John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CHECKPOINT ASIA

 

“Trudeau Sails a Warship Through Taiwan Strait While Begging Xi to Meet With Him at G20

“Trudeau demonstrates again precisely the behaviour that has caused the Chinese to decline communication with his government”

 

 ‘Taiwan Strait transits are “very indirect signals” of disapproval toward China’s claims in the region.

‘“Middle powers [like Canada] are about bolstering international institutions and international law so they can restrain the power of very big countries,” Nagy told the outlet. “They view that China is going to present a bigger risk going forward, and they have to demonstrate some resolve through ships in the region.”’

 

Those last words of Professor Stephen Nagy strike me as being rather deceptive, only superficially plausible as is the case for much disinformation.

After all, he does work at a “Christian university” in Asia, and his words were first published on that distinguished website, “Stars and Stripes,” the old internal house organ for the American armed forces.

Sadly, from my point of view, Canada today does everything possible to support the United States in foreign affairs. That might be okay if the policies were above board and had genuinely good intent, but they very much do not have those characteristics. Quite the opposite, they reflect the American establishment’s effort at dominating the globe.

Under such circumstances, Canada would be in a fairly hard place no matter what, sharing one of the world’s longest borders, having no other adjacent nations, and sharing a massive trade in goods and services.  But I don’t think it was hugely different for Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s father, who took many opportunities to oppose peaceably the worst American policies of his day.

Pierre Trudeau ignored Washington’s bitter, intense, and violent Cuba policy and worked to establish a genuine relationship with Castro. Canadian investment and regular tourist travel were positive results.

At the height of America’s holocaust in Vietnam, Pierre Trudeau told Canada’s border services to throw open the gates for all American war resisters of any description, even deserters. They did, and tens of thousands of young Americans came, many eventually making good lives in Canada.

Justin is simply not able, by his very nature, to take bold steps like those. He has a pleasant, go-along-to-get-along personality, actually pretty much lacking any real force of character. He smiles a lot. He apologizes a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against smiles or needed apologies, but when it comes to leadership, a bit more is required. Those things are only the froth of the brew.

Interestingly, the Liberal Party was very keen on having Justin run and tried over a considerable period of time to persuade him to do so, knowing his last name literally was magic in the country.

But Justin shied away – except for smiling and lending support and attending party fund-raisers, his name always able to sell tickets. He stayed with what he was doing, and I believe perhaps because he quietly understood his own limits. However, the point was reached in the last part of Stephen Harper’s government when Trudeau gave in to all the behind-the-scenes pleadings and blandishments.

He did handily defeat Stephen Harper, a rather dark and unpleasant figure who enjoyed a long-running minority government precisely because the Liberals had become involved with in-fighting and scandal. And they went through some poorly-chosen leaders, most notably the politically-inept academic, Michael Ignatieff, who was lured by the Party’s talent scouts from Harvard University in the belief he could bring new luster to the Liberal brand. As events proved, he did quite the opposite.

From leading America’s contrived Lima Group (for the overthrow of Venezuela and, in future, some other Latin American governments) to harassing Russia with tanks in one of the Baltic states and from its compliance with an American extradition request for an important citizen of China on trumped-up charges to sailing through the Taiwan Strait, Canada’s current government has set unpleasant precedents for a Liberal Party government.

Even Washington’s unwarranted jibes against Russia or Iran or China are echoed by Trudeau’s disagreeable Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, albeit in somewhat quieter tones than the bellowing that comes from blowhards like Bolton and Pompeo, but the essential content is the same.

Canada seems to be tightly hugging American policy everywhere, which is what we might expect from a Conservative Party government, and particularly the Conservative Party of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a man notoriously in line with all things right-wing and American, very much including its Neocons.

The great traditions which gave Canada the international reputation it enjoyed through much of the 20th century were largely the work of leaders in the Liberal Party.

Figures like Lester Pearson, Pierre Trudeau (father of the current Prime Minister), Paul Martin, and still others all came from the Liberal Party. We had some decent, respected Conservatives, too, but they have almost disappeared in a party which is the handiwork of Stephen Harper.

Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister and Chrystia Freeland as his Foreign Minister, the minister he most depends upon, have left those large traditions behind. Almost entirely.

I think it has a great deal to do with the fact that Justin is not a terribly clever or resourceful man, his previous big job having been as a kindergarten teacher. His father, by contrast, was genuinely brilliant, highly educated, with a mind aptly described as Jesuitical.

