Laureen Harper - Impressive, Inspirational

It's so easy to be cynical, to be disappointed, to check off yet another public persona convinced of personal superiority, deigning to have her name, the prestige of her position, both political and social, be used as a device for the public good. Without, in the process lifting a finger. Minus personal commitment. Relying on their public celebrity to weigh into the process and do the trick.

It works: people in the public eye "lend" their names regularly to one charitable event after another, and people respond. Seems there's nothing quite like celebrity to encourage people to be responsive to worthwhile causes. Generally speaking, it's a "do as I say not as I do" situation, with the person who lends the weight of their name and status to the case doing nothing themselves to practically assist in the process.

Laureen Harper, wife of the prime minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, does it differently. She embroils herself personally in causes she feels she has a personal stake in. Causes that she recognizes require society's attention. And these range from high-profile elite events favouring the arts, to less visible but very necessary events meant to highlight society's responsibilities toward non-human creatures reliant on peoples' good will.

Those events can range from active participation profiting Canada's national institutions of culture, to actively helping to raise funds for a municipality's humane society for the protection of domestic animals. Maureen Harper graces social events of high culture for whose preparations she will herself have participated, actively. She has volunteered 24 Sussex Drive and her care to the fostering of unwanted and abandoned pets.

And in her latest venture, she has been practising weekly with a group of dedicated friends to take part in an event, along with a thousand other dedicated volunteers, for a two-day 60-kilometre walk around Canada's capital for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer Walk. She undertook to assemble her own team of volunteers, titled Team 24, giving them the impetus of her own enthusiasm, her time and determination to help.

Her own inspiration having been her friendship with a woman who manages the official residence, who is a survivor of breast cancer. The funds raised help in the operation of the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation. "At first, I was shy to ask for money" explained Mrs. Harper. "Now I have no shame." It is difficult, no matter who you are, how assured you are with your position in life, to appear before people to ask them to support a cause, however meaningful, with their money.

Laureen Harper is a far cry as an activist for the public good, and a representative of the highest office of the land, from other wives of earlier prime ministers. Some of whom made the news by their self-seeking, self-absorbed behaviours; others who seldom made the news because of their secretive and retiring manner. This woman is one of a kind.