Spotted on Stephen Harper’s Twitter

As you may have heard, Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, is now a Twitterer. Or Tweeter, if you prefer that term. I find this a little scary.

I was at a podcamp last month during which one speaker flashed photos of Harper and Barack Obama on the screen and said “Harper is Web 1.0, and Obama is Web 2.0.” He couldn’t have been more right. Harper, by all accounts a brilliant man, an historian, economist, strategist and political wunderkind, is not exactly known for his embrace of new ideas. Or for having a heart. There’s a famous photo of him dropping his little son off for his first day of school and gravely shaking his hand.

Anyway, these are things you might see if you check out the PM’s Twitter page. Or maybe not.

• I don’t quite understand how this is supposed to work, but McKay says all the youngsters are doing it.
• @jflaherty If you’re going after the Ontario PC leadership again, you have my blessing. And my encouragement.
• I got a great deal on a Super-Nintendo video game thing from one of the interns. Only $100. The kids will be very happy this Christmas.
• Twitter says keep it to 140 characters or less. My caucus has 140 characters, plus me, Baird and that woman whose name I keep forgetting.
• I need a hip nickname like Ignatieff. People call him Iggy. People call me Stephen Harper.
• @jacklayton Thank you, Mr. Layton, but I couldn’t see myself answering to “Harpy.” Your other ideas were also poor.
• I like Steve-O, but when I typed it into that Yahoo page I kept seeing the word “Jackass” and pictures of boys with tattoos.
• People are still grousing about this so-called recession. I personally don’t know anyone who’s out of work.
• Someone has congratulated me on my hundredth tweet, and I don’t know what that means exactly.
• @jflaherty Perhaps I did not make myself clear earlier. Ontario needs you and I don’t.
• @premier_dalton I tried, but he won’t listen. I’ll ask Baird, but he just bought a condo.
• @rona_ambrose Interested in moving to Toronto? There’s a job opening.
• @bev_oda I can see you as provincial Tory leader. Ever considered it?
• @sweet_becki Please tell me more about how to receive the free laptop computer. And you can call me Steve-O.