It lasted for 9 years and still has 100 MP's in parliament. That puts Harper in the same league a MacDonald, Laurier, King, St Laurent, Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien. Not a bad effort in my book. The present government may have a popular leader, but one can hardly consider its policies successful; huge deficit, half-baked climate change programs, stagnated health policy, questionable ethics, non-existent foreign policy and a whole heap of trouble looming to the south. If the Conservatives find someone to steady the ship, popularity may prove a fickle ally.