If you're wondering where the Blogging Tories get their infantile petulance and childish vindictiveness from, well, here you go:
G8 Attack Reflects Poorly on Canada: Experts
Minutes before Mr. Harper was to address reporters for a final time at the end of this year's G8 summit in Italy, an assistant to the prime minister told reporters Liberal Leader Micael Ignatieff had suggested the G8 may soon be replaced by a new forum from which Canada would be excluded. When he appeared, Mr. Harper pounced on the comments, slamming Mr. Ignatieff for daring to imply Canada wouldn't be worthy of membership in influential fora...
As it turned out, the comments had actually been made by former deputy foreign minister Gordon Smith, now a professor at the University of Victoria. Mr. Harper, as has now been widely documented, was forced to apologize.
Although the misstep by the prime minister will likely make few waves with Canadians—most of whom are busy enjoying summertime—experts say it adds to a troubling pattern in Mr. Harper's approach to foreign policy. They say he seems content to miss opportunities to contribute to the international dialogue, instead commenting on internal, domestic politics that international journalists will have no interest in...
Canwest News reporter David Akin said that when he follows the prime minister to such summits, the Canadian leader is so poorly known that photographers are constantly asking who Mr. Harper is.
Mr. Akin recalled that at the prime minister's first G8 Summit in St. Petersburg in 2006, Mr. Harper avoided the press for three entire days, even as every other G8 leader loudly trumpeted their messages to the international press gathered on site.
Yeah ... we're back, all right.
(Wag of the tail.)
3 comments:
I didn't know we were gone...
if we weren't before, with Stevie in charge we soon will be...
The remarks from the tedious Andrew Cohen in that piece are part of another problem that might be plaguing Harper. The mediocre Cohen, perpetually bored/disappointed by his own country, laments Canada's diminished presence on the international stage and expects "daring" and "innovation." The reality of Canada might be, however that there is nothing confronting the country that necessarily requires "daring" and "innovation," unless we expect Canada to solve all of the problems that are confronting everyone else. Cohen's attitude is common among a portion of the journalistic clique that dominates this country.
Harper just doesn't have the verve to present "peace, order and good government" in a way that attracts attention (on its own, it probably can't, anyway) and doesn't have anything else to showcase, a situation entirely of his own making. The only thing he has left is his instinct to attack.
The only innovation Harper could showcase would be his success in deforming the politics of this country; the propaganda, the lies, the flip-flops, the incoherence, the broken election laws, the parliamentary, constitutional and national unity crisis he precipitated etc. etc. But he doesn't have the sardonic sense of humour necessary to do that, either.
...sorry, long comment. But read it all; it's brilliant!
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