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Noses out of joint because the Prime Minister says most people don’t really care about the arts? He was just being nice. Let me put it more directly: get a job and stop sucking off the collective teat.

OTTAWA, October 8, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper went on a verbal rampage against the right to life of unborn children last week, promising not only that a Conservative government would not open the abortion issue, but that it would prevent anyone else from raising it. Asked by a reporter if Harper could give assurances to pro-abortion groups, who are accusing the Conservatives of engineering a stealth pro-life campaign, Harper said that he could. "The answer is yes. This government will not open, will not permit anyone to open the abortion debate. Our position is clear," he...

TORONTO, October 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's disturbing statements to the media that he will undemocratically not permit anyone to reopen the debate on abortion are a stark betrayal of conservative principles and should prompt his electoral defeat in Calgary Southwest in the coming federal election, says the editor of Canada's national Catholic magazine of news, analysis and opinion. In addition, Father Alphonse de Valk, editor of Catholic Insight magazine, is calling for the removal of Harper as Conservative party leader. "For Mr. Harper to state that he would not personally support a law limiting abortion is...

…….If I was running for office and the likes of Pam Anderson, Matt Damon, and George Clooney publicly supported me, it would be all the evidence I would need to be convinced I didn’t belong there and would drop out……

OTTAWA, September 29, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his strongest statements in support of unlimited abortion on demand in Canada, Prime Minister Harper today told reporters that his government would not only not open the abortion issue itself, but would prevent anyone else from raising it. Asked by a reporter if Harper could give assurances to pro-abortion groups who are accusing the Conservatives of engineering a stealth pro-life campaign, Harper said he could give such groups assurances. "The answer is yes. This government will not open, will not permit anyone to open the abortion debate. Our position is clear," he said,...

After holding the Prime Minister spot in the longest-running minority government in Canadian history, the Conservative leader is displaying evidence of an understanding of the political system. Put bluntly, Harper has learned how to play the game.

Talk about a rare situation for the average political observer. First, the American campaign takes us through the Obama/Clinton soap opera and pro-Bama media propaganda machine, and then continues its exciting storyline with the addition of Sarah Palin to balance the scales of popularity and make it a very close race. Now, Canadians get to enjoy a twofer.

But deep down we are forced to admit that there is a terrorist threat to our nation, and it is inevitable that we fight them, be they al-Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, including home-grown cells. As anti-American as we as a culture identify ourselves as being, we cannot refute the reality of 9/11 and the truth that it was as much an attack on Canada as it was on the United States. Harper’s Conservatives are the only party that understands that, and many will use this as reason to give the Tories their vote.

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued the following statement on the occasion of the XXIX Olympic Games taking place from August 8 to 24 in Beijing: "I am joined by all Canadians in wishing our athletes and their coaches the very best during their upcoming competitions. You are an enormous source of pride and inspiration for all Canadians and we salute your perseverance and dedication in your quest for excellence. Canadians recognize and admire the years of effort involved in preparing for Olympic Games. From the playground to the podium, the values we learn from sport – teamwork, discipline,...

The travelling summer fair was already here when the political circus rolled into this town that time forgot, just west of Quebec City. But there were 1,500 people waiting at the local arena for Stephen Harper, a show of strength arranged Wednesday evening by Jacques Gourde, the sitting Conservative MP for the riding of Lotbinière-Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, 30 km west of South Shore Levis, where the party’s national caucus met over the last two days. The former Bloc Québécois member, Odina Desrochers, whom Gourd defeated in 2006, was among the friendly faces in the rural crowd. The road to a Conservative majority...

James Corey Glass, apprentice mortician and United States Army deserter, was keeping an unusually close eye on the text messages coming into his cellphone. He was hoping to hear that a court had blocked the Canadian government’s attempt to send him back to the United States. On Wednesday afternoon, the message came: Mr. Glass, 25, could remain in Canada while he appealed his removal order by the country’s Immigration Department. It was a welcome reprieve, he said, but well short of a guarantee that he and other deserters could make Canada their new home. The Canadian government’s effort to remove...

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper says global efforts to fight climate change are likely to go more smoothly once U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office early next year. Referring to the U.S., he said, "I think, if you don't see a change this year, you're certainly going to see a change on that front next year."

Canada says sorry to aborigines From correspondents in Ottawa June 12, 2008 06:24amArticle from: Agence France-PresseFont size: + - CANADA'S prime minister today officially apologised to natives for more than a century of abuses at residential schools set up to assimilate indigenous peoples. --snip-- "On behalf of the government of Canada and all Canadians, I stand before you in this chamber so central to our life as a country to apologise to aboriginal peoples for Canada's role in the Indian Residential Schools system," he said. Sorry ...Native Canadians received an apology from PM Stephen Harper for more than a century...

