Canada's PM won't let wife drive him on motorbike

OTTAWA, Dec 21 (Reuters) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is regularly mocked by the media for his weight and dress sense, on Wednesday said he did not want to ride as a passenger on his wife's motorcycle because it would harm his image.

Mr Harper's wife Laureen, a generally more colorful figure than the prime minister, is fond of riding her Yamaha bike around town.

Mr Harper blanched when asked whether he planned to tag along as her passenger.

''You've got to worry a little bit about image. I don't want to be on the back with my wife driving,'' he told CTV television in an interview yesterday.

Mr Harper has a history of wearing unfortunate outfits which highlight his rather stocky figure. In November, he went to Vietnam for a regional summit and had to squeeze into a florid traditional costume which left little to the imagination.

One reader of the Globe and Mail newspaper wrote in to say that ''when I saw Stephen Harper's picture ... I immediately thought of my grandmother's sofa''.

REUTERS DKA PM0850