Braeden points out this rather interesting comment from Steve Harper yesterday as he showed the love to Quebec by reinstating some of the funds the Liberals had earmarked for the environment and he'd cut:
Harper said Quebecers are a nation now because of their hard work in building the country, not because of sovereignty.
I'd be interested in seeing a transcript, but still, is that it then Steve? OK, fair enough. I look forward then to motions recognizing all the First Nations, Newfoundlanders, Acadians, Halagonians, United Empire Loyalists and a host of other groups as nations, if that's your criteria. Or, you could explain to them why they just didn't work quite hard enough in building the country to deserve nation status. Either way.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
We built this nation on rock and roll and politics
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7 comments:
Jeff,
I see your point, but come on: we all know that the Acadians have been slackers since day one, and certainly don't deserve nation status on account of hard work.
Prairie Kid
Go back to school - it's:
1. Chrétien not Cretien.
2. constitution not constritution.
3. received not recieved.
Lack of spell check seems to be a Conservative tradition.
Yes, I just love complaining actually, it's a lot of fun. And I'll find a side once you and Harper stop doing backflips over it.
Well, seems Harper's had a sudden change of heart when it comes to Quebec and bilingualism:
"If you've read any of the official propagandas, you've come over the border and entered a biningual country. In this particular city, Montreal, you may wellget that impression. But this city is extremely atypical of this country...So it's basically an English-speaking country, just as English-speaking as, I would guess, the northern part of the United States"
- Conservative leader Stephen Harper, then vice-president of the National Citizen's Coalition, in a June 1997 Montreal metting of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing American think tank.
I think Quebecers should be reminded about Harper's real views.
Well, here's a more recent statement by Harper:
"It is simply difficult - extremely difficult - for someone to become bilingual in a country that is not. And make no mistake. Canada is not a bilingual country. In fact, it's less bilingual today than it has ever been...So there you have it. As a religion, bilingualism is a god that failed. It has led to no fairness, produced no unity and cost Canadian taxpayers untold millions."
- Stephen Harper on bilingualism, Calgary Sun, May 6th, 2001.
Yeah, Paul Martin also said in the mid-90s that there should be an international welfare system where developing countries are helped out by their modernized counterparts. Then he preceded to completely abandon the Liberal Party's historic agenda for the most disadvantaged peoples in the world by reducing aid and cutting taxes for corporations.
Paul clearly had a change of heart and thought that Bay St. needed more help than Ethiopia. Steve Harper had a change of heart too. Québec warmed to him in the last election because they saw he had made serious efforts to learn the province's language and better understand its politics.
The Liberals have already spent two elections trying to demonize Harper instead of taking a serious debate to the Canadian people. The Prime minister is going to show up at the next election expecting us to simply go after the ideology of his agenda once more. He's handled those concerns easily in the past and he'll do it even more easily this time because Canada and Québec believe he has changed (look at those leadership numbers that just came out).
So instead of bringing up these quotes from years and years ago, why don't we stick to the fact that, even though some of these initiatives were introduced by a Liberal government, they're still far from what needs to be done. This environmental trust fund still has no strings attached and it's nothing more than a publicity boon to Jean Charest.
This is an easy argument: Harper's current plan still leaves us without any hope of meeting our obligations to our allies who signed Kyoto with us. It leaves us embarassed and humiliated on the world stage and it puts the life of every man, woman, child, plant, and animal that will live in the next 100 years in jeopardy. Our plan intends to stand with our allies and fight the threat that climate change poses to our world. Harper practices selective cooperation: he works with neoconservative regimes when they need him to fight wars for him. Stéphane Dion is a true globalist and he will open our country up to a world that needs leadership.
"This is an easy argument: Harper's current plan still leaves us without any hope of meeting our obligations to our allies who signed Kyoto with us. It leaves us embarassed and humiliated on the world stage and it puts the life of every man, woman, child, plant, and animal that will live in the next 100 years in jeopardy. Our plan intends to stand with our allies and fight the threat that climate change poses to our world. "
Pretty dramatic stuff. Dion's plan was not going to meet Kyoto either, he admitted as much. So Dion has already put every man, women. child, planet(?), and animal in jeopordy?
Your logic, not mine.And if the world is in jeopordy, please explain how another 562 coal-fired plants in China are not going to make this come to fruition.
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