Justin suffers also from a rather bland personality, one that tries pleasing everyone. Again, by contrast, his father was fiercely independent-minded, once telling a heckler, “Mangez la merde!” and once challenging someone questioning what he was about to do with, “Just watch me.” Justin does a lot of apologizing and uses a great deal of Millennialist yoga-land language that often says very little of substance.

I believe those qualities in Justin Trudeau have caused him to lean heavily upon Freeland. He is photographed with her far, far more than with any other cabinet minister.

She is smart and has a much tougher personality than he does (although one lacking almost any sparkle or charm), hence his dependence.

But, of course, being smart alone does not save anyone from doing wrong or inappropriate things.

Values, integrity and a certain genuine force of character are required to avoid that. Just look at Mike Pompeo or Hillary Clinton or George Bush pere or Canada’s Stephen Harper – smart people all of them.

There is a need for something a little resembling what Flaubert called a sentimental education, and Freeland completely lacks it.

Freeland has made the wrong calls in almost everything she’s done, dragging Trudeau into the fallout. She is regarded by some as a closet American Neocon, and I pretty much agree with that assessment. Her husband even writes for the New York Times, a paper that has been aptly described as the house organ for America’s power establishment.

Her obvious, and inappropriate, anti-Russian prejudice likely comes from being brought up in Ukrainian-Canadian traditions, which, in my experience, were heavily colored by extreme anti-Soviet attitudes.

Today, Canada supports the overthrow of an elected government in Latin America, and never says a truly critical word about such an appalling government as that of Saudi Arabia. Of course, the Crown Prince is a pampered American favorite for his generous help in the task of spreading the blessings of freedom throughout the Middle East.

Even the legacy of Trudeau’s father is fading as Canada recently reduced services at its embassy in Cuba about the time of new American restrictions against Cuba being announced in Washington. The pathetic excuse was offered that some embassy employees had been hurt by unknown “sonic weapons,” a gimmick the United States came up with a couple of years ago, something with absolutely no science to it.

So, it is all quite disappointing. As far as foreign affairs are concerned, Canada might just as well have a Harperite Conservative government. I don’t know, maybe things on the inside with Washington have become a great deal harsher than they were in Pierre Trudeau’s time, but we see not the least effort at independent thought or principle from our present Liberal government.

 

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RINF

 

The unpleasant Stephen Harper was definitely headed in this direction, with perhaps even more anti-freedom measures added, as criminalizing criticism of Israel.

We’re hoping our fine new Prime minister can resist this kind of genuinely Stalinist law promoted only by special interests.

But, in any event, all of the ugly laws Israel is promoting abroad and Israel’s tireless building of walls simply scream desperation.

If Israel wasn’t threatened by the weakness of its own founding’s logic, it would require none of this.

Just as the Soviet Union was built with a faulty foundation – flaws in logic and basic understanding of economic and social principles – so Israel, an unimaginably inefficient state kept afloat on the world’s greatest flow of subsidies.

Israel is, just like the Soviet Union was, a garrison state where the military/security/police forces are completely out of any sensible balance for a healthy society.

And it holds millions of people as prisoners.

Sooner or later, the crunch is coming, and for all these reasons.

John Chuckman

EXPANSION OF COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN

Yes, there is something to the notion of Justin Trudeau’s experience in Canada having some application to Jeremy Corbyn’s situation in Britain.

Corbyn doesn’t have Trudeau’s good looks or family heritage, but they do share one very important quality.

They are both politicians who speak remarkably honestly.

And the people do come to understand that when they’ve heard from someone enough times.

Insincerity is the hallmark of most run-of-the-mill and smarmy politicians such as David Cameron.

And the people come to understand that, too, just as Canadians understood it about Stephen Harper.

It’s just that they often, or usually, do not have an authentic choice in elections.

Give them a meaningful choice, and the democratic results can be gratifying.

Jeremy Corbyn has before him this possibility, and the hack political establishment knows and fears it.

That’s why they came crawling out of the woodwork, day after day, name after name, at the mere possibility of his nomination as leader.

Imagine the second greatest liar living on the planet, Tony Blair, advising people against an honest man?

And the press gave him generous coverage, too, while he was doing it.

Pretty close to ridiculous.

Now, when we enter the subject of ISIS and other terrorists in Syria, we enter the world of complete dishonesty.

American flunkies like Cameron and Harper can do nothing about ISIS, except making token gestures. They are neither powerful enough nor can they take acts against what is American policy.

