91 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. I just went and visited a couple of dipper blogs re the Hillier affair…..man this country is occupied by morons…..I am starting to get a little worried….these people actually defend the taliban…MIND FRIGGIN BOGGLING!

  3. Over at rabbe.ca, http://www.rabble.ca/politics.shtml?sh_itm=f9f41a6ec77ee2e42510f54cb5afc7ad&rXn=1& Jerry West knows that the solution to our environmental crises is communism. Funny, the USSR was a terrible polluter.
    “The solution to the environmental crisis facing us will require a major realignment of our economic system from one based on profit and individual accumulation of wealth to one based on meeting human needs and collective sharing of resources.”

  4. You know that Big City Lib just can’t keep it in his pants, not when he has naked pictures of an underage Danielle Radcliffe posted on his blog. Too bad he blows the defense of “Artistic Merit” by commenting on Radcliffe’s ass. What a guy!

  5. Not to be missed, folks: The New Climate Almanac (G&M)

    AL GORE EFFECT, THE
    According to urbandictionary.com, this is “the phenomenon that leads to unseasonably cold temperatures, driving rain, hail, or snow whenever Al Gore visits an area to discuss global warming.”

    Heh! Yeah, you’re laughing now, but wait until you read the rest of this 15 page laugh/puke-fest– environut alert! Bwoopwoopwoop!!!

  6. An interesting development in the Great white Norths home grown mafia. Here is the opening. The rest is at the link.
    http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=1b57a260-3bd0-4502-825c-246a28c87102
    Dion firm as mutiny brews on terror act
    Opposition should be revisited if it imperils Air India inquiry: mps
    Juliet O’neill And Peter O’neil, CanWest News Service
    Published: Saturday, February 17, 2007
    OTTAWA – A spokesman for Liberal leader Stephane Dion said yesterday the party will “absolutely not” revisit its opposition to extending two controversial provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act despite a potential mutiny that appeared to be shaping up among Liberal MPs.
    Spokesman Andre Fortin made the statement amid growing opposition within Liberal ranks, where some see one of the measures as vital to an RCMP probe into the 1985 Air India bombing. Among Liberal MPs citing the Air India case are justice critic Marlene Jennings, Stephen Owen, Keith Martin and Don Bell.
    Toronto MP Roy Cullen said he is trying to persuade 30 colleagues to break ranks and side with the government to extend the measures, which allow “preventive arrests” and “investigative hearings.”

  8. Kingtonlad
    I just sent off an email to the PMO demanding the issue be brought up in the Commons next week. Had to do the PMO as my MP is a Dipper and he NEVER answers
    ANY inquiries, email or otherwise. If others do the same thing, they may just sit up and take notice.
    pm@pm.gc.ca
    Maybe a long shot, but what the hell.

  9. Why do the liberals fear the Air India inquiry.
    What have they been hiding all these years, and with a Haper govt, these secrets might come out.
    I have read more comments condeming and focusing on his march with the hezzies last summer. Also of note is his plan, as immigration minister, to inter all new immigrants to the rural areas of canada. This was in 2002.
    I think the RCMP charges re income trust will have legs that will cause libs nightmares.
    From comment appearing that are anti-kyoto, I think many cdns have googled the Kyoto Protocol, and are surprised at what they read. Money scam of tsuamis proportions.
    Google ever lib nomination to see who and how they are connected to anything or anyone. We know the conservatives will be vetted that way.
    The liberals should have a conference with algore re the internet. Considering he invented it, he might let them know that past actions, lies, distortions etc can no longer fool the voter. Someone will get the truth out and it will spread like wildfire.

