There is a paucity but one of the areas in which true blue conservatives in Canada like me can find solace in this Harper Conservative administration is on the international stage (save for the bizarre liberalesque date-certain withdrawal date for surrender in Afghanistan, which may actually be a complete deal-breaker for me ultimately).
But as usual, unless it’s liberals and environmentalists and pot-smokers and “artists” we’re talking about, you have to go outside the country to get an objective, realistic, and intellectually honest portrayal of how just how far and how quickly Canada has elevated itself, in important ways, on the world stage —particularly to thinking Americans (increasingly rare breed as so many journalists have simply given up all pretense and are drinking the Obama Kool Aid in large groups and formed Obama-booster clubs). And this is solely to the credit of the Harper Conservative administration.
The PM was in New York in the past week and sat down with the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and obviously made a very big impression there, not that you’d ever know it from the media —including the state-owned media —here. We are all fully (more than fully) apprised of the grand and oh-so-important chumminess amongst the liberal academic elite set that Liberal Michael Ignatieff achieved years ago, over there (that’s what qualifies as real, notable “achievement” for liberals and their media); and God knows we all know far too well what a big impression The Great Obama has had on all the journalists here, to the point of their slobbering, orgasmic, overt journalistic dis-integrity).
But imagine reading or hearing something like these excerpts as printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A9 today, by editorial board member Mary Anastasia O’Grady, on the CBC or any of the other left-wing media in Canada:
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been fielding questions for more than 30 minutes in a meeting with the editorial board at The Wall Street Journal’s New York office.
[…]
Since establishing a minority government in January 2006, this prime minister and his Conservative Party have restored Canada’s international prestige by increasing military funding and tenaciously supporting Canada’s dangerous NATO mission in the Afghan province of Kandahar. No NATO ally has put more on the line against the Taliban, and Mr. Harper seems to sense not just the opportunity but the need for Canada to capitalize on it. There is a vacuum in conservative leadership in North America and on the world stage, and Mr. Harper is stepping into it. His objective would appear to be the restoration of liberal-democratic resolve against tyranny.
Afghanistan is on the PM’s mind…
[…]
But there is no equivocating on the risk of failure. “We have to get our act together . . . or NATO will not be able to undertake these kinds of missions in the future. There may be some around the NATO table who don’t think it should. But if that’s their position, that’s not what they are saying.”
An unreliable NATO has implications for Canada not least because Russia is once again becoming a menace. The Kremlin’s claim to the Arctic seabed can be discounted, he argues, because it is being pursued through the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty. But other provocations are worrisome. “They are testing our airspace more frequently than they have been doing in a long, long time,” he says. “It’s the aggression in the Arctic, aggression more generally, an aggression that is increasingly troublesome just to be troublesome.”
You’re not supposed to say such things in public these days, even when they are known to be true, which is one reason why hearing Mr. Harper say them is so refreshing. His assessment of the Iranian government borders on the Reaganesque. “It concerns me that we have a regime with both an ideology that is obviously evil, combined with a desire to procure technology to act on that ideology. . . . My government is a very strong supporter of the state of Israel and considers the Iranian threats to be absolutely unacceptable and beyond the pale.” …
The author proves to have a good understanding of the relevant political issues in Canada:
…Now Canadians are getting ready to eat a rather large stimulus bill—and conservatives there are sore…
Yeah they are. So thanks Mary Anastasia O’Grady and The Wall Street Journal for that much-needed, sobering review. Too bad Canada’s media can no longer find it in itself to be so forthcoming and honest.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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