.
Watching the reaction from some in the “progressive” camp over Harper’s habit of closing his speeches with “God Bless Canada”, my suggestion to our incoming Prime MInister is this: Faster, Please.
The greater part of the success of the Bush administration’s ability to win elections lies, not in the electoral support of the so-called “religious right” (which is more media mythology than reality) , but in their ability to provoke the “loony left” to come unhinged in front of ordinary Americans.
When a conservative invokes God, no matter how generically, the left cannot help but expose their seething intolerance of all things Christian – thus, shining a spotlight on the highly selective nature of the “diversity” they champion.
The Paul Martin Liberals started well down this path during the last election campaign, the last few days illustrated by the bizarre behavior and “warnings” (abortion! child labour!) erupting from the leader himself. What Conservatives can do now is to quietly keep pushing them along on that path. With a little luck, and the inevitable cheerleading from media, a few more “God Bless”‘s might just encourage the type of Harper “Derangement Syndrome” from “progressives” that helps keep US Democrats out of office.
See above.
Addendum:
Fact Checking the Calgary Herald:
Gore warned that Harper wants to remove Canada from the Kyoto accord, which the United States signed under former president Bill Clinton, but has refused to ratify under President George W. Bush.
False. Clinton signed Kyoto, knowing full well that it would be rejected by the Senate – which they did, voting against it unanimously – 3 full years before Bush came into office.
See also: Who knew Beausejour was in Texas?
Green Canuck to Gore: “Right on, dude!”
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, The Prime Minister of Canada.
Hail to the Chief!
Harper’s first post-election news conference a model in efficiency, brevity
OTTAWA (CP) – He hasn’t even been sworn in yet, but in a 22-minute heartbeat Thursday, Stephen Harper placed his stamp on the country’s highest elected office. >>>>
http://cnews.canoe.ca/
ultra con sounds a heck of a lot better than leftist fascist. I am not a church goer but from now on I will put
” … God bless Canada …”
at the bottom of all my email.
No. It is called sucking up. Mr. Harper did not allow a CP question today. >> andrewcoyne.com
CP: Nolo contendere.
Where was Al Gore before the election?
Now that Canadians have voted in Stephen Harper as Prime Minister, former US Vice President Al Gore pipes up to inform us that we all overlooked an important issue:
The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta, Gore said…
Robert Bedet- As an athiest leftie I can testify that we don’t all go into fits at any mention of the G word. They’re are nutty athiests and nutty religous types on both says who say nutty things.
It’s good for a laugh but I won’t read too much into it. Religon and secular thought are both here to stay but there’s going to be plenty of rhetorical shots over the bow.
Al Gore: (H/T Maurice Strong & Earth Charter)>>>
This quiz was created by Ken Crossman
and originally located here. Enjoy!
Did Al Gore say it? Or was it the Unabomber?
It may be more difficult to decide than you think.
Each quote below is either from Al Gore’s Book Earth in the Balance or from the Unabomber’s Manifesto.
After each quote choose either Gore or Unabomber.
At the end hit the Grade Me button and the quiz will be graded and you can view the correct answers. You will also have the opportunity to view the documentation. To be fair, I should point out that while Al and the Unabomber identify the “problems” similarly, they part on the solution.
Al wants a “Global Marshall Plan” with enforcement across national boundaries while the Unabomber prefers the idea of revolution.
I got the idea for the test, by the way, from a column by Tony Snow. >>> quiz here:
http://www.crm114.com/algore/quiz.html
Agreed, Peter. I’m just reluctant to use the term ‘investment’ because many lefties hear it and automatically assume ‘OMG EXPLOITATION BY CAPITALIST FASCIST PIGS!!!!11!one’
To make it more clear, we can’t expect global prosperity without also expecting that we will have to compete against newly prosperous societies.
Come on folks. Why do you have to lets facts get in the way of a good story?
Ninja has it right. Kyoto does nothing to address the real concern, metal pollution. Our reliance on fossil fuels and mined resources has taken toxic metals stored in the earth and distributed them into our atmosphere.
I am speaking of various metals like mercury, thallium, nickel, barium, aluminum, silver, strontium etc.
