Free Republic

Newt Gingrich has a promise for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: If you wait for the U.S. elections, Republicans will come through for you on the Keystone XL pipeline. “My message to Prime Minister Harper: ‘You do not need a partnership with the Chinese,’” Gingrich said during his turn in the Conservative Political Action Conference spotlight Friday afternoon. “If you give us a few months, … when we beat Obama on election night, we will approve [the Keystone XL pipeline] on Jan. 20.” Gingrich said he would sign an executive order approving Keystone on his first day in office. Harper’s...

About three weeks ago, Barack Obama nixed the Keystone XL pipeline that would have transported 900,000 barrels of oil per day from the Canadian tar sands to the gulf coast region of the U.S.  The pipeline project would also create 20,000 direct jobs and potentially hundreds of thousands of indirect jobs according to economic analysis.   Spurned by Obama's rejection, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that if Canada's next door neighbor and close ally didn't want Canada's oil, then he'd pursue other markets to "diversify" the market for Canada's natural resources.  It didn't take him long. Harper was in Beijing...

They didn't win all of the battles but the Conservatives are poised to win the war over the long gun registry. Bill C-19, an act to end the long gun registry, passed one of the final hurdles in the House of Commons Tuesday night after several attempts by the Opposition to amend it. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, angry that debate had been shortened, led the charge along with the NDP, Liberal and Bloc members to make changes. Voting took hours. The Tories, however, have a majority and eventually squashed all of the efforts. "When are we going to have...

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper insisted he is not preparing the Canadian public for war with Iran but, in his starkest warning yet, he said he fears the regime in Tehran is prepared to use nuclear weapons, if it manages to produce them. In an interview with the National Post and Postmedia News, Mr. Harper said Iran’s quest to develop weapons of mass destruction is “a grave threat to peace and security.” “For the first time in history, we are facing a regime that not only wants to attain nuclear weapons but a regime that has, compared to virtually...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- This southern state and the Republican nomination race may be far removed from Canada, but that didn't stop Palmetto State primary winner Newt Gingrich from giving a shout out to Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his victory speech. While blasting President Barack Obama for rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline and the thousands of jobs it has been estimated it would create, Gingrich warned Canada will send its oil to China instead. And he praised Harper, too. "What Prime Minister Harper -- who, by the way, is conservative and pro-American -- what he has said is he's gonna...

Recent tradition has indicated Canadians have been far more approving of Democrat American presidents in comparison to their Republican counterparts. From Kennedy to Clinton, even many self-described ‘moderate’ conservative Canucks have given thumbs up to the more liberal of U.S. leaders. Bush-haters were just as prevalent in Canada as they were in any nation of the West, and our liberal population joined their American cousins riding the wave of Hope and Change when Obama won in 2008. But those of us on the outside looking in have watched Obama’s first term unfold and have witnessed what the American people have...

President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline application, as recommended by the U.S. State Department, was met with disappointment by our friends north of the border. In a statement, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office said that President Obama called him this morning. “The president explained that the decision was not a decision on the merits of the project and that it was without prejudice, meaning that TransCanada is free to reapply,” said the statement. “Prime Minister Harper expressed his profound disappointment with the news.

The federal government is considering changes to the law that will make it easier for foreign same-sex couples who married in Canada to obtain divorces, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said Thursday. . . . Ottawa was pressed to clarify its position on gay marriage after an apparent about-face on the issue surfaced in a Toronto divorce case. A lesbian couple who married in Canada seven years ago and recently filed for divorce was told by a Department of Justice lawyer that their marriage was not legal. The stated reason was that because the partners live in Florida and England, where same-sex marriage remains...

Iran is the "most significant" threat to world peace and security, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday after the US accused Tehran of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington. "We have no quarrel with the Iranian people, but the regime in Tehran represents probably the most significant threat in the world to global peace and security," Harper said. This week, Canada's Foreign Minister John Baird said Ottawa and its partners were considering "consequences" for Iran over the alleged plot.

There have been times that Canada and the United States stood apart, not seeing eye-to-eye on some issues or simply choosing different paths. Almost always these rare moments in our history have occurred with a Republican in the White House and a Liberal Canadian P.M. Nixon calling then-P.M. Pierre Trudeau, who was about as left wing as you can get without falling off the spectrum, an 'asshole' on his private tapes is a classic.