  12. Sudden Jihad Syndrome
    INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
    Posted 2/16/2007
    Terror: It looks like the Muslim teen who opened fire on shoppers in a Salt Lake City mall is yet another case of “sudden jihad syndrome,” a condition in which normal-appearing American Muslims abruptly turn violent.
    Taken together, this and other cases add up to an invisible jihad inside America. But don’t tell that to the FBI. The politically correct bureau does everything it can to avoid recognizing the obvious Islamic factor in these heinous crimes.
    Sulejman Talovic, an 18-year-old Bosnian Muslim immigrant, was loaded with enough ammo to “inexplicably” kill dozens of victims — and he would have, if an alert off-duty cop hadn’t returned fire and stopped him. Talovic still managed to methodically murder five and wound four others with a shotgun.
    Witnesses say it was an act of coldblooded violence aimed at random victims — something otherwise known as terrorism. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Talovic attended Friday prayers at a mosque about a block from the mall.
    Francisco, mowing down pedestrians at crosswalks and on sidewalks before police caught up with him, whereupon the Muslim called himself a “terrorist.”
    From LGF:
    The father of Trolley Square shooter Sulejmen Talovic apologizes over and over for the ordeal. Suljo Talovic says no one who knew his son saw this coming, and he believes someone pushed him to do it.
    Suljo Talovic doesn’t know where his son got the guns or how he learned how to use them.
    Suljo Talovic, Father of Shooter: “Somebody got (the guns) … and maybe (they were) training him and tell(ing) him (to), ‘go shoot somebody.’”
    Question: So you think that somebody influenced him maybe to do this?
    Suljo Talovic: “Yeah. I think somebody.”

  13. Mr. Iggy, the de facto leader of the Liberal Party, has tabled scare mongering motions, echoed by the MSM, that PM Harper is “stacking” the justice committee that helps short list the potential judges demanding that the Conservatives stop “politicizing” the courts for narrow, scary blah blah political ideology.
    Who is on the current committe you ask? Well, none other than former Halifax Liberal MP George Cooper who ALSO just happened to be one of Mr. Iggy’s leadership campaign managers and bagmen.
    Scary Liberal ideology used to stack and politicize our courts.
    For more “impartial” ahem Liberal appointees to this committee go to Steve Taylor’s site.
    Do you think the media is stupid and ahem “uninformed” about this on purpose.
    Pot meet kettle.

  15. Harper is the kind of leader we need to lead us into the War on Terror
    Dion is not a Wartime Leader

  16. Harper is the kind of leader we need to lead us into the War on Terror
    Dion is not a Wartime Leader

  17. Why We Have An Oil Shortage In Canada!
    A lot of folks can’t understand how we came to
    Have an oil shortage here in Canada
    ~~~
    Well, there’s a very simple answer.
    ~~~
    Nobody bothered to check the oil.
    ~~~
    We just didn’t know we were getting low .
    ~~~
    The reason for that is purely geographical.
    ~~~
    Our OIL is located in
    ~~~
    Alberta
    ~~~
    Newfoundland
    ~~~
    Saskatchewan
    And
    B.C.
    ~~~
    .
    .
    .
    Our DIPSTICKS
    Are located in
    OTTAWA , ONTARIO.

  19. Tories’ shameful ads set a new low for uncivil discourse
    WILLIAM JOHNSON
    From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
    Make no mistake, the French television assault ads targeting Stéphane Dion launched this week by the Conservative Party are astute and deadly. They are also dishonest, and set a new Canadian standard for uncivil discourse.
    “The ads are effective. But Mr. Justice John Gomery made not the slightest criticism of Stéphane Dion.
    Is it acceptable to treat an “honourable member” and the leader of a vital national institution like the Liberal Party with such dishonesty, such demagogy?” …-
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070216.wxcojohnson17/BNStory/Front/home
    Johnson says the ads are dishonest. He does not explain how/why the ads are dishonest.
    Ad$cam Dion was Ad$cam Chretien’$ Unity Minister; Dion sat at the AdScam cash register dispensing the bribes on behalf of AdScam Chretien-Martin.
    The Gomery Report was/is a whitewash; a cover-up of the Librano$ crimes.
    Hold on…. found the dishonesty here: Oui.
    “Their message, though, is anything but a joke. What they say, plainly, is that Stéphane Dion is a liar, Stéphane Dion is a puppet, Stéphane Dion is part of a so-called criminal conspiracy that governed the country in the past and wants to govern it again.”