Chemicals can be biologically transformed. Carbon dioxide can be addressed with increased plant life and we may see the use of such supercrops like Hemp being introduced again.
We even has electronic technology available know that can neutralize carcinogenic substances like benzene and PCB’s.
Unfortunately metals are not capable of being dealt with, aside from putting them back into the earth or shipping them out of our atmoshere.
The incorporation of various metals into our air, water and food supply has resulted in the massive influx of degenerative disease we see today, from cancer to BSE.
Runtaller
Jose,
The arrogance of your Liberal Party continues through fools like you. First, you lost the election! Secondly, your leader resigned and third, you’ve watched the Conservative Party (regardless of it’s/their names) seat count grow over the past 4 elections.
Listening to you (and the CBC) and all of your pathetic Ex-Leaders blabber on about how Canadians have given you a ‘time-out’ is laughable at best. You’re so preoccupied with ‘when you’re going to get back in power’, you’ve lost sight of how you’re going to get back in power.
The ball is in our court now!
Worse yet, you haven’t even scratched the surface of your problems. 1.) Your party is losing support in Quebec, Ontario, and just about everywhere else. (this process is just starting) 2.) The Liberal Party is broke (to say the least) 3.) Harper’s popularity is steadily rising (and his term hasn’t even started yet 4.) You have ABSOLUTELY nobody in the party who can turn this thing around (for leadership)!
Keep pretending that Canadians have given you a ‘time-out’… haha! You guys are starting to sound like General Motors!
And the grand-finale.. of your parties long-term demise is the following: What are you guys going to apply policy on? What are you going to do when Stephen Harper ‘isn’t scary’ anymore?? What are you going to offer Canadians? The next sign of your fate will be the loud ‘thump’ of Mr. McGuinty falling on his ass in the next election in Ontario! What will you say then??
Watching the Liberal Party has been like watching a pack of wolves taking down a caribou.. Except… you guys are the caribou..! You’re not dead yet, but you’re dying (and quicker than expected)!
The tectonic shift has already happened, my friend. It started a long time ago; however, if you close your eyes and pretend it’s not happening… IT’S STILL HAPPENING!
Au Revoir!
singlethreat, I donated more to my candidate & the CPC in the last two years than I ever have to a political party in my life, plus donating precious hours of my time (away from my child & my job that supports my child) and you totally embarassed me in the first 2 lines so I quit reading.
Quit being a jerk.
Jose has congratulated us on our win, agreed with some (not all, but some) beliefs, and you come across as a complete idiot. Take a powder.
Jose, thanks for joining into the conversation. Kate, forgive me for overstepping.
Jose, re: “I’d like to see more government leadership here” – so would we all. Canada ‘signed on’ to Kyoto yet gave a free pass to polluters in the largest provinces. What a crock! The oil industry in AB has invested billions in retrofits and IF production remained the same as in 1990 (a wee bit of a flaw in Kyoto, one has to ask) would have reduced emissions by anywhere from 15-30%. However, production increased so the VOLUME increased. Funny how that works.
If emissions aren’t measured by a standard (per barrel, per whatever) then… what’s the point?
I think its well understood that our economies are going to get bigger and this is going to be driving increases in emissions. In the long run we need cheap carbon neutral energy. Until then being a bit more effecient wouldn’t hurt.
Pretending a problem doesn’t exsist isn’t helpful but it isn’t the end of the world either. Nations that adapt to new realities quickly will gain competitive advantages over ones that don’t.
“I’m waiting for the anti-americans to start raging about Gore sticking his nose in Canadian affairs.”
gimbol:
Indeed.
How is it we get all huffy when the US Ambassador chimes in on Canada but it’s OK for the Gore-Moore-Big Bore Network to poke their noses in our affairs?
Asshat Alert
As if he did not embarrass himself enough in the United States with his stupid remarks, Al Gore is now trying to do the same with Canadian politics. In today’s Calgary Herald (Hat Tip: Drudge), Gore unleashes his alpha-male, angry,
Gore’s perfidy was on full display when he accused Harper of “working for big oil interests”. I suppose he thinks the US public and media have short enough memories to forget that HE was responsible for the largest oil profiteering scam in US government history when he sold off the emergency US crude oil reserves at fire sale prices to the Gore family patron Armand Hammer’s Occidental oil…a sort of US version of Moe Strong. Hammer proceeded to develop their new Gore given Elk hills reserve destroying the fragile habitata and traditional indian lands it resides in….so much for “father earth” Gore…the man’s a liar, a hypocrite and a cheat…hardly one to be handing out moral advice.