ISIS, al Nusra, and other gangs of murderers are doing America’s bidding – Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar serving as America’s chief administrative assistants in the murderous work.

David Cameron’s implicit support for the terrorists in Syria, while blubbering on about fighting them, may be characterized as David’s doing Rupert Murdoch’s bidding.

Rupert is an intense supporter of Israel’s interests, and the effort to destroy a stable Syria largely reflects Israel’s interests, just as the destruction of Iraq did. The cries of the birth of a new Middle East, as Condoleezza Rice once so graciously described subsidized murder and mayhem on a colossal scale.

Only this time, the key players and their associates do not want to take the credit and consequences and lingering sense of blameworthiness and shame involved in another illegal invasion, so they are secretly supporting a big gang of cutthroats – recruiting, training, supplying, and arming them – all while play-acting regret in public about the horrors they inflict. Who knows, such cynical, black-hearted policy may even have included plans to attack their own bloody servants in terror once the job of ruining Syria was done?

It is only because of the apparent contradictions arising from all the stoked-up press propaganda about ISIS – meant to play up their horrible acts as theater for the folks back home, intensifying Islamophobia and support for the existing, highly selective war on terror – that David Cameron feels moved to blubber on about (token) bombing.

But, of course, he has no intention of opposing American policy or Rupert Murdoch’s dictums in such matters. And that would considerably reduce the charm of country-house weekends with Rebekah Brooks.

Cameron wants to have his cake and eat it too, as they say. Talk about the banality of evil – David Cameron surely is one of our chief living examples, much the same as Canada’s now-departed Stephen Harper.

But Russia’s genuine intervention in Syria is changing all of that by revealing the true state of affairs, how a determined attack can decimate these bloody thugs in fairly short order, unlike America’s long-running pretend-attacks and actual attacks on Syrian infrastructure meant to support ISIS against Syria.

_________________________

Response to a reader saying Trudeau’s victory was all in his name:

 

No, you are wrong. He fought a tough campaign, going from a point of being third in polls to victory.

__________________________

 

Response to another reader calling Corbyn “a dead man walking”:

 

Yours are words which carry the pungent, seamy odor of Tony Blair with them.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE THE TORONTO STAR

Sorry, but your calling Putin a bully is mighty shabby stuff, Justin Trudeau.

It truly makes you sound like Stephen Harper, likely the most dishonest and disliked politician in Canadian history, a true bully, if you will.

I do not see how there’s really anything you must tell Putin, unless you count repeating some boilerplate phrases borrowed from America’s sprawling junkyard of needless attacks and propaganda.

If there is a legitimate bully on the world’s stage today, it is, without question, America, responsible as it is for the deaths, destruction, and refugees of Syria.

It is America also that is responsible for the mess in Ukraine, putting an illegitimate government in place by coup and then supporting its awful policies of intolerance and war.

And even in the case of Flight MH-17, it is America who has kept things hidden. It never released data from its radars and spy satellite – which was overhead at the time – and that is mighty suspicious. Likely it was afraid of seeing its coup-induced government in Ukraine embarrassed. So we’ve had long delays and much evidence never used and a useless report.

Putin is the most able leader on the international scene today, a totally reasonable man, and a far more honest one than Obama or Harper or Cameron, all of whom lie regularly about matters like Syria. Putin’s country, too, is certainly destined to be a great one in future, given its endowments of natural resources and human ingenuity. It is extremely short-sighted to use American trash-talk about a leader Russians embrace as strongly as they do Putin.

We should welcome working with a reasonable man like Putin for many reasons, but if some chose not to do so, they can at least avoid bellowing undiplomatic nonsense for a few cheap votes, as you did with your campaign statement.

That’s not how your much-respected father would have acted in these circumstances – witness his independent-minded judgment and policies about Castro’s Cuba – and in the case of Russia today, Pierre Trudeau’s way would be far more productive than bellowing.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO A COLUMN IN THE NATIONAL POST

Christie Blatchford seems to have become The Conservatives’ chief apologist.

Her apology here though seems totally unneeded.

I believe in these two cases of dropped candidates, the bone-headed people involved would have made perfect Conservative candidates.

Pranks? Isn’t this the party of robo-calls and frat-boy negative advertising?

Isn’t this the party of never telling the truth to people?

Of never giving a straight answer?

The party of not complying with officials attempting to investigate misdeeds?

The party of hiding the many stupid things it has done?

The party of Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Nigel Wright, and other charmers?

The party of slavishly catering to special interests?