OTTAWA -The looming choice for Ottawa's Liberals remains lousy: laughingstock Opposition or campaign roadkill. But as a policy cornerstone for the party lurches toward election-triggering votes, starting with an amendment to kill the Conservatives' contentious immigration law, the consequences confronting leader Stephane Dion are getting uglier. Worse than their Throne Speech rollover and more squirm-worthy than the party's passage of the budget, the immigration poison pill was designed to hand the Liberals their most difficult test as an Official Opposition in absentia. For six Question Periods in a row, Liberal MPs have demonized legislation designed to clear up six-year immigration...

In a million years, we never thought we'd be saying this, but here it is: Hooray for Thomas Walkom, the voice of reason at The Toronto Star. Mr. Walkom is one of Canada's most left-wing columnists. In the past, he's whimsically compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler, and defended violent anti-poverty protestors. But in his Sunday column Mr. Walkom said something his Star colleagues (particularly the newspaper's editorialists and front-page headline writers) need to hear: "Stephen Harper is not Satan ... He is not George W. Bush ... He is not a religious fanatic. He does not hate cities."...

Canadians often grumble about the outsized influence of Quebec in national politics. The province doesn’t even make up a quarter of the country’s population anymore, and yet it seems able to determine the limits of what governments in Ottawa can do on everything, from taxes and spending, to Canadian involvement in Afghanistan, and even Canada’s position on global warming. Americans frequently are told that Canada cannot be more helpful on a particular issue, “…because of Quebec." The Conservative minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper made several direct appeals to Quebec voters in its Throne Speech that officially opened a...

Ottawa, ON – With the political battlefield of Parliament returning and with weapons drawn it would appear the largest number of Canadians (63%) believe that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has the ‘right stuff’ of leadership qualities and skills compared to all other federal party leaders. This compares with NDP Leader Jack Layton at 57% and BQ Leader Gilles Duceppe at 63% in his province of Québec (15% nationally), and Opposition and Liberal leader Stephan Dion with the lowest ratings of all of the Federal leaders at 36%. Canadians were asked to rate the leadership qualities and skills of each of...

Honourable senators, Members of the House of Commons, Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to address the first words in this chamber to the members of the Canadian Forces, some of whom are present here today. Their commitment and courage in the name of justice, equality and freedom -- whose benefits are not accorded to all peoples in the world -- are worthy of our utmost respect. The speech from the throne is an important moment in our country's democratic life. Through the speech from the throne, the government shares its vision with Canadians. And it is thus that we...

If Fred Thompson is lazy, he sure didn't act it preparing for his first debate. Over two weeks, the former Tennessee senator and his aides held more than half a dozen question-and-answer sessions. Bush's first economic adviser, Larry Lindsey, was involved, as were Vice President Cheney's daughter Liz Cheney and GOP veteran Mary Matalin. There were also two full-blown rehearsals in which Liz Cheney's husband played John McCain, Rep. Adam Putnam stood in for Mitt Romney, and former New York Sen. Al D'Amato played Rudy Giuliani. To add verisimilitude to his character, D'Amato pretended to take a phone call in...

It's now leaking out that there was more going on than met the eye at the Security and Prosperity Partnership Summit in Montebello, Canada, in August. The three amigos - President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon - finalized and released the "North American Plan for Avian & Pandemic Influenza." The "Plan" - that's what they call it, with a capital P - is to use the excuse of a major flu epidemic to shift powers from U.S. legislatures to unelected, unaccountable "North American" bureaucrats. This idea was launched on Sept. 14, 2005,...

...It was after Stephen Harper was sworn in as Prime Minister that the media began trying to turn Afghanistan into another Iraq. With the prediction of increased casualties coming true, the media demanded to be allowed to film the repatriation of fallen soldiers, an event more likely to produce images provoking grief and hopelessness than the patriotic ramp ceremonies they filmed when the coffin was sent home. They criticized the government for not lowering the flag on Parliament Hill even though that was not part of flag protocol or historical practice; they attempted to turn the handing of prisoners over...

MONTEBELLO, Quebec – President Bush today sidestepped a direct question about whether he'd be willing to categorically deny there is a plan to create the North American Union. Instead, he ridiculed those who believe that is taking place as conspiracy theorists. The exchange came at a news conference held by Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who met at a resort in the rural woods outside of Ottawa, Quebec, to discuss their latest work on the Security and Prosperity Partnership. After the trio presented their prepared statement about the SPP, several reporters who had been...