Gore has all the qualities of a modern liberal demagogue: toxic hypocricy and engaged in cutting back room profiteering deals for monopolist patrons. He also shares Martin’s phoney nationalist bigotry.
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0300teapot.htm
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/business/armand-hammer/
Why on earth would anyone in Canada care a whit about what failed politician Al Gore says? It’d be like John Turner or Kim Campbell criticizing the US.
Doesn’t Big Al have a more important mission, like improving the internet he invented?
Sometimes my broadband connection slows down. Man, I hate it when it does that.
As for SSM, despite the poor optics of expediting a free vote (ie, SSM isn’t one of the CPC priorities & we have some pretty big issues like Accountability to resolve), would it not be wiser to expedite this while the libs are without a leader to whip the vote against changing the definition of marriage?
mhb23re
(email is above username at Google webmail service)
Googling & Google: Gore on the Internet? China & Google/Google. .. via LGF>>
Two Versions of Google
tiananmen – Google Image Search.
tiananmen – Google Image Search in China.
MHB- Harper has to woo the center. I wouldn’t hold your breath for a fight on SSM.
Stop talking about Kyoto. The US Senate defeated the treaty by a vote of about 95 to 0. The US will NEVER ratify the treaty and it has nothing to do with Bush. Kerry, Kennedy, and just about every other left wing loonie Senator voted against it. Any president can sign a treaty but until the Senate ratifies the treaty, it doesn’t mean anything.
Candace,
I have also been a member of the CPC and Reform/Alliance and I supported my CPC Candidate both in their campaign office and as a scrutineer.
Yippity doo-daw.
If you don’t believe that the Liberal actually believes that they are entitled to step back into power, then we are not watching the same ‘CBC’!
They are not entitled to power.
What do Democrats do when the National Anthem is being sung?
I think the Democratic Party and our Liberal Party should consider changing their names. They’ve both ‘lost thier way’.
Cheri, I’m an American conservative and have been active in the Republican party, and as a believer in the two-party system in the U.S., frankly I’m frightened by the takeover of the Dems by the left of its constituency. What Democrat activist does not look on someone like Joe Lieberman as a “sellout”? Whereas I strongly disagree with people like Olympia Snowe or John McCain, but I don’t consider them “sellouts”; I think they help the party to stay center-right (instead of far-right, where many activists would like to go, probably me included). A party has to have a balance – enough activism to give it some ideas, enough centrism not to scare voters away. The Democrats are only scaring voters away, and as badly as the Republicans are running the House (which I think they are – really a horrible job), they will do well in elections this November because the voters will not trust the Democrat candidates – the more so the more the candidates give in to these anti-Bush fantasies. Now, you might think Republicans would be happy about this situation, but many of us are very concerned b/c this is the situation that has led to poor behavior in the House leadership in the past 4-5 years in the first place — they know that the Democrats are tanking, have no real leadership or platform, and are becoming more hysterical as they become more centrifugal, so who do they have to please? Their constituents, and themselves. But a higher responsibility to the country? Sadly, many have abandoned those ideals, and it’s because they knew they could, because the other party couldn’t, and can’t, mount a serious fight. I’m very serious — it’s very depressing to those of us who believe in having two serious, viable choices. And I haven’t even mentioned the Democrats who feel abandoned by their party; I have a good number of friends in Texas who feel that way. Don’t want to be (or vote) Republican, can’t vote Democrat anymore.
What i tried to post on Green Canadian (not a real blog) and was unsuccessful.
Look dear eco-friends; until China and India fully agree and comply with kyoto; ANY pitiful reductions in this part of the world are the equivalent of saying “Ok no peeing in the shallow end of the pool!!” Meanwhile you have two large fat kids (China & India) taking large chunky shits in the deep end, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!
What the world is finally seeing is that Kyoto is unrealistic and unimplementable…a Ruse.
