Thursday, March 22, 2007

You're with us or against us

They hate the cops, vote against 9/11 victims, support child pornography, are soft on terrorism, and care more about the Taliban than our own soldiers.

Man, it's amazing any Canadians can find it in their heart to vote Liberal...

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the Liberals yesterday of caring more about Afghan insurgents than Canadian troops and refused to apologize for the latest in a series of hard-hitting attacks against his political opponents.

“I can understand the passion that the Leader of the Opposition and members of his party feel for Taliban prisoners. I just wish occasionally they would show the same passion for Canadian soldiers,” Mr. Harper told the House of Commons to a standing ovation from his caucus.

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21 Comments:

  • It was definitely not the best comment to make - but it also wasn't anywhere near the worst I've heard in QP this session of parliament... I think there's a lot of jeers from both sides that are suspect, and I also think there's a whole heck of a lot of overreaction to comments as well.

    Every day after QP there's 3-4 Points of Order on 'unparliamentary language' - from both sides of the House - and often people refusing to apologize and/or back down. It's a circus in there.

    By Blogger Kirk Schmidt, at 1:13 p.m.  

  • ... the Conservatives will not hold any punches while Dion will.

    You really think that Dion will pull his punches? Well, maybe so, but he will encourage his troops (Coderre, Goodale et al) to not hold back, which, IMHO, is not taking the high road at all. Pretending it is would be nothing but hypocrisy.

    By Blogger Brian in Calgary, at 1:28 p.m.  

  • Everybody knows the Liberal Party is not in favor of the Taliban, but it does them no favors by whining about these Taliban detainees, while saying nothing in support of our troops.

    I'm sure this was all part of Harper's plan to make Dion look week by continually whining for an apology and saying things are unfair. He is getting quite successful at cementing people's opinion of Dion as a flip-flopping, weak leader who cannot even lead his own caucus, nevermind the country.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 4:08 p.m.  

  • To think that only months ago, I really genuinely thought that Dion vs. Harper was going to be all-policy, all the time. They're just as bad as their predecessors.

    Ugh.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 4:21 p.m.  

  • Dion doesn't look good on this one and hasn't looked good in dealing with mano-a-mano exchanges with Harper.
    Dion could've just said that he supports our troops.
    He didn't. He whined.

    Dion seems to be like the guy who gets his milk money stolen from him everyday at school and just takes it and takes it.
    Harper is feeding Dion like Belak would to Janssen and Dion is not fighting back.

    I hope he soon gets a little more thick-skinned. Begging for apologies ain't becoming of a PM-in-waiting.

    By Blogger Amanda Van Der Steen, at 4:23 p.m.  

  • This comment has been removed by the author.

    By Blogger le politico, at 4:27 p.m.  

  • he will encourage his troops (Coderre, Goodale et al) to not hold back

    Oh good, because a frothing Coderre or Goodale is a real vote getter.

    PMSH pulls no punches because he is good at it. Whereas Denis Coderre comes across as a jerk, and Goodale as a verbose politician full of prefabricated outrage.

    Canadians aren't outraged by Harper's comments at all. It merely serves to reinforce what they are already starting to believe about Dion's Liberals..that they do not reflect the Centre of Canadian politics.

    Pundits say that Harper shouldn't be stooping so low as to utter these attacks, that he should use Jason Kenney or James Moore. Well, Kenney or Moore wouldn't end up getting national exposure on the evening news, now would they?

    --

    By Blogger le politico, at 4:27 p.m.  

  • Chinks in the armour.

    Harper personally compared the entire Liberal caucus to the mafia, with no exceptions.

    Harper personally supported the claim that Martin supported child pornography.

    Harper personally attacked a backbench MP about an in-law who may have some ties to a Sikh terrorist group.

    Harper personally and slanderously charged two other backbench Liberal MPs with corruption, lying that they had gotten their husbands appointed to the Immigration Review Board when one had been appointed by Mulroney and the other wasn't even an MP at the time.

    Harper personally accused Liberals of liking the Taliban more than our troops.

    Harper doesn't just utter these abuses. He thrives on them. Savours them.