OTTAWA — It's a threat that has left-wing Canadian nationalists and right-wing U.S. congressmen in rare and dismayed agreement: a freeway, four football fields wide, stretching from Mexico to northern Manitoba. Groups on both sides of the political spectrum say the corridor - dubbed the NAFTA superhighway - is a primary goal of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America established two years ago by the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico. At separate press conferences in Ottawa yesterday, the road was held out as an example of the potentially repugnant effects of the trilateral partnership....

Lawmakers in Canada appear to be paving the way for "deep integration" with the U.S. and Mexico with a proposed measure that advances the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America promoted by the Bush administration, notes WND columnist Jerome Corsi. It's an issue Corsi has fully investigated for his newest book, "The Late Great USA." The conservative minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is pressing for "The Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement", which would enable a Canadian company to challenge laws in provinces that block the North American Free Trade Agreement. Murray Dobbin, a Vancouver author...

Iran's leader a target at Ottawa Holocaust event CTV.ca News Staff Apr. 15 2007 Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Sunday said the world must stand up to terrorists and fanatics who advocate the destruction of Israel, as he honoured those who lost their lives during the Holocaust. Speaking at a ceremony on Parliament Hill on Canadian Holocaust Remembrance Day, Harper spoke of how the hatred that gave rise to the "awful, incontrovertible truth" of the Holocaust lives on today. He said the world must resist the mistake of viewing the Holocaust as a strictly historical event, because: "There are still...

Militaristic zeal appears to be sweeping the Stephen Harper Minority government. This militarism is just part of an apparent adopted agenda of 'Americanization' by this government. By the way, thanks so much Mr. Harper, for introducing Canadians to American-style reviews of Supreme Court Judge nominees. You and your associates in CanWest Global, and elsewhere in Canada's 'corporatized' mass-media, appear to be trying to "prepare" us for their apparently desired U.S. take-over of Canada. While Harper stipulates that this initiative was about "accountability", he reportedly shirks the kind of ethics review on which he had campaigned. The spectre of Americanization against...

Harper warns China against economic threats Prime Minister says he won't apologize for standing up for the rights of Canadians abroad, including Huseyin Celil By Jeff Sallot Globe and Mail February 9, 2007 HALIFAX — Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned China today not to threaten Canada on economic issues in the hope of getting his government to back off on human rights criticisms, including the case of Huseyin Celil. Speaking with reporters in Halifax, Mr. Harper suggested China has more to lose if the economic relationship between the two countries becomes fractured."I would point out to any Chinese official that...

Prime Minister Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries, according to a letter leaked Tuesday by the Liberals. The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party. He was writing to party supporters, asking for money as he prepared to fight then-prime minister Jean Chrétien on the proposed Kyoto accord. "We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says....

EDITORIAL: An honour this PM deserves Toronto Sun Wednesday, December 27, 2006 Good on ya, Stephen. Who would have thought about a year ago, as we headed into a federal election, that our new prime minister would be this year's Time Magazine Canadian Newsmaker of the Year. And deservedly so. As the magazine's contributing editor Stephen Handelman writes, PM Stephen Harper, was "once dismissed as a doctrinaire backroom tactician with no experience in government," and has emerged as a "warrior in power." We'd have to agree. After his election win, it was easy to believe Harper would be a...

Sadly, the Liberals know not what they do John Robson, The Ottawa Citizen Published: Friday, December 08, 2006 Based on the record, Stephane Dion's victory at the Liberal convention is not surprising. But it is troubling. And yes, I predicted it on the radio beforehand; any fool can be wise after the fact. First, the federal Liberals have not won an electoral majority with an anglophone leader since 1945: before steel-belted radials, TVs in homes, or the birth of any of the eight convention leadership contenders. Liberals' blithe self-image as the Natural Governing Party may obscure their vision of...

Stephen : We hardly know you Harper was supposed to be a boring technocrat as PM ... what happened?By LORRIE GOLDSTEINBy now it's apparent that we conservatives got much more than we bargained for in Stephen Harper. Then again, so did the Liberals, Bloc, NDP and the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Conservatives thought we were getting a technocrat as prime minister who would gradually shrink the federal government down to its core responsibilities of finance, defence, foreign affairs, justice, immigration, transportation and communications. We thought his view of the world was pretty much limited to Alberta. Boy, were we wrong. In...

TORONTO -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper stunned Parliament on Wednesday by introducing a motion recognizing the French-speaking province of Quebec as a nation within Canada — a moved aimed at pre-empting Quebec's separatist party which intends to do the same. The Bloc Quebecois said it intends to introduce a motion Thursday that states Quebec is a nation. But the wording of that motion apparently does not include the words "within Canada," leaving federalists to worry it could be misinterpreted. The flap has reignited passions over whether the French-speaking province should be given independence. Quebecers have twice voted down referendums seeking...

