephen Harper’s wife. That means she lives in 24 Sussex Drive even though less than 40% of Canadians voted to put her there. That’s a bit outrageous.
What’s more outrageous, though, is that many Canadians might have had no idea she existed until Thursday April 17, 2014, when she appeared as a guest speaker at the Just for Cats: Internet Cat Video Festival in Toronto. Let me be clear…it isn’t astounding that people didn’t know she existed, but it is pretty bizarre that she came to our attention while talking about cat videos. She was also wearing cat ears.

I just love cats!
Brangwyn Jones
Incredibly, it seems like no one would have noticed she was there if not for a protester. A student named Hailey King interrupted what was undoubtedly a moving speech about cats and cat videos to complain that Laureen Harper was indeed talking about cats (thank you Captain Obvious) instead of talking about missing and murdered indigenous women. Laureen’s response was legendary. She spoke as if she was at a Conservative Party fundraising event: “We are raising money for animals tonight,” she said, and continued, “If you’d like to donate to animals, we’d love to take your money.” There you have it!
For those of you wondering what Laureen Harper has been doing in her spare time, you now have a clear answer—she has been memorizing the party line. So wonder no more! Unless you’re wondering why she decided that her moment in the spotlight should be at a cat video festival…in that case, you can keep wondering.