Meg; I guess the only thing black and white about partisan politics anymore is who’s the bigger crook/liar. I would have loved to have the leisure of voting for someone like the Green Party this time but it was more important for me to vote OUT corruption. Only once, in a provincial election, have I EVER wasted a vote by writing ‘none of the above’. I can tell you and my fellow Canadians one thing; if I get the slightest whiff that Harper and the Conservatives have lied; God help them.
“Are you not alway’s amazed at how certain outspoken American’s like to tell Canadian’s what is best for us, good God most American’s don’t even know where Canada is & if they do, they think we live in igloo’s, eat nothing but bacon & are all hockey player’s for god sake, Geeeez their I go again using God.”
Indeed. I am equally amused at how certain people assume all Americans are lazy, fat, dimwitted, blow hard, warmongering, religious nutcases who torture puppies for fun and eat kittens’ souls for breakfast to maintain their growing girth. They have absolutely noting to contribute to any conversation whatsoever because they obviously know nothing but baseless ethnic stereotypes and their experiences with the most dangerous weapon of all, an oppressor of society, cold-hearted capitalism which of course will never works out but they continue to go out of their way to attack freedom loving communist states worldwide. States so hungry for attention they are forced by the Americans to sacrifice like minded kin and young babies in massive blood rituals to get it and have now branched outward seeking new sacrifices in neighboring countries to help speak to power.
Terrible, Terrible people they are…especially the ones that feel the need to speak, irregardless of their interests in or knowlege of the matter.
…oh you forgot one stereotype. Guess. Eh? 😛
Well, Cheri, I’m sure it will turn out that there are probably some incompetents in the Conservatives and also people who are easily corrupted by interests in Ottawa . . . it happens in every party. It would happen to the Greens if they got elected. You have proximity to power, money, and influence, and someone or some organization makes you some offer . . . you rationalize it, saying, oh this would help my cause/my constituents/the party/whatever. Usually no one knows, or has to, certainly at first, but it will warp a politician over time. ALL politicians take some money, obviously, but whether or not they have the strength of character to avoid “gray-area” donations is another matter.
However, I think the Conservatives, overall, will be okay for a while because much of their heritage comes out of an idealistic background and they have worked so long and hard for this — and if anyone is tempted, I’m sure they know the media would pounce! We’re all sinful men who need carrots andsticks, whether Liberal, Conservative, NDP, Green, Bloc, whatever!
Meg; I forgot to mention I did support the Tories willingly and hope they don’t make a liar out of me. I have done a lot of writing/talking in their defence. When the Reform party jumped into bed with Joe Who’s party I was very much against the principle of it. Then after so much flack from him and a few other ‘blue bloods’ I thought screw you, you were wiped off the electoral map, we’re saving you and so on. Then adscam came along and it has been my biggest drive to see an end to the Liberals at ANY cost. Even when it meant losing so many of the principles of the old reform party during their last Party convention. That’s all old news, I see they need to conform and be more mid-stream etc. I just hope they don’t lose their way too much.
I went to a Town Hall Meeting last fall with Rona Ambrose, who said, she wanted to be elected to make a difference, but was TOTALLY unprepared for the power of Lobbyists. She said you have no idea how powerfull they are. Hopefully that will be her first order of ‘business’ as a member of the governing party.
Our apologies to all Canadians. Apparently our former Vice President was let out on pass for a few days and forgot his meds!
He’s really quite harmless. Just ask Al Qaida.
al bore does not have a clue. I am an American who thinks al bore should just drink his koolaid and shut up. I like P.M. elect Harper but i would hardly call him ultra consertive.
Harper is never at our vast right wing conspiracy meetings.
I think Dear leader Rove is starting to notice.
You need to edit your post. The Kyoto protocol has *never* been submitted to the US Senate, by Clinton or by Bush.
The US Senate stated it’s opposition to the treaty in a resolution, but your write-up implies that the treaty was submitted to the Senate for ratification and that the Senate voted it down. It’s a small point, but you’re not telling the whole story. (Neither is the Calgary Herald for that matter, but you should even if they don’t).
The Herald’s statement is factually correct. They just neglected to include the words “and under President Clinton” to the end of the sentence.