- Harper's Tragic (for Canada, that is) Flaw: either you're Right (ideologically) or your wrong

12:29 PM on October 15, 2010, The Globe and Mail
PM ignores Ignatieff, defends Canadian principles in wake of UN defeat, Martin Ouellet, The Canadian Press, Oct. 15, 2010

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/pm-ignores-ignatieff-defends-canadian-principles-in-wake-of-un-defeat/article1757807/

To suggest Stephen Harper is not blaming Ignatieff for his, Harper's, rebuke at the UN is to totally misunderstand how Harper and the Con's operate. Everyone knows that Harper very tightly controls the message coming from him, his office, his Minister's, and all hi MP's.
To say that Lawrence Cannon did no have approval for blaming Ignatieff, especially on the International stage, flies squarely in the face of this well know fact.

It is even more unbelievable that Harper's communications director, Dimitri Soudas, would not have prior approval by Harper.

In fact, given the very short time from the UN vote and Cannon's & Soudas' accusations, it is apparent that this was a very well planned strategy to deflect the fallout of the rebuke (it also suggest Harper had a good idea this rebuke was coming, quite likely, everything considered).

Harper suggests it is was the Con government's "positions based on the promotion of our values – freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law, justice, development, humanitarian assistance for those who need it." that lost the vote.

What we must understand is that when Harper says "promotion of our" he is referring to the extremist, right-wing promotion of values of the Conservative Party and their core of die-hard supporters, the Con values. He is not referring to the "promotion of our values" of the vast majority of Canadians, who do so in the same moderate, conciliatory, balanced fashion that Canada has demonstrated on the International stage since the inception of the UN and for which it won the Security Counsel seat 6 time out of 6. The only real difference this time is Harper, his policies and his extremist, right-wing, approach to International affairs.

In this vote we could only have hope that the International community was writing Harper and the Con's off to a 'right wing extremism anomaly in Canada's history'

Also, perhaps the International Community would bank on that by the time Canada's turn to hold the presidency come around, we will have a moderate government in line with Canada's great traditions in the International community.

Also, as some have pointed out, Harper seems to be suggesting Germany and Portugal have no values and principals. Of course, when you are looking at things from an extreme perspective, it can be easy to convince yourself that only those that share your value have values - either you're Right (ideologically) or your wrong.

Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html