Not since Brian Mulroney did his farewell tour to see the only people who still liked him, has a Canadian Prime Minister travelled the world to the same extent. This week, the (almost) perfect hair and wife Laureen did a photo-op for the news media at India’s world famous Taj Mahal.
While there was nothing of import to report on from the trip, our slavish news media did their best to report on the exciting aspects of the hair’s adventures in tourism. The unusually relaxed prime minister mildly explained Canada’s acceptance of free expression when an Indian cabinet minister gave him a lecture on Sikh extremism. After all, Mr. Harper has lots of religious extremists in his own political party back in Canada.
How Harper could look so relaxed knowing his government was in the hands of people such as Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney was the mystery. And it is not as though Defence Minister Peter McKay is a stabilizing influence while he is enjoying his honeymoon.
As an added precaution in India, the RCMP had a Globemaster aircraft fly in special armoured cars for him to use during his visit. This was probably an unnecessary expense considering how much more experience that India has in political assassination compared to Canada.
At least, while in India, Mr. Harper and his hair were hardly out of touch. We understand that the backup plan for communications was to take over a Microsoft call centre with its perfect connections to North America. This also assured Mr. Harper that he could be one of the first to congratulate Barack Obama on winning his second term.
Mr. Harper knows exactly what Mitt Romney and his GOP team did wrong in the American election. He figures that in four years he will be out of office in Canada and available to advise the next GOP presidential candidate.
In a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, you could see the Indian Prime Minister’s eyes taking in the perfection of the Canadian Prime Ministerial hair. For a guy who wears a turban, you could see his envy of the freedom of a hair cut.
But we do notice that the Stephen Harper’s real hair is becoming a lighter shade of grey than that which covers his receding hairline. Time to take the hair back to the shop for a redo, Stephen!
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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