Contrasting Harper's Leadership with Obama's Weakness

TeddyBallgame

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- From the Atlas Shrugged blog comes this interesting column by Pamela Geller contrasting the principled leadership of Stephen Harper with apologist and campaigner in chief Barack Obama's unprincipled, weak and vacillating leadership and the resultant dangerous global leadership vacume this has created.

« The Village Voice's war on ...... Pamela Geller
Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Canadian PM Harper, heir apparent to the free world, stands up for freedom, personally intervened to stop 'Palestinian' terror statehood bid at UN

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper continues to pick up the slack left by an absent American president who has abandoned freedom across the world.
Nothing makes Obama look so small as a real leader.
"[W]hen Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand," Harper said last year.
The Canadian prime minister further affirmed that "as long as I am prime minister… Canada will take not that stand, whatever the cost."
"Canadian PM Personally Intervened to Stop PA Statehood Bid at UN" INN, November 27, 2012
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally intervened to pressure PA Chairman Abbas to drop his bid for upgraded status at the UN.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper personally intervened to pressure Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to drop his bid for upgraded status at the United Nations.
Harper, who had been in New York to accept an award and attend the opening of a new session of the United Nations at the end of September, had "a short, brusque meeting with [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas," the Globe and Mail newspaper reported.
"In a little room at the United Nations, Mr. Harper skipped most of the pleasantries in a 15-minute meeting, according to sources briefed on the session, and told Mr. Abbas he had come to deliver a message: If you keep doing what you're doing, he said - referring to the Palestinian bid for upgraded status - 'there will be consequences,'" the newspaper reported.
"It was just one part of the bare-knuckle approach Canada has taken toward the U.N. bid, though largely out of public view," according to the newspaper.
Abbas, who is set to appear before the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, will be beseeching the international body to grant the Palestinian Authority Observer status, thus enabling it to achieve de facto status as a sovereign state and effectively circumvent final status negotiations with Israel.
The status, if granted, would grant the PA access to the International Criminal Court at The Hague and other similar bodies, which would enable it to pursue “war crime” charges and other grievances against the Jewish state.
Globe and Mail reported that, a “source said the Canadian government has warned the Palestinian Authority’s representatives that their ‘embassy’ in Ottawa – in fact a delegation office, because Palestine isn’t a state – might be closed, and the Palestinian envoy, Said Hamad, sent home.”
In addition, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has told several people, including Palestinian Authority representatives, that he would travel to New York personally to cast a vote against the bid.
There are more serious potential aspects to the “consequences” about which Harper warned, namely that Ottawa, which had pledged $300 million in aid over five years to the PA starting in 2008, could refuse to grant the generous sum again, as the period is about to run out.
Harper has long been recognized a strong friend of the Jewish state.
"[W]hen Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack, is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand," Harper said last year.
Harper said Canada must oppose demonization, double standards and de-legitimization.
"Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israel mob tell us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are in the longer term a threat to all of us," he said.
"Whether it is at the United Nations or any other international forum, the easiest thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israel rhetoric, to pretend it is just about being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of honest broker," Harper added.
The Canadian prime minister further affirmed that "as long as I am prime minister… Canada will take not that stand, whatever the cost."

 
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TeddyBallgame

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My guess is: You didn't vote for Obama

- lone wolf ... No informed individual who was not not in the tank or on the take for the Democrats and seeking to score more free stuff and other people's money from Santa Claus Obama could rationally have supported management trainee Barry's abysmal record of economic, fiscal and foriegn policy failure so obviously I did not support Obama in the recent election.

- Now, do you happen to have anything, anything at all that is relevant, accurate and substantive in relation to the topic that I raised here?
 

TeddyBallgame

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One more reason I like P.E.T!

- gerryh ... Still waiting for your explanation of your stunningly stupid comment about young part time drama teacher Justin Trudeau "doing a great job so far" and I expect to wait a very long time for you to even try to rationalize that asinine remark.

- So you responded to China's correct observation that Trudeau's election in 1968 was a diaster for Canada with the cryptic comment that this is one more reason for you to like Trudeau. Are you along with Justin an agent provocateur from the Tory party on a mission to make the Liberals seem even more ridiculous and irrelevant than they already do?

Harper is a best PM since I live in Canada (1964).
1968 was a disaster .

- Two economics professors from McGill University have constructed a pretty persuasive formula for determining who was the best post WWII prime minister from St' Laurent 1948 - 1957 to Martin in 2004-2006. They examined several key economic indicators to determine whether or not - and if so by how much - a prime minister improved the hand/situation he was dealt upon taking office and left the country in a stronger economic and fiscal state when he left office compared to when he came into office. Clark, Turner and Campbell were not assessed because they were in office for only a few months each, too briefly to make a significantr impact.

- Among the seven PMs who were assessed, the McGill professors determined that the best one by their formula was Brian Mulroney followed by Lester Pearson while the worst one was Pierre Trudeau. Now there is some talk of Trudeau's lightweight son becoming PM which should scare Canadians witless except, of course, for the 20% in the priveleged monopoly public sector union classes sucking ravenously on the public teat.

- As for Harper, I think these ratings things are best done after a PM has retired from office but as of his record to date I, too, would put Stephen in the top three of the eight post WWII long term PMs and agree with you that he may yet rank as the best of the bunch.
 

lone wolf

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Nov 25, 2006
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- lone wolf ... No informed individual who was not not in the tank or on the take for the Democrats and seeking to score more free stuff and other people's money from Santa Claus Obama could rationally have supported management trainee Barry's abysmal record of economic, fiscal and foriegn policy failure so obviously I did not support Obama in the recent election.

