Brazil and Canada had their leaders impressively exposed through media outlets in 2009.

Stephen Harper gained attention for his ‘doings’ in Canada being the newsmaker of 2009. Lula was called ‘The man’ by Obama, the personality of the year by Le Monde (France) and El Pais (Spain) and ‘one of the 50 most influential people in the world in the last decade’ by the British newspaper Financial Times.

One of the main differences between Lula and Harper is popular approval. In one hand you have the Brazilian with 80% approval of the population in 2009, on the other you have Harper and his minority government crossing a tightrope for 3 years and 11 months, getting stronger and more popular in 2009.

Harper would not agree about lowering the greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen. He supported the ‘War on Terrorism’,  and wouldn’t speak to reporters without a backup of his communications strategists.

Lula would speak anything to anyone, anywhere, anytime. There were scandals related to some Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers Party) politicians, but it didn’t interfere with Lula’s popularity.

For both leaders and for its voters 2010 will be a very interesting year.

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