NATO, which was always meant to be a separate body, has become the U.N. de-facto military arm. From Bosnia to Libya, the pattern has emerged: the Security Council authorizes action, and NATO carries it out.

OTTAWA -- Now this is rich. Canada has been blasted at the United Nations by none other than the brutal and dangerous dictatorship of North Korea for boycotting the Conference on Disarmament while the backwards terrorist state is the temporary chair. But Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said he'll wear North Korea's criticism of Canada's principled foreign policy as a "badge of honour." At a meeting of the General Assembly in New York Thursday, Canada voiced its concern that the disarmament body of the UN is "effectively broken" and again was critical of the move to make North Korea the...

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday sent a message of support to embattled Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, urging him to resist and calling on European nations to worry about their own domestic issues. "There is Gaddafi resisting. Until when will this outrage last?" Chavez said at a meeting of his ministers. Part of the event was broadcast on the state television network VTV. "Libya is a country of free and restless people that responds only to itself, and not the interests of the empire. Long live Libya and its independence!" Chavez proclaimed. Chavez routinely describes the United States as...

OTTAWA — The NATO mission in Libya has dragged on longer than most had expected and Canada’s top soldier suggests things might be different if the rules of engagement allowed for boots on the ground. It’s an idea that all involved countries have been adamantly against, but Gen. Walt Natynczyk suggested it can be limiting. “It’s always about precision and from 20,000 feet, you only get so much precision,” he said in an interview with Postmedia News. The NATO force, which includes about 650 Canadians, has been able to gather good intelligence with the resources it has, he added, but...

It’s a sticky question. Exactly how should Canada commemorate the 200th anniversary of a war in which our predecessors repelled an invasion by the United States – now this country’s closest ally and most valued trading partner? The bicentennial of the War of 1812 is fast approaching. It’s a major formative event in Canada’s history – but like all wars, was wrenching and destructive. Both the White House and early Parliament buildings in Upper Canada were torched during the conflict.

It’s the capper to a near purrfect spring after winning his long-sought majority: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a new pet cat. The Harpers announced the arrival of the newest, furry member of their family Saturday on the prime minister’s Facebook page — and offered the public the chance to name the grey tabby. “Happy to have a new Harper at 24,” a statement on the site said. “He’s a grey tabby and needs a name, vote for your favourite.”

This time the speech from the throne has muscle behind it Conservatives pitch to their base with moves to end long-gun registry, Wheat Board monopoly and taxpayer subsidies for political partiesBy Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun June 4, 2011 The Conservative government's latest throne speech differs greatly from all those that have gone before, in one crucial respect. Friday's document -setting out the government's agenda for the next Parliament -has real muscle. The Conservatives, with 166 of 308 Commons seats, can now do exactly what they please without so much as a by-your-leave from a squawking opposition. "With this clear mandate,"...

DEAUVILLE, France - On the heels of a G8 Summit that issued a united demand that Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi step down, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he wants the Canadian military to continue its operations in the North African country. "We'll be looking for an extension to our mission," said Harper, when it comes up for debate in Parliament next month. With even Russia joining in the call for Gadhafi's resignation Harper said, "I would hope that would encourage Parliament to continue to support the actions of the Canadian Forces, of which we're very proud, as part of the...

Here’s some recent political history that’s relevant to the mess the federal Liberal party finds itself in today. In 1985, the Ontario Conservatives were in much the same boat as the Liberals are now, except their fall from grace was much faster. Like the Liberals federally until the 2006 election, the provincial Conservatives in 1985 saw themselves as the natural governing party of Ontario. But their 42-year political dynasty suddenly collapsed in that year’s vote, when the Conservatives under Frank Miller, who had just replaced Bill Davis as leader, finished barely ahead of David Peterson’s Liberals, 52 seats to 48....

The Harper government is refusing to join the United States in calling for a return to 1967 borders as a starting point for Mideast peace, a position that has drawn sharp criticism from Canada’s staunch ally Israel. At a briefing ahead of the upcoming G8 summit in France, federal officials said the basis for the negotiations must be mutually agreed upon.