    --------

    I agree that each incident doesn't make a big deal to the average Canadian voter, right now. But bit by bit, one's personal reputation is made by one's own actions and the word does get out. It takes time and, with Harper's ongoing assistance, it can become a full blown election issue if it comes down to likeability.

    It adds up.

    By Blogger Ted Betts, at 5:15 p.m.  

  • jason; Yeah, Harper and Dion was supposed to be the clash of the intelectuals, but it's given us perhaps the most partisan over the top villifications ever seen in QP.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 5:23 p.m.  

  • amanda; What if the situation were reversed and Dion said Stephen Harper cares more about re-election than poor Canadians? Would your response then be "Harper should just say he cares about poor people and not be a wimp and demand an apology"?

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 5:24 p.m.  

  • Seemed pretty dumb of Harper to take the attention away from Comuzzi getting dumped, but on the other hand he might have taken the attention away from O'Connor's repeated botches.

    I'm also really interested in seeing how easily Conservative supporters were pushed into this "Dion is not a leader" mindset. Some suggestions via ads which their own donations paid for and all of a sudden, a generally silly talking point is adopted by all.

    Meh, I'm just a little miffed about this polarizing technique. And I'm certainly not convinced, that the Liberals can't turn these perceptions in their favour. Or if the tide hasn't began to turn a little bit already.

    By Blogger Dan McKenzie, at 5:28 p.m.  

  • Whew, it sure is a good thing no Liberal ever used the phrase "Taliban Jack".

    By Blogger Greg, at 5:35 p.m.  

  • Greg, with all respect, no Liberal ever accused Jack of preferring the Taliban over our soldiers, or accused him of not supporting our troops, despite his opposition to the missionin Afghanistan. Some liberals may have mocked him for what some of us still believe to be a stupid policy suggestion, i.e. negotiating with a bunch of illegitimate meanies hiding out in caves.

    And we never accused him of killing homeless people in a post-funeral photo op, either...

    By Blogger Mark, at 6:41 p.m.  

  • amanda; What if the situation were reversed and Dion said Stephen Harper cares more about re-election than poor Canadians? Would your response then be "Harper should just say he cares about poor people and not be a wimp and demand an apology"?

    CG, when Harper was running last time, that's pretty much exactly what he said, with his "I can take a punch" line. It served him in good stead, as I recall.

    Personally, I'd like to see more of that sentiment these days from our MPs, including (but not limited to) the PM.

    By Blogger Jason Hickman, at 7:19 p.m.  

  • HArper looks for the belt and punches below it. He lacks class and is an embarraessment.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:16 p.m.  

  • I have no social conscience.

    By Blogger Tarkwell Robotico, at 9:18 p.m.  

  • Yes, Dion is a hero!

    Read this for a good laugh!

    http://www.macleans.ca/homepage/features/article.jsp?content=20070322_085414_5788

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:27 p.m.  

  • http://tinyurl.com/yoglw6

    By Blogger Unknown, at 12:28 p.m.  

  • Just for the sake of an argument, can Liberals point out where Liberal MPs have been publicly and passionately supporting Canadian Troops? Because lately all it seems they are doing is accusing them of being prisoner abusers. I have not seen them show ANY respect to former Canadian service members. For example, Denis Coddae has just recently called lifetime soldier Rick Hillier a Conservative stooge. He has this week called 35 year veteran of the Canadian forces, Minister Occonor an arms dealer. Nothing has been said about this by Liberal leadership. The troops in the cities ad? Now they want basically every troop over there, that they sent there, inspected for prisoner abuse, and only to score cheap political points.
    Seriously, it wasn’t a nice thing for Harper to say but where is the Liberal passion for Canadian soldiers??

    By Blogger Brad, at 10:51 p.m.  

  • Harper personally supported the claim that Martin supported child pornography.

    He did no such thing. That press release was issued by the war room and withdrawn by the war room within an hour, before anyone had even noticed it. Harper said on camera that he thought the headline went too far; he just refused to apologize for it.

    By Blogger The Invisible Hand, at 5:44 p.m.  

  • By Blogger Unknown, at 2:08 a.m.  

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