He's the guy who wants to rename Calgary's airport 'Stephen J. Harper International'

He's not even out of office, but there are already two petitions calling for Calgary's International Airport to be re-named in honour of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Curtis Mullen -- a Canadian who now lives in Kansas -- created the first on Sunday. It's garnered close to 6,000 signatures. A second, created by conservative commentator Ezra Levant, has more than 14,000 signatures. 

Mullen tells As It Happens host Carol Off, "He's the longest serving prime minister from Western Canada, and he represented Canada - and more specifically Calgary - on the world stage and he worked to make Canada a better country."

Although a number of Canadian airports are named for former prime ministers, they all received the honour posthumously. Mullen says that shouldn't be a barrier for the creation of the Stephen J. Harper International Airport.

"Instead of recognizing people that have passed on, I think that to make Canada a better place we should alter that slightly and recognize our leaders while they are still alive."

The pro-Harper airport petitions have already inspired a counter-petition calling for the city of Calgary to instead rename a landfill after the 22nd prime minister.

A second counter-petition can be found here.

Here's how #HarperAirport has been playing out on Twitter: