CalgaryGrit: More Proof He's A Cyborg

Thursday, January 26, 2006

More Proof He's A Cyborg

On the news last night, they showed Stephen Harper shaking his daughter's hands as he sent his kids off to their new elementary school.

In Ottawa.

In Canada.

42 Comments:

I was struck by that as well. My goodness he could at least give his kids a hug! Family Man indeed...

By Anonymous, at 1:21 PM
I'm sure he gives his kids hugs all the time.

Fuck you for making a undue reference about him being not being a Family Man. What are you? A freaking dork!

Tied of this stupid Liberal pettiness.

I'll take a good Christian man with centrist values over some stupid, arrogant Liberal minded moron such as you anonymous.

At least I'm not afraid to hide my name.

By mikeh, at 1:29 PM
Sarcasm, meet mikeh. mikeh, meet sarcasm.

By Robbie, at 1:30 PM
To be fair, his son is 9 I think and I would imagine that he is getting to that age where its a little awkward to get hugs from your dad when in public (especially when there are scads of videocams documenting the event). As I recollect his daughter kind of trotted back to him and shook his hand perhaps to emulate her big brother.

Or perhaps its because he is a bit of a stiff.

By Anonymous, at 1:30 PM
I believe it was his son.
Give the man a break. As a father I would not embarase my son on national TV by giving him a hug just for a nice photo-op.

By Anonymous, at 1:31 PM
Easy guys...it just looked funny...

By calgarygrit, at 1:38 PM
Mikeh

A little touchy are we?

Conservatives are such unhappy little people.

By not anonymous, at 1:43 PM
Just when I think I might start blogging again, people like mikeh remind me its not worth it.

By Matthew, at 1:50 PM
Yeah, I thought that was funny. There's no way he could hug his son at school, but his 7 year old daughter probably wouldn't have been embarrassed by that. It looked weird.

By Anonymous, at 2:09 PM
My eyebrow also raised at the voiceover on the CBC National last night. It was something about Harper having to "get used to tv cameras following him whereever he goes, even when he drops his kids off at school." Well of course there were cameras there, he sent out a media advisory inviting them!

The handshake thing was akward, but heck, when I was that age I didn't hug my parents in public.

By A BCer in Toronto, at 2:11 PM
I can just hear his words of wisdom and support as they started their frist day in a new school before he shook their hands:

"God Speed offspring!"

By Dylan, at 2:17 PM
BCer in Toronto is right, hugging one's parents in the school-yard wouldn't be the top priority for too many kids, let along on TV, but Harper had to show some affection, hence the awkward hand-shake.

A hug for his yonger daughter probably would have been fine, except that I GUARANTEE that Harper's handlers were worried about comments about a double standard, along these lines:

"He shakes his son's hand like a man, but gives his daughter a hug?! Is his *daughter* not equal to a handshake? What is Harper saying about Candian parents' perceptions of masculinity and femininity?"

etc. etc.

By Matthew, at 2:21 PM
Your subtle slur against the Cyborg community has not gone unnoticed, I assure you.

OC

By Alan, at 2:27 PM
SO during the election campaign it is alright for Harper to hug his kids for a photo-op at the Calgary airport ( and you can see his kids are hating the hug as their arms hang at their sides and their heads are turned away from dad ) but once PM elect it is not okay to hug his kids?

I think that Harper almost never hugs his kids unless it is for the cameras. Even an affectionate hand on the kids shoulders would be beter than a cold handshake.

By hiti, at 2:35 PM
What's more important is the 'My Little Pony' backpack that the girl was sporting.

See - he's a tool of corporate America!!!!

Seriously though - I noticed the handshakes too.

Did you see when Harper was in the Ottawa airport shaking hands with supporters - when he went to the microphone he passed his son who put out his fist - Harper gave him a tap with his fist.

I think it's refreshing to have a father of young kids back in Sussex!

They've got to fix the place up though....
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=38693ab1-7e8d-4428-9b04-5e24dbc3caeb

By Don, at 2:57 PM
Shook his son's hand? I was watching the photo op and thought that was weird...like the do you love Canada thing.

Did your father shake your hand goodbye at school? What about with your own kids now?

