Note to Stephen Taylor: When did the PM start having a "first family?"

Stephen Taylor of the Blogging Tories has written a post insisting that the Harper family is "ordinary" while Stephane Dion's family is not. As is fitting, this has been ridiculed as, well, a bit silly.

Let's set aside how completely stupid Taylor's main points are (Dion's wife kept her maiden name!) and consider Taylor's use of the term "first family" in discussion of the Harpers is well, a bit weird. When did we have a first family in this country? None of the prime ministers that I recall used this terminology. Mulroney didn't use it, neither did Chretien. If anything the "first" terminology is usually reserved for the head of state. Harper is the leader of the government, not the head of state.

Those who recall their civics lessons know that Lizzy Windsor is the head of state. I'd venture to say that Dion's family and Harper's family have a great deal more in common with each other than they do with Canada's real first family - those crazy Windsors.