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June 21, 2004 Canada will hold her general elections in a few weeks time. The candidates are: 1-The incumbent Paul Martin, the former liberal finance minister. 2-Steven Harpur, the leader of the Conservatve party. 3-Jack Layton head of Canada’s other liberal party. Tacked on to the above are the usual peripheral parties, The Greens, etc., all slightly liberal. Listening to NPR on the 21st of June in the early morning I heard a reference to Steven Harpur where he was said to be regarded by a large segment of the Canadian population as a lap dog of George Bush. This is not a common way of describing Harpur in the Canadian media. He has been described as a western yahoo (although he was born in Ontario) as an anti bigot, a right wing extremist, as a crony to the US industrial complex but never have I heard this particular expression which if memory serves correctly was used to describe Tony Blair. I have been listening to NPR for a number of years so as to avoid the commercials. Lately as I listen a strange feeling of unreality overtakes me taking me back to the time of the cold war when approaching the soviet border and coming within the un-jammed range of the soviet pro-da apparatus. A well modulated Trans Atlantic voice, speaking in sincere reasonable tones would inform the listener of the benefits of the communist system and of the disadvantage of that of the capitalists. After crossing over the border the tone would change to a rancorous sycophantic babble in order to penetrate skulls long accustomed to pro-da and having perfected the antidote of automatically tuning it out. Harpur has been accused of wanting to send Canadian troops to Iraq but lately this criticism has faded out as he has moderated his tone in order to placate a vast segment of Canadian opinion that believes the way to safety is to cut back on ones armed forces thereby not antagonizing any possible enemy. The Canadian support for Harpur may not be so based so much upon finding a back bone as to becoming ever more disgusted with Liberal corruption and their laizzai faire attitude regarding child porn, especially in the wake of recent abuses of children in which the internet was a contributing factor. ------------ About the author Mike Haran: I write articles for military and hobby publications. I Hope to eventually combine some of them into a book. More commentary -opinionated short stories,mainly sci-fi -history at: http://www.geocities.com/manzikertca Email: 4258529II@canada.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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