I grew up on army bases and before I'd jump out of the truck, there'd be some tough guy advice or we 'd trade punches or I'd get a headlock. But a handshake...that's what a principal or chaplain would do.

For my own kids it was always "love ya"

As far as..."Fuck you for making a undue reference about him being not being a Family Man."...he's using his kids in a photo op for pete's sake. ...That's a family value?

By steve, at 3:11 PM
"God Speed offspring!"

:-)

Hiti...

...yes yes, Harper is the devil, his kids hate hime, etc, etc...

...you've made your point many many times.

I imagine having to hear people now refer to him as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is going to contribute to one helluva an ulcer. Better stock up on the pepto...

...you might have to hear for awhile.

By Kiraly, at 3:23 PM
OK, maybe his son doesn't like to hug cyborg-dad, I can understand him wanting to look cool. But.. a handshake? Usually you'd see a pat on the back, or a ruffle-the-hair gesture. But a handshake? Call me petty, but it cracked me up!

By Ali, at 4:02 PM
harper (aka bush's beaver)is an ass, didnt take long to show...and he is a caretaker , thats all thats it...watch the screw ups, already the fools down south are eyeing our north,(for the resources),and he just brushed it off, the grewal affair and his recorder,lol, didnt bush's beaver say something about ethics and now we find out he refused to talk to the ethics comissioner,didnt he say he saw the tape and backed grewal 100%, so much for ethic hey harper...we are liberals, watch what we do to this (god bless canada, bush wanabe,secular boy, secular society),remember he cant stay anywere and do anything without the east, we run this country, and with a new leader from here, bye bye bush's beaver...rule from calgary,,,lol.roflmao...stop it, im laughing to much, ur killing me here...lol

to all the consies, or the dippers, dont bother "I refuse to have a battle of wits with unharmed people..."

By Anonymous, at 4:03 PM
"to all the consies, or the dippers, dont bother "I refuse to have a battle of wits with unharmed people..."

Actually, battles with "harmed" or injured opponents are less of a challenge one would presume.

By the way, nice post...

...glad you're not on my team.

By Kiraly, at 4:09 PM
Hahaha.

C'mon, what happened to a pat on the back or the ol' shoulder squeeze? but shaking your son's hand when dropping him at school... it's just weird.

I hope Harper went with a handshake because otherwise it would have been a shameless photo op, which he's probably getting very tired of.

Alternatively Harper probably figures that too much touching could make his son turn gay.

By Charles J, at 4:31 PM
Don't be silly - it's not a new school. Harper has been living at Stornoway for several years now; his kids go to the neighbourhood school and have for some time. It's not a great secret and any enterprising journalist could have showed up to take pictures.

I'm not a Conservative Party supporter, but I am a parent from Ottawa and can assure you, from having seen Mr. Harper doing things with his kids and for his community, just like every other parent, that he is a pretty regular guy.

Personally, I was pleased to see he has kept his kids out of the limelight up until now. Maybe he was a bit embarassed (and therefore awkward) saying goodbye yesterday morning? It would fit with what we know of his personality.

By Dee in Ottawa, at 5:05 PM
I think after telling Ben that "Dad's heart aches" because he doesn't see him enough, a hand shake is all Ben's gonna be offering Dad.

By Sean, at 5:19 PM
I thought weird too... why would they arrange the photo op if it was just going to look so... stiff?!?

Man, just wave goodbye...

By Rusty, at 5:23 PM
"Did you see when Harper was in the Ottawa airport shaking hands with supporters - when he went to the microphone he passed his son who put out his fist - Harper gave him a tap with his fist. "

I thought the fist tap thing looked cool. Harper should just do that when he says goodbye to his son. (I can't believe I'm taking this discussion seriously).

By Toronto Tory, at 6:08 PM
Optimus Prime Minister with show ALL you decepticons what true leadership is!

By Anonymous, at 6:14 PM
Don: Maybe Laureen Harper can change her graphic design experience into interior design and save on the $3-10m price tag.

By DJeffery, at 7:51 PM
For the Record:

He shook the hand of his 7 year old DAUGHTER as he dropped her off at school.

CYBORG!!!