When things get bad in the United States it is reassuring to turn to Canada, a country with a high standard of living, a small military and a national healthcare plan. Canada always seemed to be, if a bit duller than America, also a bit saner. But this is changing. The new Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, inspired by the neocons to the south, appears determined to visit the worst excesses of George Bush's Presidency on his own country. He plans to pull Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol and expand military spending. He defended Israel's massive bombing of southern...

Canada to storm Carolina Military amphibious training exercise to cost $19 million The Chronicle Herald By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press November 9, 2006 OTTAWA — The Canadian military is about to do something it hasn’t done in a grand way since the Second World War: storm the beaches. In a $19-million training exercise, troops will stage an amphibious assault on a beach in North Carolina next week, with help from the U.S. navy. A military spokesman says it’s all just an experiment, but one analyst says the exercise is a response to new global threats, which may require Canada...

One of the most significant phenomena in current Canadian politics – i.e. the growing shift of Canada's Jewish community from the Liberal to the Conservative Party – took a major stride last week when the top contender for the Liberal leadership accused Israel of committing a war crime. Michael Ignatieff, a longtime Harvard authority on human rights and international law who came back to Canada two years ago to seek the Liberal leadership, seemed to stumble into the accusation. In an interview with the Toronto Star last August, he was asked about the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese town of...

Canada's Harper government delightfully surprised both its friends and its foes last week. It leaked the fact that it may bring in a "Defence of Religions Act" to protect critics of homosexual practice from prosecution under human rights codes, and to prohibit the firing of marriage commissioners who refuse on the grounds of their religion to "marry" homosexual couples. Social conservative allies were surprised because opposition to gay marriage, which had begun to seem a lost cause, was being revived. Government foes are equally delighted, because they assume that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has finally made a blunder that will...

Cuts targeted to keep the neo-cons on top Wed Oct 4 2006 FRANCES RUSSELL IT'S every man for himself, the elephant said as he danced among the chickens. That was Tommy Douglas's metaphor to remind audiences that government alone can redress the inherent inequality between the powerful and the powerless in society. The elephant is once again dancing among the chickens. Critics of the Harper Conservative government's $1 billion fat-trimming call it deeply ideological. The cuts overwhelmingly affect Canada's most marginalized citizens. Most ideological of all is the abolition of the Court Challenges Program (CCP) and the Law Commission of...

He headed them off at the pass. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a western Canadian from Alberta where cowboy hats and boots are still proudly worn, played the sheriff well at the 53-nation Francophone summit in Bucharest last week when he stopped a last-minute publication of an anti-Israel amendment on the conference’s last day. Harper, the leader of Canada’s ruling Conservative party, shot down the amendment, sponsored by Egypt, because it “deplored” the effects of the recent war in Lebanon without recognizing Israeli suffering. “The amendment wants to recognize and deplore the war and recognize the victims of Lebanon. We...

From the Toronto Star / Canadian Press: [PM Harper said] "This government [of Canada] is committed to rebuilding the armed forces of Canada and we are overwhelmed with the support we are getting to do that." Prompted by the wives of two Canadian soldiers, thousands attended a rally on September 22 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa to support Canada's troops overseas. During the event, Prime Minister Stephen Harper pledged again to rebuild Canada's military. Harper reportedly told a "rambunctious, upbeat audience" that they owe their freedoms to soldiers just like the ones who are fighting terrorism in Afghanistan today. "Let...

Harper questions opposition to Afghanistan mission in U.S. speechcnews.canoe.ca By Beth Gorham September 20, 2006 NEW YORK (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper told an influential U.S. business group Wednesday he doesn't believe Canadians are really against the combat role in Afghanistan, despite numerous polls showing deep divisions. "I don't really accept that Canadians are opposed to the mission," he said in a forceful but congenial address to the Economic Club of New York. "I think what hurts Canadians a lot is seeing their brave men and women in uniform lose their lives. I think that's a reaction." Harper, who...

Now and again Canadians get a tantalizing glimpse of the sort of radical innovator Prime Minister Stephen Harper might be if he were operating with a majority, instead of the half-mandate he was handed at the last election. One such glimpse came last week, when Harper appeared before a Senate committee and pretty much told Senator Jim Munson to "bite me" when Jean Chretien's former media flack complained that the PM wanted to make reform of Parliament's upper chamber an issue in the next election. "There are critics who believe that you would like nothing better than to fight an...

