The Hair and hairdresser arrived in Senegal yesterday. (Or maybe it was today. World travel is confusing as you cross time zones.) Never one to miss an opportunity for tourism, Stephen and his hair rushed out to do photo ops with local Dakar school children. The hair, of course, was perfect.
There was no report on there being anything wrong with the Canadian Forces’ Airbus A310 that it could not find Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That is where the Hair and hairdresser were reputedly headed. On the weekend in Kinshasa, there is to be a meeting of la Francophonie, a gathering of French speaking countries. This meeting is likely to explain the stop in Senegal. Harper is obviously bad at adjusting to cross time-zone travel. He and his Hair are picking a nearby tourist destination to enable him to acclimatize before the meetings. Why else would his first meeting in Kinshasa be with Quebec Premier Pauline Marois?
It seems appropriate that Marois would have her first meeting with Stephen Harper at this venue. It is the one place where she can act as a head of state. Harper and the Premier of New Brunswick David Alward are also members of la Francophonie but they represent bilingual states. By attending, Harper is furthering Marois’ agenda.
The one thing Harper would not do is invite Marois and Alward to fly with him at the Canadian taxpayers’ expense in the VIP Airbus. They can fly at their provincial taxpayers’ expense. And besides, Harper needs room for his hairdresser.
What Harper is doing at la Francophonie remains to be seen. His voters in the west do not generally acknowledge that he speaks such practiced French. And he is hardly about to become too chummy with Pauline Marois.
Harper can save his world-statesman stance for NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair when he deigns to return to the House of Commons. It would be good if Harper took more Prime Ministerial responsibility for bad meat. Between bad meat and highly polluting tar sands, Harper has lots to answer for here in Canada
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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