Modern politics and music have a lot of connections.  Bill Clinton famously played his saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show in the 90's.  Bob Rae and Condeleeza Rice are both accomplished piano players aside from their political accomplishments.  Last night, Canadian PM Stephen Harper added another chapter to that book.

After last year calling galas like last night's National Arts Centre Saturday Night "elitist," Harper sat down at a piano last night, in front of the large, surprised crowd, tickling the ivories with famous violin virtuoso Yoyo Ma for accompaniment.  As the stunned crowd slowly burst into applause, Harper started into a very passable, if pedestrian, version of the classic Beatles' hit "With a Little Help From My Friends."

First of all, as a guy who sings on stage badly as a professional career, I urge Harper not to give up his day job.  He's got a pretty sweet gig as PM of Canada (despite not getting much help from his friends last year after his election), and let's face it, he's not going to light up the Billboard charts anytime soon.  With some practice, he might make a passable session pianist, but it's not likely we'll see "Harper and the Hound Dogs" very soon.  Besides, I have no idea what he uses to keep his hair one single completely solid block that never moves, but it would have to be highly flammable under the pyrotechnics of your average rock and roll stage show.

That said, as a politician romping for his voters, it was a masterful performance.  He couldn't have picked a better song to sing, however badly, in front of the crowd.  It's a song that begins with the line "What would you do if I sang out of tune ..." and was made famous by perhaps the least musical performance of all time, an incredibly stoned Joe Cocker apparently dancing to a completely different song, barely able to pronounce the words, never mind sing them in tune.  With this as the gold standard of "With a Little Help From My Friends" Harper couldn't help but put in a passable version.

Add to that the fact that, as a minority Prime Minister, Harper's entire political life is based on "I get by with a little help from my friends."  This past week his minority Conservative government survivied ONLY on the support (or rather, the lack of opposition) of Socialist leader Jack Layton, after the Liberals staged a non-confidence vote.  In fact, you might argue the song is the perfect description of minoirty government in a parliamentary democracy.

Harper's biggest problem has always been his rigid, wooden image.  Someone once suggested that Harper doesn't JUST have a stick up his ass ... the stick up his ass has it's own stick up it's ass.  Last night's performance went a long way towards at least joking about that wooden image, even admitting that Harper was far from the suave Bill Clinton on Arsenio.  Harper was clearly nervous and reserved, and you could tell he was FAR from his element.  This was the fulfilment of a dream left in childhood, and while he never did "rock out" and really get into the song (see Joe Cocker above for the dangers inherent in THAT), watching his face its clear that he hasn't had that much fun in ages.

I've never been a Harper supporter.  His policies are rarely things that i can fully support, and they are often far to the right of what I consider acceptable.  That said, as a fellow Canadian, it was wonderful to see my PM have some fun last night, and do something he's alwats wanted to do.  And let's face it ... he did a pretty good job for a guy who certainly isn't a professional musician.  He picked a fun song, one the he knew the audience would recognize and enjoy, but more than that, he picked a song that with him playing would speak to the audience in many more ways than the original song intended.  It was a wonderfully human moment for a PM who has too often been portrayed as a robot.  I'm still not likely to support the man politically, but we gotta give props where they are due.  Good on ya Stephen ... nice job last night.