Prime Minister Steve Harper did it again last week. With little prior warning, he disclosed his intention of carrying out yet another promise he made during last winter's election campaign. He intends to launch a "step-by-step" reform of the Canadian Senate, arguably the most baffling and pointless legislative body extant in any Western democracy. To Ottawa's seasoned skeptics his announcement was doubly shocking. First, unlike almost all his prime ministerial predecessors, Harper apparently takes seriously the promises he made back then. One of those predecessors, Liberal Jean Chretien, announced at one point that he considered it unfair to demand that...

Canadian, U.S., and Mexican elites, including CEOS and politicians, have a plan to create common North American policies and further integrate our economies. This plan goes by various names and euphemisms, such as "deep integration", "NAFTA-plus", "harmonization", the "Big Idea", the "Grand Bargain", and the "North American Security and Prosperity Initiative". Regardless of which name your prefer, the end goal of all of these plans is to create a new political and economic entity named the North American Union (NAU) that would supercede the existing countries. Theoretically, it would be similar to and competetive with the European Union (EU). The...

Canada's new Conservative government, elected on the short-term promise of repairing some of the more grievous deficiencies of its Liberal predecessor, will have to develop a long-term vision for the nation before it can hope to win a majority, says an observant academic writing last week in the National Post. The historical record shows, he says, that only leaders with an inspiring perspective of the future win majorities in Canada. The writer is Adam Chapnick, and he teaches history to the Canadian Forces College, the equivalent of an Annapolis and a West Point combined. In his prognosis, Chapnick sees what...

The Americanization of Canada by Harper Prime Minister walking in lockstep with Bush, says Haroon Siddiqui Aug. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM HAROON SIDDIQUI -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 2003, much of our media and the Bay St. establishment, along with some conservative politicians, such as Ernie Eves, favoured George W. Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Most Canadians didn't. Jean Chrétien sided with the people. This year, much of our media and part of the corporate establishment, along with most Conservatives and even some Liberals, favour the American combat tactics in Afghanistan. They also back Bush's full support of the Israeli war on Lebanon....

Our governments have usually tried to be fair, says Linda McQuaig Aug. 6, 2006. 01:00 AM It's unlikely anyone would ever confuse Stephen Harper with the late Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Still, it's interesting to note the very different ways the two Canadian prime ministers responded to Israeli invasions of Lebanon. When Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982, Trudeau was one of the first Western leaders to condemn the assault and call for Israel's withdrawal. Harper, however, has been supportive of the current Israeli invasion, which has killed hundreds of Lebanese civilians, about one-third of them children. Even as Israel's devastating...

HOPEWELL CAPE, N.B. — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Israel’s deadly attack on a UN observation post in Lebanon, which claimed the life of a Canadian soldier, was a “terrible tragedy” and he doubts whether the bombing was deliberate. Harper, speaking to reporters after a funding announcement in eastern New Brunswick, said the Canadian military would consult with the UN and the Israeli government to find out what happened. The prime minister also said he wants to know why the post was still manned even though it was in the middle of an obvious war zone. Three other peacekeepers —...

The federal Quebec separatist party Bloc Québécois sharply disapproved Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s statements to the press saying the Canadian government supports Israel’s right to defend itself, calling on regional powers to recognize Israel’s right to exist, and describing Israel’s retaliation to unprovoked attacks as measured. Bloc Québécois spokesperson on foreign affairs and supporter of a commercial boycott against Israel Francine Lalonde stated in a press release that Israel should essentially negotiate with terrorist organisations bent on its violent destruction and supported financially and militarily by the rogue regimes of Syria and Tehran the release of its soldiers kidnapped...

11:55 A.M. EDT PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you all. Welcome. It's been my honor to visit with Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, in the Oval Office. After this exercise in democracy, I'll be buying him lunch, where we'll continue our discussions. I'm impressed by his leadership style. I appreciate the fact that he doesn't mince words, he tells me what's on his mind and he does so in a real clear fashion. We talked about a lot of subjects. We talked about Iran, and our joint desire to convince the Iranian regime to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions....

On President Bush's 60th birthday, he met wtih Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the White House and held a joint press conference with him. They discussed a range of bilateral and global issues, and areas with opportunities to deepen bilateral ties and advance a shared global agenda. (With Harper's election, and now an apparent victory for the conservative, Harvard-educated candidate for president in Mexico, things appear to be looking up for North America's political climate.) He also received Iraq's Ambassador to the US, Zalmay Khalilzad, and the 2006 March of Dimes National Ambassador, five-year-old Alexa Ostolaza. Secretary of State...