I've interviewed (and chatted with) both Stephen Harper and Stephane Dionne and found them to be courteous and informative. Harper was running the National Citizens' Coalition at the time and found an hour to talk to two visiting British academics. He impressed my very left wing colleague as having sensible and practical ideas for the future of Canada. I've always liked Dionne's candour, especially his response to me asking him if Canada would care about the issue of Quebec independence if there were no provinces to the east of Quebec - 'no', he said, 'it probably wouldn't. I'm with Guest HiLo on the way in which people who presumably have never met them, slag them off unmercifully.