The most successful wooing of the immigrant vote--even if the losers playing the same game decry it as political pandering, not wooing--was obviously pulled off by the Harper Conservatives. Kudos to them. But now that Stephen Harper has secured his first majority as PM, thanks primarily to Jason Kenney's marathon dance in the multicultural mosh pit, the time has come to get real with our immigration policies. The Fraser Institute, a leading public policy think tank, has released a report that echoes the position we have been advocating since Pierre Trudeau's blind-eyed liberalism opened the floodgates. And it's time a...

Immigrants Show They Like Political Conservatism In Canada By DEXTER DUGGANPHOENIX — As Barack Obama looks south to reinvigorate Hispanic votes for his Democratic Party of Death, he might consider casting a wary eye north, where legal immigrants in Canada helped deliver a solid, surprising victory for that nation’s Conservative Party.Obama, whose Democrats failed to pass “ amnesty” for tens of millions of illegal immigrants when they had large majorities in both houses of Congress during the first two years of his presidency, headed to Texas on May 10 to try to whip up fervor for his own political...

They aren’t ready to hear this yet, but the anti-poverty activists who work tirelessly to promote the interests of low-income Canadians need to ask why so many of them voted for Stephen Harper last week. They won’t like the answers they get. They won’t understand how food bank users and social housing tenants could think the Prime Minister is on their side. They’ll be tempted to interrupt or object. But their feelings are not the point. There is a serious gap in their knowledge. Left unaddressed, it will trip them up in next fall’s provincial election campaign, the same way...

OTTAWA — A recent shift among Catholic voters has helped realign the Canadian political scene and bring the Conservative party its first majority in the House of Commons in nearly 20 years. A trend that began only five years ago, when weekly Mass-attending Catholics switched from supporting the center-left Liberals to the moderately rightist Conservatives, has grown in strength. Even non-Mass-attending Catholics have now joined it for the first time, with 50% of them supporting the Conservatives, along with 59% of weekly Massgoers. Catholics make up half the Canadian population. “I think Catholics have just given up on the Liberals,”...

It was a historic night on so many levels. A coveted majority for Stephen Harper's Conservative party, making him only the third Tory leader to ever win three mandates in a row. The crushing defeat of the Liberals, relegated to third place for the first time in the party's history which is as old as this country; the NDP's orange crush; the Bloc Quebecois' near demise in Quebec, losing their official party status and the election of Canada's first Green party MP, Elizabeth May.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper has emerged from the election campaign Monday as a much more powerful prime minister and will lead a majority government with four years to change the country. At a rally of his supporters here, Conservatives cheered and celebrated as the results rolled in from throughout the country — confirming that Canadians, in large numbers, had given Harper the trust he had sought in the five-week campaign. As the evening wore on, Harper’s party was coming within striking distance of reaching the benchmark threshold — 155 seats — they needed for a majority. When the Tories crossed...

Canadian voters have delivered Conservative Leader Stephen Harper his first majority government after five years of governing in a minority situation, CBC News projects. Meanwhile NDP Leader Jack Layton was set to become Official Opposition leader. The NDP, according to projections, made a major breakthrough and appeared to have nearly tripled their seat count, while the Liberals — often touted as Canada's "natural governing party" — were poised to suffer a stunning historic electoral loss and place third. As of 10:49 p.m. EST, the Conservatives were elected or leading in 164 seats, followed by the NDP with 103, Liberals with...

The fact is, Canada has risen to a higher level of prominence under Stephen Harper’s Tories. Upgrading and strengthening our military, standing strong against global terrorism, proud and clear public reconfirmation of Canada’s alliance with Israel when to rest of the world neo-anti-Semitism is the new chic, conveniently having the Great Waffler Obama as your next door President, all of this has given Canada a new image as a nation ready and willing to play with the Big Boys.

Link only - Arizona shooting: Blame, gun politics in aftermath

Capitalizing on Israel’s international vulnerability, the US president is paving the way for an imposed settlement. Having recently visited the US and Canada, I was left with a feeling of profound disquiet concerning the starkly contrasting attitudes toward Israel displayed by the leaders of these two neighboring countries. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has unquestionably emerged as Israel’s greatest friend in the world, effectively assuming the role previously occupied by former Australian prime minister John Howard. Harper’s principled approach to Israel was demonstrated in an extraordinary address he gave in Ottawa to an interparliamentary conference for combating anti-Semitism. Courageously dismissing the...