- Now, do you happen to have anything, anything at all that is relevant, accurate and substantive in relation to the topic that I raised here?
Yeah.... Exactly what I said ... or DID you vote for Obama?
 

Spade

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Nov 18, 2008
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Obama is a conservative who passes himself off as a progressive; Harper is a reactionary who passes himself off as a Conservative.
 

Cannuck

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- gerryh ... Still waiting for your explanation of your stunningly stupid comment about young part time drama teacher Justin Trudeau "doing a great job so far" and I expect to wait a very long time for you to even try to rationalize that asinine remark.


Justin worked as a social studies and French teacher at West Point Grey Academy and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver. Your "part time drama teacher" schtick isn't helping your cred.
 

coldstream

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Oct 19, 2005
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There's no doubt the Obama is a mediocre President.. but that just puts him in the same boat as EVERY other U.S. President for the last 40 years. Canada hasn't had any type of strong, visionary leadership for at least 30 years. I try to figure out who the WORST Canadian PM has been period.. Mulroney, Chretien or Harper.. and its kind of toss up .. they all stink.. and any difference is purely superficial. They are all weak puppets grovelling before their masters in the Global Investment Organism.. and New Age Pagan cults.
 

Spade

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On behalf of pagans everywhere...HEY!

Now that I have settled down and eaten a chicken-salad sandwich,I must admit classic paganism has many similarities with that other polytheistic religion - Christianity.
 

Cannuck

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It may be; I've been to Whistler.

I just thought it was a very odd comment considering a recent Ontario Premier dropped out of university to become a ski instructor. Then, after going back to get his teaching certificate and teaching (something some of the members here don't value), he quit that to go teach golf.
 

TeddyBallgame

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I just thought it was a very odd comment considering a recent Ontario Premier dropped out of university to become a ski instructor. Then, after going back to get his teaching certificate and teaching (something some of the members here don't value), he quit that to go teach golf.

- Canuck ... Just for the record since you are apparently referencing Mike Harris, the former Ontario premier got his teaching certificate and taught high school for two or three years and then joined his father's North Bay recreational business where he attained his golf instructional qualification and taught people to play golf as well as becoming more deeply involved and ultimately taking over and growing the family business, At the same time, Harris was elected to the North Bay district school board, the largest in the province and quickly showed his leadership skills and became the highly respected chair for several years of this school board. (Believe it or not but I have a North Bay relative who was a teacher than and was so impressed by Harris as school board chair that he campaigned for Mike.)

- In short, unlike the young dabbler to whom you refer who thinks that he can go from being a part time high school teacher and less than two term back bench MP to being prime minister of the country, Harris became premier after being a teacher and a golf instructor and a business executive and the chair of the largest school board in the province and a backbench MPP and for about five years the leader of a party.

- In other words, a reasonable person could reasonably conclude that Mike Harris had a relatviely diverse and relevant background to be premier whereas young Justin has a relatively lightweight and insufficient background to become an instant prime minister.

- Oh, one other thing ... Harris actually had a detailed platform that he ran on and, even more amazingly, he actually adhered to this platform as premier whereas nobody has a clue what, if anything, Trudeau has for a platform and in any case being Liberals they know that Liberal leaders tend to ignore their platforms and Red Books and just do whatever the hell they want anyway.
 

lone wolf

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I just thought it was a very odd comment considering a recent Ontario Premier dropped out of university to become a ski instructor. Then, after going back to get his teaching certificate and teaching (something some of the members here don't value), he quit that to go teach golf.
Well.... SORT of teaching. His attitude got him no farther than supply teaching.

Of course, he DID leave behind a legacy in crazy hydro rates and a have-not province.
 

TeddyBallgame

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Well.... SORT of teaching. His attitude got him no farther than supply teaching.

Of course, he DID leave behind a legacy in crazy hydro rates and a have-not province.

- lone wolf ... Actually, the economic and fiscal facts clearly indicate that Harris rescued Ontario from the dead hand of socialism under Brother Boob Rae and the Notoriously Dumb Party, restored it to its traditional place with Alberta and BC as the have provinces in the country, and that it took DOLTon McGuilty (who has apparently shut down the legislature and gone into pwitness protection for his own safety) and his Lieberals over eight years of paying off every monopoly public sector union in the province to lead Ontario back to have not, near bankrupt status and vie in the bottom two annually for the coveted Fraser Institute award as the worst manager of provincial spending, taxes and debt in the country.

- Tell us, lone wolf, to which of these monopoly public sector unions do you belong ... if you aren`t a priveleged public sector trougher, then it is my sad duty to tell you that you`ve been getting fiscally raped for the past nine years and you seem not to even know abut it.

Don't disagree with any of that. Just found it odd (if not childish and petty) that somebody would try to belittle somebody because they taught a sport.

- Cannuck ... Playing and teaching sports, especially team sports, can be a very useful part of a future political leader`s experience, IMNSHO. Skiing like the martial arts sports his daddy enjoyed, is not a team sport and perhaps Justin will be as inept at team building and leading as his father was. Among Canadian political leaders, a few excelled at team sports ... the late, great Peter Lougheed and Lester Pearson come quickly to mind and both were noted for their team building abilities in their later political lives.
 

DaSleeper

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May 27, 2007
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Well.... SORT of teaching. His attitude got him no farther than supply teaching.

Of course, he DID leave behind a legacy in crazy hydro rates and a have-not province.
I think that McGuinty alternative energy program did more to raise hydro rates, than what Harris did.