 Maybe
once in a decade you hear a political quote that is so remarkable you
just want to write it down and call everyone you know and tell them
about it. Last night Bob Rae, the former NDP premier of Ontario and now
a candidate to replace Paul Martin as leader of the federal Liberal
Party, speaking at the International AIDS Conference here in Toronto,
delivered such a quote.
Our execrable minority right-wing
extremist prime minister Harper, fresh from completely botching the
evacuation of Canadians from Lebanon, and then making life more
dangerous for Canadians at home and Canadian 'peace-keeping' troops
mired in the hopeless anarchy of Afghanistan (and dying in battle at a
horrific rate) by blathering on about how Canadians support Bush's war
on terror (we don't), is boycotting the AIDS Conference, which is
important enough for Bill Gates, Bill Clinton and 20,000 other people
to attend, but apparently not important enough for the host country's
prime minister to attend. The PM insists it's more important that he be
in Inuvik in Canada's North to announce how some of the billions cut
from Canada's environmental programs are to be spent on defence of our
Arctic sovereignty.
It gets worse. Harper sent his hapless
Health Minister to the conference to announce some new Canadian funding
for AIDS research and prevention. But just 15 minutes before the
announcement was to take place, it was canceled.
What we're hearing is that the amount Harper was willing to pledge was
so pathetically little that the Conservative spin doctors, testing the
waters yesterday, discovered that the announcement would be greeted at
the conference by a huge round of boos. So the speech was canceled and
the Conservatives are now deciding whether to up the amount and
reschedule the announcement, or cancel the pledge entirely. What a
disgrace!
So last night liberal Bob Rae, responding to this
whole mess, included this wonderful, Lakoffian characterization of the
conservative Harper:
"In his
positions on issues like global warming, and now AIDS, prime minister
Harper seems unable or unwilling to engage in issues that are
fundamental to the future of mankind." |
MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
