It would be unusual to hear Stephen Harper make a joke on the job. The newly-elected Conservative Party leader is better known for his steely blue stare, grey suits and straightforward talk - a style that some have criticized as being too cold.

However, Harper, 45, usually saves his words for attacks on the Liberals. When he accepted the leadership of the Conservative Party, he didn't shy away from a possible election face-off with Prime Minister Paul Martin.

"Paul Martin can run but he cannot hide. Paul Martin has a record, Paul Martin is a Liberal and Paul Martin will be held accountable for the corruption of the Liberal Party," he said.

But all this tough talk doesn't mean Harper doesn't have a sense of humour. In one rare jest, the bilingual economist once said he didn't have the personality to be an accountant like his two younger brothers and father.

And those who have met Harper say his private image is very different from his public persona. Linda Frum of the National Post recently described Harper as a "funny, savvy, energetic man with just a slight ruthless streak."

However, Harper is more commonly described as a policy wonk - something the Conservative leader doesn't appear to mind.

"The things that people pick on me about -- the glad-handing, the schmoozing, the doing interviews -- those are actually the easiest things. Learning to make decisions and implement them and stick with them are the hardest things in this business," he once told The Canadian Press.

Despite being unapologetic about his image, some political experts warn it could hurt his chances of becoming Canada's next prime minister.

"Mr. Harper has been seen, I think, very much as a policy-oriented leader, who's not particularly exciting, who doesn't connect with the people -- who is perhaps something of a cold individual," political science professor Paul Nesbitt-Larking told CTV.ca.

"Whether this is fair or not, it has been the image of Mr. Harper and I think he and his party have suffered because of that," said Nesbitt-Larking, of Huron University College at the University of Western Ontario.

Who is Harper?

Harper was born in Toronto on April 20, 1959 - the oldest of three boys. While he grew up in suburban Toronto, his roots, much like the Canadian Alliance and Reform parties, appear to have sprouted in Alberta.

He moved west in 1978 after graduating from high school to work in the oil fields and in Calgary at Imperial Oil.

His entry into politics came in 1985, when he served as parliamentary assistant to Jim Hawkes, the Tory MP for Calgary West. At the same time, he got his B.A. in Economics from the University of Calgary. He later got his masters degree in economics while working as the policy chief for the Reform Party - the party's first.

Reform Party founder Preston Manning was so impressed with Harper when the two first met, he asked him deliver a major policy speech at the founding convention of the party in 1987. Harper is also credited with creating the Party's 1988 election platform.

In the 1988 election, he ran against Hawkes under the Reform banner for Calgary West, and lost by a wide margin. That same year he served as a parliamentary secretary to Deborah Grey, the first Reform MP elected to the House of Commons.

Harper's second attempt at capturing Calgary West in 1993 was a success. He held onto the riding until 1997, when he left the party over a dispute with Manning about party policy. He became president of the National Citizens' Coalition, a right-wing lobby group.

In 2002, Harper beat the embattled Stockwell Day for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance Party. He won on the first ballot with an overwhelming 55 per cent of the vote, stunning analysts who had predicted a second-ballot vote.

Within two years of that win, Harper managed to bring some of the renegade MPs back into the fold, quell party infighting and negotiate a merger with former Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay. He topped of that list on March 20 by capturing the leadership of the new Conservative Party.

Challenges

With the leadership victory behind him, Harper is now preparing to face Martin, NDP leader Jack Layton and the Bloc Quebecois' Gilles Duceppe in a battle for voter support.

Nesbitt-Larking said all the leaders are capable of putting forth a message which means Harper must find a way to stand out.

"He's going to have to do something to try and convey a more personal image, a broader image, a perspective that incorporates and includes large groups of Canadians if he's going to do anything to break through."

It's a challenge the new Conservative Party appears to be working hard to overcome as it tries to show Canadians Harper's softer side.

When he arrived at the Ottawa train station after his leadership win, his blonde, four-year-old daughter was seen jumping into his arms as his wife, Laureen stood at his side.

The party has also posted a "Meet the Harper Family" page on his Web site. Aside from being a hockey dad, Harper is known to like reading bedtimes stories to his daughter and seven-year-old son, Benjamin.

There are other challenges, including how to win the confidence of Canadians who backed the Progressive Conservatives. Some of them will see his leadership win as a takeover by the very right-wing element of the Canadian Alliance, rather than a merger.

"One of the things that Mr. Harper will have to be very careful about is to control the social conservative element that remains in the new Conservative Party of Canada," said Nesbitt-Larking. "To make sure it doesn't look like the party is going to be captured by the fanatical, religious fundamentalists."

Harper has moved quickly to try to dispel Conservatives fears and move away from the Alliance's fundamentalist, right-wing reputation.

In April of 2002, he ordered former Alliance MP Cheryl Gallant to apologize to Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham for referring to his "boyfriend."

This past fall, Harper led the Alliance to ban MP Larry Spencer over anti-gay comments he made last year. Harper also immediately fired Spencer as family-issues critic.

But the new Conservative leader has made his own gaffes. He recently sent a letter of congratulations on India's independence from Britain to a native organization by mistake. His relationship with Atlantic Canada also suffered after he said in May 2002 that the region suffered from a "defeatist attitude."

"It's not that I haven't made mistakes or had to apologize for the odd thing in politics," Harper told CP. But he said he's not going to "back off some of these more controversial debates."

It's a style of governing that, if poll trends continue, could one day see Harper running the country.