Question: What countries has Stephen Harper visited?
Sounds like Jeopardy or Reach for the Top, the game shows for brainiacs, but I bring it up because Liberal leader Paul Martin’s latest ignoble act upon the nation occurred yesterday during a speech I watched on CPAC, and the follow-up question/answer session with the press, which seemed to be more than a little contrived. At least a couple of questions seemed to be.
Anyway, I knew I was just lied to, by whatever nefarious means it might have been set up, and I figured that in addition to the obvious and hysterical attempt at character assassination by Mr. Martin against Mr. Harper, most people already know that Mr. Harper has probably read about a few countries too. Maybe even watched the TV—although I hear he’s more of a bookworm and reads constantly.
He was one of the brainiacs who was a contestant on Reach for the Top, as a young man, before earning his Master’s Degree in Economics. That’s how I thought of the Jeopardy reference.
The Globe and Mail managed to uncover some of the misdeeds of Paul Martin yesterday, a man who wants to continue to lead our great country using his version of honesty. Of course they don’t frame it in quite the same way as me:
“What we’ve got now is a rehashed version of Preston Manning’s Reform Party. We’ve got a dolled-up variation of Stockwell Day’s Canadian Alliance. We’ve got a party that wants to take this country to the far, far right of the U.S. Conservative movement, and let me tell you, it ain’t going there.”
He also called the Conservatives the “radical right.”
Inasmuch as Canada’s Conservative Party is far to the left of the liberal Democratic Party on almost every issue, and left of even liberals like Ted Kennedy on many issues, I do believe Mr. Martin is full of it. I think even Liberals in his own party think he’s delusional and trying to delude the nation. How noble.
Later, when asked by a reporter what “far right” policies he could name in the Conservative platform, he cited their refusal to support the Liberals subsidized daycare program, begun in 2005.
See, if you’re not a far-left radical socialist advocating big government nanny-state socialist government-knows-best policies, then ipso facto you’re therefore henceforth a radical right-wing extremist in the far-right of the U.S. conservative movement nutbar. And here I thought liberals were all about the nuance and the grey area in between the black and white. Mr. Martin lacks honesty in the grey area between his ears, methinks.
He also said the fact that Mr. Harper will not commit to living up to a November agreement on quality of life for aboriginals, and that Mr. Harper does not accept the science of climate change. However, Mr. Harper said in December that in fact he does accept the science of climate change.
And the U.S., which is not a party to the Kyoto Accord, and under a conservative Republican President, is doing far, far better than Canada, which is doing among the worst in the entire world on their Kyoto agreements that Team Martin/Chretien committed to with the world community at a cost or 197 kajillion dollars.
And how have aboriginals fared under Liberals? Oh please. Give me a harder question.
Next:
Today, the Liberal Leader was offered a new opening to criticize Mr. Harper and he jumped right in, asserting that Mr. Harper’s travels around the world are too limited to give him an understanding of the world, and therefore of a multi-ethnic Canada.
Mr. Martin teed off on a question from a local Punjabi radio host, Amarjeet Sidhu, who joined a press conference after cheering the Liberal Leader in a rally in Brampton, Ont
[would that be a “plant”, then? Inquiring minds want to know —Joel]
. He asked what Mr. Martin thinks of the fact that Mr. Harper has never traveled abroad.
“Stephen Harper hasn’t left the country? I was just told that apparently he said he’d been to Mexico but he’d never left continental North America,” he said, apparently forgetting that Mr. Harper had traveled with him on the prime ministerial jet to veterans’ ceremonies in Italy, Holland, and Ireland. “Well, I find that unbelievable. It is such an opening that I don’t know how to take advantage of it.”
He said that with the rise of economies in China and India, Canadians need to understand other economies to hold their own. He suggested that a leader cannot have an independent foreign policy unless he has traveled. And he said a leader who has not traveled will not understand today’s multi-cultural Canada.
“To understand Canada today and never having been to China, never having been to South America, never having been to parts of Asia? I’ve got to tell you there’s got to be huge gaps in your understanding of what the modern Canada today is all about.”
The issue might recall the criticisms that U.S. President George W. Bush faced as a presidential candidate in 2000, when he admitted he had never traveled outside the United States, except to Mexico.
However, Mr. Harper has traveled to Italy, Holland, Great Britain, Ireland, Greece, the U.S., and Mexico.
Mr. Martin then predicted that he will win the election on Monday.
Mr. Martin lies to the nation repeatedly.
Choose your Canada.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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