  20. Giuliani the diva’s speaking engagement rider:
    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0216071giuliani1.html
    Waterloo University student Ashley Csanady on peelers:
    “I’ve never really gotten why people think there’s something intrinsically wrong with stripping and, in turn, strippers.”
    imprint.uwaterloo.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1035&Itemid=58&issuedate=2007-02-16
    “About 20% of Tanna’s population of 30,000 follow the teachings of one of the world’s last remaining cargo cults.”
    news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6370991.stm
    Campaigners against genetically modified crops in Britain last are calling for trials of GM potatoes this spring to be halted after releasing more evidence of links with cancers in laboratory rats.
    news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article2278044.ece
    LA RONGE — A 13-year-old La Ronge girl has been found guilty of aggravated assault for setting a woman on fire in a case that’s raising questions about the quality of the police investigation.
    http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/story.html?id=7c459232-e001-4c7a-98fe-1f19f3fd7de4
    “It turns out the MPAA blog is run by a piece of software called “Forest Blog” – a Freeware blog, and one of the few things the author asks is that if you use the software in a commercial environment, pay about $40 for the registration, and don’t remove the links to the author’s original site.”
    http://www.bsalert.com/artsearch.php?fn=2&as=1698&dt=1
    “LONDON, England (AP) — Prince Harry will be serving as a soldier in Iraq by the end of the month, a British newspaper reported Saturday.”
    edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/02/17/harry.iraq.ap/index.html
    “(CBS/AP) WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. A man who was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat room during the workday is suing the company for $5 million, claiming he is an Internet addict who deserves treatment and sympathy rather than dismissal.
    wcbstv.com/local/local_story_048114005.html
    Paraglider survives 32,000ft fall
    Ewa Wisnierska says she felt like an astronaut returning from the Moon
    A German paragliding champion has survived being sucked into a storm that pulled her higher than Mount Everest.
    Ewa Wisnierska, 35, who lost consciousness as she soared skywards, was covered in ice and battled hailstones the size of oranges.
    news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6369923.stm
    “Luxury car rental agency San Diego Prestige is charging $999 per driver, plus a $10,000 security deposit, for its half-day tours that feature 30 minutes of driving time in six fast cars. ”
    http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070217/news_lz1dd17michau.html
    “I have seen a better world than what we have today, a less discriminating one, a more united one. This better world existed for approximately a decade after the U.S. Civil Rights Act in 1964 which barred employment discrimination based on race and gender (other western nations have a similar timeline). And this should have been where political correctness ended? At this point, women and minority groups were given the necessary tools to make it on their own; at this point personal responsibility should have prevailed, but it didn’t, did it? About a decade after 1964 affirmative action and diversity really started to kick in. Women and minority groups were not happy with personal responsibility; they wanted to force the world into quota-based employment; they wanted to force the world into a de facto communism to suit their own ends.”
    friedbrains.com/?p=128
    “A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando’s black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization.”
    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-mhate1507feb15,0,5460836.story

  21. Silly Liberals (and their freinds in the media),
    by protesting so much we know have a debate as to the extent of Dion’s culpability in the worst political scandal of our time (a Liberal scandal).
    At best all they can say is “Dion can’t be associated with his corrupt party”.
    At worst folks will assume he knew things or was directly involved.
    The whole spectrum in between is all gravy for the conservatives.

  26. Sudden Jihad Syndrome by daisy irwin
    INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
    Posted 2/16/2007
    Terror: It looks like the Muslim teen who opened fire on shoppers in a Salt Lake City mall is yet another case of “sudden jihad syndrome,” a condition in which normal-appearing American Muslims abruptly turn violent.
    Daisy: do you have a link to this story? This is something I had guessed from the name but the MSM has been silent as usual.

  27. For Your Weekend Viewing
    What the Second World War was about. From a certain point of view. How copied B-29s suddenly become Soviet DC-3s upon landing and American and British flags are miraculously transformed into Red Banners. Or how Reds are really patriots. True Americans. And why a couple who have long sought each other for entire duration of the Great Patriotic War shout out loud only to find themselves standing next to each in the presence of the locomotive of history — Koba AKA Joseph Stalin — perhaps the greatest mass murderer in the long, sordid annal of the world….
    And what it might have looked like from another point of view….-
    http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2007/02/for-your-weekend-viewing.html

  28. Gunney99,
    You’ll find it at littlegreenfootballs.com (blog) and at thereligionofpeace.com (under articles)
    I recommend reading both. The article at religion of peace lists many other violent incidents of ‘sudden jihad’ which the media are covering up.

