For Prime Minister Harper is the Hair. Hear him roar! Can the Hair not roar at the Russian bear? Can the Hair not send a token planeload of supplies to aid the Ukraine in its efforts to assert control over its own country? Can the Hair not stand foursquare behind Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as children and non-combatants continue to die in Gaza? It says it all when the American president calls responsible countries together to resolve world problems and nobody thinks to invite Canada.
The difference is that the American President is doing his job while the Canadian Prime Minister is just panning another ethnic stream for votes.
Is it any wonder that the once enviable reputation of Canada has fallen so far in the forums of nations? No seat is offered to Canada on the United Nations’ Security Council. Our country used to be a world peacekeeper of note and nobody remembers today. And Sunday was a day set aside to honour the peacekeepers of our country’s past. Neither the Prime Minister nor the Minister of Defence gave the ceremonies time in their summer schedules. Peacekeeping does not seem to be their kind of vote getter.
But all the Hair wants to do is posture. While American President Obama can speak straight to the Israeli people about the road to peace with their neighbours, the Hair continues to pander. While the Americans have raised concerns about the growing sectarian conflict in Iraq, nobody cares what Canada thinks.
And our Foreign Affairs Minister is an embarrassment. When he does not have the knowledge, we can only wait patiently for him to learn. When he does not have the interest, he is beyond hope.
The Hair is now focused entirely on the planned announcement of the European trade agreement in September. We have no idea of the concessions that have been made to the EU or how long it will take to peel off the gobbledygook and platitudes to find them.
It took Canadians a while to understand the free trade deal with the Americans. They finally realized that Americans only like free trade when they have the bully perch. The Europeans are even better negotiators than the Americans. Gains made when your government is pushing to make it happen to impress voters are few.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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