A warning to those who believe that electing a “conservative” government automatically will inspire tougher measures to fight radical Islam. A warning to those who believe that electing a “conservative” government automatically will inspire tougher measures to fight radical Islam: Canadians know from experience that this formula does not always work as planned.When Canadian voters again rejected the nation’s “natural ruling party” — the Liberals — and handed the Conservatives their second minority government in the fall of 2008, Islamist Watch asked some prominent Canadians how Prime Minister Stephen Harper would tackle creeping Sharia and other manifestations of homegrown radical...

The Arab rejection of the Jewish state has been the main obstacle for peace in the region. Canada is right to give Israel our diplomatic support. Perhaps no foreign-policy file, apart from Canada’s bilateral relationship with the United States, stirs more domestic controversy than Ottawa’s role in the Middle East, particularly under the present stewardship of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Critics view the strong public support Harper and his ministers have given Israel since 2006 as undermining Canada’s long-standing balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian/Arab conflict. For Harper’s critics, the troubling reality is that Ottawa has abandoned the constructive role of...

We can only hope that our American friends enjoy their national holiday weekend. Let them wave their flags, enjoy their picnics and show their love of country, because they need a holiday. It is disturbing these days for the country’s friends to watch the Great Republic’s politics, to wonder about its economy, to tremble at its deficits, and to shake their heads at its Supreme Court that has struck down corporate contribution limits in politics and reaffirmed the right to bear arms, to the intense joy of the gun lobby. The United States gave itself the most gifted President in...

FORTUNE -- Toronto's downtown core has already been locked down at a cost of nearly $1 billion for this weekend's G8 and G20 summits, tightly scripted events that give face time to power brokers such as President Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. But while the streets resemble a northern version of Gitmo, the mood away from the chain link fences and security barriers has perhaps never been more ebullient. For good reason. The Canadian economy grew an astounding 6.1% annualized rate in the first quarter, compared with 4.9% in the fourth quarter of 2009. That pace of growth is...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today issued the following statement marking the anniversary of Iran’s 2009 presidential election, which precipitated a serious deterioration in the country’s human rights situation: “One year ago, in the wake of Iran’s presidential elections, the world bore witness to the Iranian regime’s violent repression of its citizens, who were exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly in protest against the conduct of those elections. “Iran has made absolutely no progress in the last year toward addressing the legitimate aspirations of its people. In fact, its regime has been even more repressive. Iran’s continued, blatant...

THE last time Binyamin Netanyahu visited Canada, in 2002, he had to cancel a stop at a Montreal university after protests turned violent. When Israel’s prime minister meets Stephen Harper, his Canadian counterpart, in Ottawa on May 31st, he can expect a far warmer welcome. While Israel’s relationship with the United States has been strained during Barack Obama’s presidency, its ties with Canada have flourished under Mr Harper. “It is hard to find a country friendlier to Israel than Canada these days,” said Avigdor Lieberman, Mr Netanyahu’s ultranationalist foreign minister, on a trip to Ottawa last year. “No other country...

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) greets Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington April 12, 2010. Obama opened a 47-nation summit dedicated to keeping nuclear arms from terrorists and planned to seekmomentum in his push for a new round of sanctions on Iran. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)

< img src = "http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100413/ids_photos_ts/r2720522434.jpg/#photoViewer=/100412/ids_photos_ts/r816130202.jpg"> President Barack Obama (R) greets Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington April 12, 2010

When Hillary Clinton made her ‘Canada should stay in Afghanistan’ comments last month it shone a bright spotlight on the rock and the hard place Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in.

New conservative candidates are emerging in New York House races ... updates are included in this thread. Perhaps the most exciting new conservative on the scene is Retired Army colonel Chris Gibson (R) in NY-20. (Recall that freshman Rep. Murphy was elected last spring in a tight special election over GOPer Jim Tedisco.) An Albany Times Union blog reports: "Retired Army colonel Chris Gibson of Kinderhook won an endorsement from the Clifton Park Republican Committee Thursday night. The members talked to Gibson as well as the other men looking to challenge Democrat U.S. Rep. Scott Murphy in the 20th Congressional...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama owes his Canadian counterpart a case of beer. Obama made the friendly wager with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper before Sunday's U.S.-Canada gold medal game. Canada beat the United States 3-2 on Sidney Crosby's overtime goal. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama had a case of Yuengling, a Pennsylvania regional brew, riding on the game.