  29. “The Police’s reunion world tour will belch as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 30 million SUVs idling on a -25C morning for as long as it takes to get out of Starbucks with coffee and a breakfast cookie. That’s the same amount of carbon as would be released by burning 80,000 hectares of rain forest 70 times…”
    – The National Post
    I wonder how much CO2 Al Gore’s world rock tour is going to belch into the atmosphere? Hypocritical prick. But that’s redundant.

  30. Nice link, sarge, you’ve directed us into the inner sanctum of your intellectual depth.
    Somehow I suspect your keyboard is encrusted with greasy pizza crumbs and mom’s on the other side of your bedroom door with an ultimatum.

  31. What’s up with Air Canada not flying anymore to India–but to China instead?
    ‘Anything to do with the Librano $tooge$, I wonder: Pauly, Mo, and Jeanny?
    I’m getting sick of the Librano$ using Canada as their personal playground. Canada exists for them and their getting rich–and to H*ll with the rest of us.
    Stephen Harper understands that Canada is a COUNTRY with CITIZENS who HAVE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES and WHO NEED LEADERSHIP. He understands that Canada is NOT A GREAT BIG SANDBOX WHICH ONLY THE LIBS AND THEIR FRIENDS GET TO PLAY IN.
    I’m voting for Stephen Harper, grownup, true leader, and statesman, in the next election.

  32. Yeah, I think it’s really dumb to stop flights to India. India is the other great growth region. The liberals and MSM are all hypnotized by China, but India actually has the fastest growing middle-class in the world.
    I have worked with companies in India. It is a natural and right place to work: They have English as an official language, they believe in the rule of law and inviolability of the contract, parliamentary democracy, really cute chicks (ooops) and we have a common history.
    Sod China; India is THE place.

  34. What’s up with Air Canada not flying anymore to India–but to China instead?
    Bad business . not enough bums in seats to make it profitable.
    Make more money flying to China.
    Very simple. The arithmetic of profit.

  35. Found an excellent article on the absurd moral equivalenc non-argument by David Thompson.
    A couple of excerpts:
    The size of an extremist ‘fringe’ and its relationship to mainstream conceptions of the faith have to be considered as they actually are, not as one might wish, or assume. When given a moment’s thought, all fundamentalisms are not in fact equivalent in their particulars, or the consequences thereof. Yet this is the default prejudice from which many commentators proceed…”
    Cultural equivalence also underlies the current fashion for religious protectionism, whereby reason and scientific methodology are depicted as equivalent to faith and merely a matter of lifestyle choice, as if logical enquiry had no attributes that set it apart from religious ideology and a priori belief. But to equate these very different phenomena requires one to flatten values and empty the mind in the ostensible interest of ‘fairness’ – perhaps to spare the blushes of the less capable among us.
    Which, once again, brings us to Madeleine Bunting, an associate editor of the Guardian and the paper’s chief commentator on all things Islamic. In another piece denouncing the infidel attachment to Enlightenment ideas, Bunting explained the strange trajectory of her opposition: “I began bumping into the subject with Muslim intellectuals who were acutely aware of how this legacy was being used (implicitly or explicitly) against Islam.” Ah, yes, there we go. It’s quite clear from Bunting’s earlier columns that anything that might be used (implicitly or explicitly) to reveal shortcomings in Islamic theology is a very bad thing indeed. Unlike, say, Catholicism or Scientology, Islam must forever remain beyond reproach or challenge, for reasons which are deep and mysterious, and never made entirely clear.
    Bunting informs us: “We are profoundly irrational and… rationality is a social construction.” She then asks, apparently with genuine puzzlement: “Why do people think an understanding of rationality which is over 200 years old is useful now?” Well, regarding profound irrationality, one can only wish Ms Bunting would speak for herself, or possibly for those Guardian readers who ingest her writing without objection or amusement. Why, one might ask, does Bunting think a reactionary and literalist theology which is considerably older than the Enlightenment is still particularly valid or “useful” now? Given Bunting’s article appeared the same week in which Abdul Rahman faced public execution in Afghanistan for the ‘heresy’ of abandoning Islam in favour of Christianity, this is not just an academic question.
    Read the rest @ davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2007/02/blunting_the_se.html

  37. Bob Tarantino catches Maclean’s magazine making up a whopper:
    “Would it kill certain media outlets in this country to, I don’t know, accurately report the news every once in a while?
    Take this Maclean’s piece. Please. For context purposes, note that, according to the byline currently at the top of the report, it was filed on February 15, 2007 at 12:28pm EST.

