Posted: 12:36 PM on February 6, 2011 The Globe and Mail
Integrated border proposal looms as key election issue John Ibbitson, Bill Curry and Paul Koring, Globe and Mail, Feb. 06, 2011
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/integrated-border-proposal-looms-as-key-election-issue/article1895710/
"NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar . . . 'We just don’t trust Harper to go and negotiate on behalf of our country alone and that’s why we smell a rat here', ' We just don’t trust this government to be on the right side of defending our resources, our border communities and our privacy.'"
We should all smell a rat here
We can be sure he will do the 'right' thing - ideologically right-wing extremist thing.
The Beyond Borders Working Group will be jointly managed by the Privy Council Office . . .
The Privy Counsel Office is the secretariat of the Cabinet, thus covered by Cabinet confidentiality and directly controlled by the Prime Minister.
Not only will Canadians not have an input, either directly or through their elected representatives, we will not even know what is going on.
This does not bode well for a free, tolerant, open Democratic society or the values that have been built up through the blood sweat and tears of our forefathers and passed down to us as the current custodians, to be improved upon and passed onto to our children.
We ought not trust Harper on this, or anything, which his track record so painfully demonstrates (keep in mind, this is the guy that uses vicious, personal attack ads to promote his cause, as opposed to the rational, what best for all Canadians approach - is this the kind of person we a want negotiating our personal rights and freedoms, especially in secret)
Obama: "I have great confidence that Prime Minister Harper's going to be very protective of certain core values of Canada"
This reveals an incredible misunderstanding by Obama of the Canadian political dynamics, probably stemming from the attitude of "it's all about US".
There is little doubt that Harper will be very protective of 'certain core values', he always is, after all.
The problem is that the 'certain core values' of Harper are the right-wing extremist values held by a small % of Canadians (approx.33%) with epi-centre in Alberta - the ones that support Harper pretty much no matter what, as long as he gives them what they want, and keep him and the Con's in power - as long as the Moderate Majority do not consolidate.
Ignatieff is correct to raise the issue that core Canadian values are likely to be brought into jeopardy by the US - the US doesn't do anything unless its hugely biased in their favour. Anyone who has studied how the US conducts it's International affairs knows this.
Relying on Harper to protect Canadian values as a whole is also ludicrous given Harper's abdication of authority, shirking of responsibility and Kowtow'g to the US, in particular the extremist right wing, in just about everything- Harper's Con'ism is merely a branch office of the US right-wing extremist movement, after all.
excerpt: Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html