Less than an hour after a massive earthquake turned Haiti into an unimaginable hell of death and devastation, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an extraordinary call to action, remarkably putting the first Canadian rescue team on the stricken island by the next afternoon. By all accounts, the launch of Operation Hestia (goddess of the hearth) was vintage Harper: No nonsense; no excuses. It all started Tuesday evening, minutes after word of the Haitian catastrophe reached Harper’s office. The PM was briefed aboard his jet as he arrived in Ottawa from a day-trip to Quebec, and immediately issued two clear orders...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will ask the governor general to prorogue Parliament today until early March, CTV News has learned. Parliament is currently on Christmas break and MPs are scheduled to return to the House on January 25. But speculation has been rampant in recent weeks that Harper would ask to shut down Parliament until at least after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver are complete. Such a move would halt the work of Parliamentary committees, including one that is investigating Afghan detainee abuse, an issue that has been plaguing the Conservatives for months. It was unclear late Wednesday morning if...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Prime Minister Stephen Harper was left off the guest list for an emergency meeting of world leaders that included U.S. President Barack Obama in the final hours of the Copenhagen climate talks. Obama arrived in the Danish capital Friday morning in the hopes his influence could sway the 193 countries here to get a deal done. Shortly after arriving, the American president headed into a special meeting with 19 other leaders. Among the attendees were Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister...

How to be charming in China? A democratic leader having to visit a dictatorship is somewhat like a temperance preacher obliged to tour a distillery. He can’t be too charming without compromising his principles (and offending his constituency) yet unless he’s somewhat charming, there’s no point in going at all. This, in a nutshell, is Stephen Harper’s dilemma. Let me revise this. For others, it may be a dilemma. For Harper, it’s only a task. He brings considerable experience to it. Years of walking a tightrope should serve Canada’s prime minister well, and so far it has. For instance, when...

Much has been made of President Obama’s being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The ground has been covered so many times by now that it looks like a CSI crime scene contaminated by too many eager cops. The various media are all agog, internet hits multiply by the hour, and the pundits keep weighing in as if there were no yesterday — as witness this very article. Yet, perhaps, there is still something to be said — and a little reiteration wouldn’t hurt either. According to the left-leaning Oslo committee, Obama deserves the award for creating “a new climate in...

The architect of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's surprise concert performance with superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma at an Ottawa gala Saturday was not a Conservative spin doctor, campaign strategist or image consultant. The executive producer credit goes to his wife, Laureen, who was the honorary chair of the event and says there was “no big strategic thinking� behind his vocal rendition of the Beatles' anthem, With a Little Help from My Friends.

OTTAWA – A year after Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed galas as the playground of elites, he decided to ham it up a bit at a glittering high society event in Ottawa Saturday. Harper took to the stage, sat down at a grand piano and belted out the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends." He was performing for one of the most elite of audiences: the black-tie gala at the National Arts Centre traditionally attracts the most powerful people in Ottawa society and movers and shakers in Canadian culture. Renowned cellist Yo Yo Ma accompanied Beatles fan Harper....

OTTAWA -- The recession in Canada is only over in a technical sense because the recovery is extremely fragile and there are still problems in the job market, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Monday. "We've got (Federal Reserve) Chairman (Ben) Bernanke and others saying the recession is over but I think that's only in a technical sense," Mr. Harper told a televised news conference in Guelph, Ont. "As long as we continue to have challenges in the labor market that affect Canadian families on the ground, then I don't think we can truly say the recession is over. So...

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama will likely stress the need to keep economic stimulus funds flowing worldwide when they meet at the White House on Wednesday, a Canadian spokesman said. "The most important thing is staying the course, making sure that that the different stimulus packages are implemented without obstruction and without delay," Harper spokesman Dimitri Soudas told reporters on Monday. The meeting will take place a week before a G20 summit on global recession and recovery that Obama will host in Pittsburgh. In Washington, Harper is expected to press Obama for...