    “The Harper government may be staring down the barrel of an unprecedented Constitutional battle if it goes ahead with its refusal to respect an opposition bill calling on Canada to respect its Kyoto engagements.”

    The Harper government has never, not once, even insinuated that it will not abide by Bill C-288. In fact, if you click through to the link with which Maclean’s highlights “refusal”, (see here), the first sentence of the Yahoo! report is “Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he’ll respect the Kyoto climate-change legislation forced through by the opposition”. So, as evidence of assertion X, Maclean’s is citing a report which states not-X.”
    bobtarantino.blogs.com/blog/2007/02/a_very_dangerou.html

  38. Economic markets aren’t my forte, Fred.
    Why are there so many people flying to China? Why are there fewer flying to India?
    ‘Anything at all to do with the Libs or is it just the way things are?

  39. Hey ‘been around the block……..
    I was scritching my head over this one as well when it dawned on me that there is gonna be another inquiry into the Air India bombing and this one is supposed to be a smidge more enlightning.
    Maybe Air Canada is fearfull of another attack to intimidate the potential witnesses.
    *shrug*

  40. She then asks, apparently with genuine puzzlement: “Why do people think an understanding of rationality which is over 200 years old is useful now?”
    Amusing isn’t it, here’s a female in an executive position that could only be awarded to her as the logical extension of Western cultures evolution since the Age of Reason and she’s puzzled. If you aren’t sown up in a burqa what’s so puzzling?
    I have a theory that our measurements of IQ’s and the assumptions that we make with the scores are flawed. But, that’s a whole other topic…
    I wish I could get grant money for my premise that the personality disordered have disproportionate numbers in journalism and victim studies.

  44. Just finished the Feb 26 issue of Western Standard. Great cover story on Arar, with a lot of questions that were never asked or answered re his torture. I still think he scammed us out of 10.5 million dollars. Mark Stein also has a great article re Dion.

  45. Holocaust “Truther” Arrested in New Jersey
    The man who allegedly assaulted and tried to kidnap renowned author Elie Wiesel has been arrested in New Jersey: Eric Hunt arrested in Wiesel attack. (Hat tip: zombie.)
    (02-17) 13:09 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The man accused of trying to kidnap Holocaust author and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel outside a San Francisco hotel earlier this month was arrested today in New Jersey.
    Montgomery Township police confirmed that 22-year-old Eric Hunt was arrested at 10:30 a.m. PST. He faces charges of attempted kidnapping, false imprisonment, elder abuse, stalking, battery and the commission of a hate crime.
    San Francisco police say Hunt confronted Wiesel, 78, in an elevator at the Argent Hotel on Feb. 1 during an interfaith conference and pulled him out on the sixth floor. Wiesel began screaming and his assailant fled. Police said they found Hunt’s car in the hotel’s parking garage, and Wiesel told The Chronicle that his assailant fled so quickly that the assailant left his wallet and driver’s license in the car.
    On Feb. 6, a man identifying himself as Hunt posted a detailed account of the attack on several anti-Semitic and anti-Israel Web sites. That account matched a description of the attack police provided a few days later. In that post, Hunt said he cornered Wiesel, the author of more than 40 books based on his Holocaust experiences, in order to force him into admitting that the Holocaust never occurred….-
    http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/

  46. Calibre missile: main warhead: 137.4 mm 136 mm
    Warhead: Tandem shaped charges high explosive (HE)
    Weight: firing post: tripod: thermal imager: missile tube: in tactical container: 5 kg 5 kg 3.5 kg 12.5 kg
    Range: 50 m to 600 m
    Time of flight to maximum range: 4.3 seconds
    Guidance: optically tracked, single wire
    semi-automatic command to line of sight
    Control: thrust vector controlled
    Missile velocity at launch: at 600 m: 18 m/s 245 m/s
    Rate of fire: 5 missiles in two minutes
    Operating conditions: -31°C to 51°C
    Sights: optical and thermal imagery
    Manufacturers Eryx: Mirabel
    thermal imager: EVIGS: EPGS: Aerospatiale, France TCO/Asaca, Montreal, Canada Simtran, Montreal, Canada
    http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9731d_4407