By Hammering Jow, at 8:33 PM
Boy, what a bunch of old harpies liberals are. Like Mme DeFarge at the guillotine, haven't got much to do except bitch and whine. What, no money to steal, taxpayers to rip off? You are grown up aren't you, or just a bunch fifties style, cuban heal, slick haired thugs waiting to jump a drunk? You slobber over your kids when you drop em off at school? Oh, I forgot your kids go to the Young Communist school, no parents allowed.

By Anonymous, at 9:20 PM
Guys, seriously now.

By Lois, at 9:26 PM
I'll take a PM who shakes his kids hand as he sends them off to school any day over a PM who has non-conversations with his sons over the family biz or for that matter one who speaks to imaginary bums on his way home.

How about that press conference today?

Let me be absolutely clear. Fundamentally I thought it was very very different than what the Ottawa press corps is used to covering.

ROTFLMAO!!!

Don't you guys miss Paulie already?

Syncro

By Syncrodox, at 11:01 PM
Yeah, it was his son. I thought it was cute. My dad used to put a mock stern look on his face and shake my hand.

By PR, at 11:25 PM
"I thought the fist tap thing looked cool."

Me too.

By Don, at 10:39 AM
That's not the worst of it. I hear he spent most of the day tossling the hair of his transition team. Thankfully, no cameras.

By KevinG, at 11:38 AM
Come on guys. Have you never watched a small boy play grown-up by shaking hands? I've seen him several times with his daughter when the media wasn't around and he looked like any other engaged father. Trying to talk with people and keeping his eyes on her at the same time. When I saw the clip i thought some people would try to have some fun with it. Which I'm sure was the intent of this post.

By glenda, at 11:39 AM
The "tap" was cool and his son probably thought so too. What is wrong with the left-libs? Haven't they got enough to do, like re-build their party and credibility? So that I might choose to vote for them in the future? I can not understand a mentality that focuses on such petty, local, trivial matters, when there are more important things to fret about, like the current nuclearization of Iran. Or the fact that the US does not recognize our claims to Arctic waters. Or the fact that water, the fresh kind, is going to be a real problem with our neighbor to the south. Or lumber, beef, or any other trade irritant. I guess that just because the US takes 80% of our trade means we can slag them at will, without being slagged back. Three major cities did not return Conservatives in this election, why is that? Probably because people who live there think that somone else should pay or do for them what they will not pay or do for themselves. Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, our so-called world class cities will become irrelevant, without any real repersentation, that's a good thing? You all wrap yourselves in feel good rhetoric and petty shiping, but your pettiness speaks volumes of a group of people who can't think for themselves or outside of the box. Grow up!

By Anonymous, at 11:47 AM
Tha's "sniping"

By Anonymous, at 11:51 AM
I can't believe you guys wasted your day on this... Me, I was busy laughing my ass off at the "Jane Stewart for Prime Minister" Story from Wells.

By Joe Calgary, at 12:00 PM
Oh wait... that's a waste of time too. Jane Stewart, like that would ever happen.

By Joe Calgary, at 12:01 PM
Once again, the Conservatives prove that they are bankrupt when it comes to family values.

By Jim, at 5:41 PM
"Well of course there were cameras there, he sent out a media advisory inviting them!"

Yea right, just like he put out an advisory that he was going to the hospital.

Reporters will be camped out just "in case" something happens. So what if he shook his kids hand. If he had given them a slap on the backside you would be claiming child abuse.
The important thing is that he was taking his kids to school(apparently like he always does).

Here is a man who "puts his money where his mouth is".

Good example. When he needed medical attention he went to a public hospital and stood in line. No special attention given or requested. Contrast that with Ditheral who probably has NEVER seen the emergency ward of a public hospital.

And then there is Jack Layton who apparently can't tell the difference between a public hospital and a private clinic and, according to him, would let his wife die of cancer standing in the public lineup rather than use private care FOR HER. For him, of course, its different. Got a simple hernia so its off to the private(for profit) hernia clinic. Hypocritical bastard.

HARPER IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR IN A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT AREAS.

Horny Toad

By Anonymous, at 12:40 PM
Do liberals seriously have nothing better to talk about than Harper shaking his son's hand?

What a terrible father he must be! Oh dear! *faints*

By Anonymous, at 12:18 PM