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Harper the Huggable he ain't.

It appears Stephen Harper has a bit of work to do on his new warm-and-fuzzy image.

With news cameras rolling, the Conservative Leader walked his nine-year-old daughter Rachel to school Tuesday in a carefully scripted photo-op designed to bolster his fatherly image.

But anyone expecting to see a gentle kiss or a warm hug were in for a disappointment.

A bespeckled Harper, sporting a khaki-coloured blazer and dark grey slacks, strolled hand-in-hand with his smiling daughter and crossed the street to the school amid a cadre of cameras, aides and plainclothes Mounties.

Mr. Harper twice leaned in as though he was going to give young Rachel a peck on the forehead, but then settled for two quick pats on her shoulder.

While it may not have been a display of deep parental love, it was step up from the last time Mr. Harper dropped off his kids with media in tow.

That time — on his first day as prime minister in January 2006 — Mr. Harper said goodbye to Rachel and son Ben with a dutiful handshake.

Mr. Harper has sought to soften his image as a cold partisan in campaign ads that show him wearing a sweater vest and chatting about his kids, his love of the North and his respect for war veterans.

The sweater vest has become so identified with Mr. Harper this campaign that reporters have christened his aircraft Sweater-Vest Jet, while comedian Mary Walsh hosted a burning of the cozy garment.