This article is the Electoral history of Stephen Harper, the twenty-second prime minister of Canada. Harper served as prime minister from February 6, 2006 to November 4, 2015, having won three general elections. A conservative, Harper was unsuccessful in his first general election as leader of the Conservative Party, which re-elected then-Prime Minister Paul Martin and the Liberals. However, two years later Harper defeated Martin in the general election of 2006 and formed a minority government. Harper was re-elected with a minority government in 2008, and then a majority government in the election of 2011. Harper was defeated in the 2015 general election by Justin Trudeau, who succeeded him as prime minister. His successor as leader of the Conservative Party was Andrew Scheer. Harper stood for election to the House of Commons eight times, first for the Reform Party, then for the Canadian Alliance, and finally for the Conservative Party. He was defeated on his first attempt, but elected the next seven times. Harper took a break from electoral politics from 1998 to 2002, when he was the President of the National Citizens Coalition. Following the 2015 general election defeat, Harper resigned as leader of the Conservative Party. He retired from politics in 2016. Summary Harper ranks sixth out of twenty-three prime ministers for time in office, serving as prime minister for nine years, 271 days. He is the third Conservative to win three elections, following Sir John A. Macdonald and John Diefenbaker, and the second-longest serving Conservative prime minister, after Macdonald. Harper was the third prime minister from Alberta, the others being R. B. Bennett and Joe Clark. Harper was originally from Ontario and a Liberal Party supporter, but in his early twenties he moved to Alberta. He became involved in Progressive Conservative politics and then gradually in the formation of the new Reform Party, working as Reform's chief policy officer. He served one term as a Reform Member of Parliament, but then resigned to become the president of the National Citizens Coalition (1998-2002). In 2002, Harper was elected leader of the Canadian Alliance, the successor to the Reform Party, and began merger talks with the Progressive Conservative party, known as the Unite the Right movement. After the merger was achieved, he became the first leader of the new Conservative Party of Canada, and led the party in the 2004 general election. Although defeated by Prime Minister Paul Martin