The party of giving the finger to many of the world’s serious concerns?

The party of John Baird who resembles nothing so much as a mad dog when he argues with people?

The party of Peter MacKay, a man who had an affair with a subordinate, later harassed her and called her a dog in public, and then lied about it as well as a man who has demonstrated incompetence in almost every portfolio in the cabinet?

The party of the absolute thug, Patrick Brazeau?

The party of Maxime Bernier, who left top secret NATO papers at his biker girlfriend’s house for weeks?

The party of Pierre Poilievre, perhaps the most seriously twisted sister ever in Parliament?

I just cannot believe what an opportunity the party has missed with these two new fellows, each surely potential minister material.

It’s a shame, I guess that’s the price you pay for political correctness.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN THE NATIONAL POST

The article is technically well done, but it seems to me there is such an important set of facts understated in, or missing from, the article that, taken as a whole, it becomes inaccurate and misleading.

I might call it polished propaganda.

There is only one source for the election phenomenon we see now in Canada, and that source is Stephen Harper. It has little to do with “competition run amok.”

Harper is on record for admiring the American system, a system which is so dominated by big money that many astute and knowledgeable observers have said America is no longer a democracy but a plutocratic oligarchy.

Harper is also on record as hating many of Canada’s traditions in politics. His past assertions are so unpleasant and “Canadian self-hating” one wonders why he did not long ago seek a career in the United States. His total set of views and attitudes would have done him well in a place like Texas. They are in perfect keeping with politicians of the quality of Dick Armey or Phil Gramm or Tom Delay.

His major obsession in his entire political career has been to destroy the Liberal Party, the institution he holds largely responsible for the Canada he dislikes so intensely.

His basic method has been simple. Remove as much government funding as possible. Remove as much quasi-judicial oversight and rules as possible. Bend national policy in the direction big contributors want to see. Collect as much money from these special interests as possible. Lengthen the election period so that you can spend more than ever under laws you yourself have created.

Added to those structural changes are changes in practice completely learned from America’s example. Throw lots of dirt through advertising, knowing that if you throw enough, some will stick. Use third-party organizations to fund these whenever possible. Avoid direct contacts with press and interviewers as much as possible, and never answer a question in an honest and straightforward way. Use any costly frat-boy trick – such as robo-calls to misdirect voters – which might make gains for you in a swing area. Afterward, sandbag government officials investigating such matters. These approaches take full advantage of having a treasure chest full of private funds with which to play.

It is a formula guaranteed over time to badly damage Canadian democracy, and it is a formula favored by no other party.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

COMMENT POSTED TO THE NATIONAL POST TO A CCOLUMN BY REX MURPHY

What is Mr. Murphy on, medical  marijuana?

An excellent speaker? Harper? The guy who addresses us as “friends” much in the manner of a tent preacher?

Harper is only comfortable either giving a set speech on a topic with which he is comfortable or in delivering a cheap, fast put-down in Question Period.

Hardly the skill range of a good speaker.

Add to that his basic dislike of people and the kind of stiff arrogance we saw in Ignatieff, and you do not have a winning combination.

Really great speakers always possess a kind of honesty in wanting to communicate something – even if its selective in nature – and Harper is likely the most dishonest personality ever to hold office in Canada.

Harper is driven by negatives.

He doesn’t like Canada and its traditional way of doing things. He said so himself.

He hates the Liberal Party and would love to destroy it. Again he said so himself.

He admires the way things are done in the United States, a country which today approaches no longer even being a democracy.

This is a man full of resentments with not a lot positive to contribute.

I almost suspect he was bullied as a kid in Toronto and has never forgiven his tormentors. He works hard to get back, possessing a genuinely destructive personality.

He has little popular appeal, naturally enough, and I think it fair to say his career is largely one of circumstances, of having lucked out with the Liberals so divided.

His lack of genuine feeling – except for a warm feeling about power – comes right through. He can’t hide it.

I believe the Conservative Party associates who have left before the election have done so for a generally unobserved reason: they are tired of his private tyranny and relentless suppression of individuality. They’ve put up with it long enough, likely believing he should have retired as leader and given someone else a chance, but, no, his negative personality listens to no one and his love of power has reached badly corrupt levels. Most of them will return after he is defeated.

And he is going to lose and lose big, no matter what polls may say.

John Chuckman

COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RUSSIA INSIDER

Please don’t take Leona Aglukkaq’s words too seriously. They do not represent mainstream thinking in Canada.

