Here he has his own Airbus A310, his own hairdresser, a plane full of lackeys to do his bidding and Prime Minister Stephen Harper still gives the back of his hand to simple diplomacy. This guy manages to look stiff and stunned in a Balinese shirt and surrounded by beautiful Balinese women. He is certainly not doing Canada’s world-wide reputation the least bit of good.
And now he wants to piss off his best friend Queen Elizabeth II. Can you imagine? Here Prime Minister Harper cosies up to the royals for years and now he is needlessly throwing crap at their favourite photo-op: the Commonwealth. He thinks he is going to have some kind of influence on Sri Lanka’s leaders by boycotting a Commonwealth meeting there next month.
Maybe Harper figures he does not need to be there because Prince Charles is standing in for his mother. He figures nobody will criticize him for ignoring Charles.
But this is not diplomacy. This is childish. Stephen Harper and his hairdresser will stay home for a change. Nobody is going to disagree that the long-ago Commonwealth solidarity behind England has become something of a joke. It is just that any and all forums for nations to talk can be of value. It is good for trade. It is good for democracy. And it is good for furthering human rights. You only insult a country when you want to go to war with it.
Neither Stephen Harper nor his foolish Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird appear to have a clue about what is involved in diplomacy. They are so busy destroying Canada’s reputation around the world that it will take many years for the country to recover its former prestige and respect.
It is as though John Baird is taking diplomacy lessons from New York City taxi drivers. The last time he was at the United Nations. Baird was reported to have made singularly undiplomatic remarks to the Maldives foreign minister about the current elections in that country. That is really brave of Baird to insult a small island nation in the Indian Ocean.
And how would Baird like it if the foreign minister for the Maldives asked him if the courts in Canada are going to hang Mr. Harper’s former parliamentary assistant MP Dean Del Mastro for election fraud? Even John Baird would know that whether Mr. Del Mastro is hung or not should only be a matter of interest to his close friends.
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Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
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