  47. just read from g&m :
    As one prominent Liberal puts it: “There are certainly people who say Harper looks across the (Commons) aisle and says, ‘I can beat this guy.’
    any time harper …he is a frog!
    looks too like one

  48. Regarding Dion’s reversal on Anti-Terrorism Legislation
    Lets not forget that the Supreme Court of Canada heard the reference and found adequate safeguards (back in ’04).
    Here:
    http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/anti_terr/fact_sheets/invest_hear/invest_hear_1.html
    In other words, Dion doesn’t just want constitutional safeguards for the terrorist suspects, he wants the;
    super duper extra “just-for-terrorists” safeguards.
    Soft on Terrorism? Now what makes you think that.

  50. This is by the usually Conservative Arch Enemy Larry Zolf of the CBC:
    Morality in politics
    January 8, 2007
    Stephen Harper is the most moral Canadian prime minister in Canadian history.
    It is morality that motivates his stand against same-sex marriage and his support for the war in Afghanistan. It’s morality that drives him to take on his Bay Street pals on the issue of income trusts.
    If there were any doubt this prime minister is driven by morality rather than the almighty buck, his dealings with communist China should lay them to rest.
    Harper has demanded, in public, the release of Huseyn Celil, a Canadian Uyghur now rotting in a Chinese cell, and turned a deaf ear to cries from Canadian business that his criticism of China’s terrible record on human rights is alienating an important trading partner.
    “I am deeply concerned about the Harper government’s approach to China,” national business spokesman Thomas D’Aquino said recently. “My concerns are shared by many in Canada’s business and academic communities.”
    Harper’s approach to morality in politics differs radically from the Liberal style that goes back to Lester Pearson and Mackenzie King — that Canada must always engage in a traditional, morally neutral, even-handed diplomacy, regardless of how godawful some of the regimes may be.
    Harper sees the war in Afghanistan as a natural extension of Tory political morality that goes back to 1917, when the Tory government of the day made Canada’s ties with Britain its moral base. The Tories called the 1917 election on the single issue of support for Britain through the invocation of conscription.
    Quebec was outraged. Led by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the province rejected conscription massively, and several people were killed during an anti-conscription riot in Quebec City. The crisis, which led to the Tories being shut out of Quebec until 1958, lingers today in Quebec’s suspicion of Harper’s militaristic approach in Afghanistan.
    Morality politics has had a dark side in the history of the Liberal party. In the 1930s, the Liberals under Mackenzie King remained completely silent on the Nazi persecution of the Jews in Germany.
    Of all Western countries, Canada had the worst record on Jewish refugees. That was underlined by the famous “voyage of the damned,” when the SS St. Louis, loaded with thousands of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, was turned away from the port of Montreal.
    This was the playing out of moral politics of the worst kind: The Liberals were literally playing with people’s lives.
    If Harper’s political morality separates him from tradition of “almighty dollar” diplomacy in this country, it certainly separates him from the neutrality of the Liberals towards the Nazis and, under Jean Chrétien, the party’s approach to China.
    Harper is not a cynic in politics. He is a Christian moralist, first and foremost.
    It was his Christian morality — not votes — that led him to declare Quebec a nation within a united Canada. He did so knowing his decision went contrary to his Western and rural base.
    Harper’s political morality recently led him to condemn the provocations of Iran’s Holocaust-denying president — the prime minister was alone among party leaders to send that message to Iran — as well as Israel’s threatening response.
    Harper also believes in the two-nations solution for the Israeli-Palestinian nightmare, and says Hamas is a terrorist organization. That stance will give him even more Jewish votes than he now has.
    The moral approach will play well for him in the next election. Canada’s one million Chinese Canadians and 500,000 Jews may just agree that his stance on human rights in China and Iran is both moral and good politics.
    It will also help Harper maintain his Western and rural base: Exalting Canada’s middle class as he has done is playing morality politics at its best. And refusing to let trade with China trump morality when it comes to criticizing Beijing’s human rights abuses makes Harper look strong and decisive.
    I don’t share the prime minister’s social conservatism or economic views, but I thoroughly prefer his gutsy stand on issues like China to Liberal gamesmanship and nuanced neutrality on human rights abuses — anytime, anyplace.

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