Posted on 11/17/2006 4:31:13 PM PST by fanfan
Taking a stand
It would have been refreshing to have seen a massive outpouring of support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his courageous stand on human rights in China.
Perhaps some of those who have been so blindly critical of the Conservative government for its supposed lack of social conscience could have roused themselves from their normal rhetoric to commend the PM.
Here, after all, was a Canadian leader going where previous governments have dared not tread ... telling one of the world's mightiest and fastest-growing economies that we'd love to do business with them, but not at any cost.
That we'd prefer they stop locking up dissidents for daring to speak out about government policy, stop persecuting religious minorities, stop using tanks against protesters, stop engaging in state-sanctioned commercial espionage.
But the silence from the Canadian public was deafening. Where were Jack Layton and Olivia Chow and the rest of the NDP?
Where were all the left-leaning protesters who take to the streets at the drop of a hat to rally against anything from an international economic conference to the NATO-backed military mission to Afghanistan?
How embarrassing it must have been for them all, after spending a couple of years complaining about Harper's "hidden agenda," to discover that it includes speaking up for those whose plight is ignored by the rest of the world.
Harper, who is routinely accused of pandering to big business, risked the wrath of that very sector by telling the Chinese he won't stand quietly by and ignore human rights concerns.
The official response from China was to call off a previously scheduled meeting between Harper and his Chinese counterparts.
Our trouble here in Canada is that we take for granted the freedoms we enjoy every day. We say what we want, worship as we please, protest policies and turf out governments we don't like.
Oh, how those in other nations around the world must envy us. There is a price to be paid should they dare to speak up, to criticize the government, to attend a non-approved church. That price could include incarceration, it could include torture and beatings, it could even result in death.
Canada cannot single-handedly change that situation, but it can stand up for the rights of those who are oppressed. That's the course Harper has set. The rest of us should applaud him.
Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.
This is the sort of action that used to be considered an expression of "traditional Canadian values" until Trudeau hi-jacked our country.
A Canadian with courage. How refreshing.
Exactly!
bump
Canadians are just like Americans. Separated more by east and west, than north and south.
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A Canadian Prime Minister with courage. How refreshing.
I fixed it,...I hope you don't mind.
I have to admit I'm loving every minute of Stephen Harper being my Prime Minister!
:-D
Thanks for the bump.
Don't mind the fix, and they may be like Americans, but countries are judged by their leadership primarily, and in the past, that's the image that Canada has been presenting.
In the past.
Yes.
Don't know what OTOH means, but I think the US' stand on China is even more dismal. They're pocketing BILLIONS of dollars, fueling our trade deficit by unfairly keeping their currency valued low, AND they're a freedom-repressing, Communist nation. AND they're building up their military as if there's gonna be a War of the Worlds. Our policy towards them has been terrible.
P.S. If you look at GDP for the two nations, they're pretty similar. But take a look at GDP per capita, and China plummets. Because ALL that money is going to the upper echelon of the Chinese Communist military leadership, and not a penny is reaching the people. Absolutely shameful. Check it out on Wikipedia, it's really fascinating.
Our policy towards them has been terrible.
That's why people like Stephen Harper can make a difference.
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I think Harper is exceeding our expectations here south of the border. He is showing true political courage. Thank you, Canadian friends. We fight a common enemy.
Well it's like what the MSM has already been saying, Harper is America's {You Know}.
"Don't mind the fix, and they may be like Americans, but countries are judged by their leadership............."
If, as some would have it, our last election cycle made Pelosi, Reid & Co into "leaders", just what kind of image do you suppose we've got right now?
The Canuks at least recognized a bunch of sleazy bums and booted 'em out of office; We've still got the same bunch of traitors, crooks and creeps running around DC playing uncrowned royalty since the da** 60's.
Absolutely.
I find that even in a newspaper sympathetic to Conservatives, critical views of Harper are printed. (National Post). This is indeed as it should be.
Still, anyway the detractors of Stephen Harper can emerge they will Negative, negative and faint praise . As to the American MSM. A disgusting hit job on your President generally speaking. A journalistic disgrace verging on thinly disguised hate. Nothing wrong with well reasoned criticism of GWB though.
Yesterday's National Post, page A4. The header:
Heavy-Handed Harper Upsets Business
Comment by Don Martin. This is on Canada-Chinese relations. On page A5. John Ivison (on the hill) ties in Stephen Harper with the strategy of Karl Rove "which explains indifference to a spat with the parliamentary gallery that is now in it's eighth month.
Stephen Harper's task in a paradoxical way, may now be comparatively easy. This in regard to steering the ship straight. Whatever he does, he is damned if he indeed does and damned if he does'nt.
He may as well "do it right" to quote Maggie Thatcher.
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