Leona Aglukkaq has had a record of mishandling the ministerial portfolios she has been handed by Stephen Harper. Her time as Minister of Health is a genuinely embarrassing memory.

Stephen Harper’s 39%-government (his share of vote totals split several ways) is mighty light on talent. It is team, as they say in hockey, whose bench is pretty thin. So he must use virtual incompetents like Ms Aglukkaq to fill posts.

Mr. Harper has been appropriately nick-named a party of one. He has a personality, and this is not an exaggeration, sharing some characteristics with Stalin. No one in his government says one word that was not put into their mouths by him. The various comments coming from Ministers like Ms Aglukkaq these days not only do not reflect the views of most Canadians, they often may not even reflect the timid minister’s own views.

Readers may enjoy:

http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2013-05-11T12:04:00-07:00&max-results=300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Red, white, and blue?

Of course.

Harper is, and always has been, an American wannabe.

In almost every policy and utterance, he takes his lead from right-wing Americans.

In everything from secret slush funds and dishonest campaign techniques to his insanely unbalanced statements about the Middle East, Harper is the American Establishment’s man north of the border.

So, it’s only fitting that he use red, white, and blue – even if the blue a tad different to that of America’s red, white, and blue.

The new paint does perhaps have the advantage of offering some protection on trips abroad, protection against being instantly shot down by trigger-happy American thugs at the controls of drones and fighters and missile batteries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN THE TORONTO STAR

Nice to know that the PMO spends time and resources on rubbish like sending out compilations of photostats about Justin Trudeau’s past, paid speaking engagements for charities to local newspapers in hopes of generating some bad press.

I genuinely believe Harper is the worst bully we have ever had in high office -indeed, he’s the only one, truly in a class by himself.

Harper’s repeated low-life attack ads didn’t work against the attractive Trudeau, so he tried another avenue of attack, that of sending out press kits to local newspapers about a matter which doesn’t even qualify as a tempest in a teapot.

It is perfectly normal for people with big names to speak for fees – it happens thousands of times a year. Tony Blair and his wife have cleared millions that way. So has Bill Clinton.

And did anyone notice Harper’s shabby bullying behavior at the G-8? All but calling Putin, the only real statesman in the bunch, names? That’s what bullies do when they don’t get their way.

I suggest our public schools put together a new curriculum on bullying, one that features Stephan Harper as an example of how not to behave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

EXPANDED FROM A POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY EINAT WILF AND NOAH SLEPKOV IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

This piece is a set of words strung together almost without meaning and certainly without logic. Its only intention is to plant certain suggestions in readers’ minds, one of the key purposes of any propaganda. According to the authors, John Baird, Canada’s current foreign minister, was not guilty of provocation in blundering into East Jerusalem as a guest of Israeli politicians, rather he was being “brave” in the cause of peace.

Brave? John Baird?

Baird has always been a coward because only a coward acts aggressively towards the weak, as he does regularly in both domestic politics and in trips abroad, and certainly the Palestinians are weak, living at the mercy of Israel’s brutal and dishonest behavior.

The leaders of Israel do not want what any normal person calls peace. Their behaviors over decades make that abundantly clear to all but biased observers.

Israel has always followed the policy advocated by early Zionists called “the iron wall” in its attitude towards the Palestinians.

How much better would have been a policy of generosity towards its neighbors, but no, generosity in Israel’s attitude has never received the slightest consideration. The one prime minister who came just a little closer to altering the county’s brutal policies was assassinated, as it happened by an Israeli.

Israel holds all the cards – armaments, economic power, American influence, and absolute rule over millions of people – but it has never made a truly honest effort for genuine peace. Words, words, and more words combined with arrogant and impossible preconditions set even for discussions.

What we see is a garrison state, armed to the teeth, threatening its neighbors constantly, ready at the smallest provocation to kill thousands, and we see that state rule over 4.5 million conquered people with a heavy-handed system of apartheid, a system recognized as apartheid by every sensible and decent observer in the world from Nelson Mandela and Bishop Tutu to Jimmy Carter.

And, week by week, Israel slowly steals the land on which those 4.5 million people live, stealing it through all kinds of cynical and dishonest laws – an ongoing, slow-motion practice of ethnic-cleansing in every sense of the term.

What other state could accurately claim as its national symbol a D-9 armored bulldozer used to destroy the homes of others and sometimes simply to crush opponents?

Canada’s arrogant and ill-informed foreign minister, John Baird – and Canadians all know that he is arrogant and ill-informed owing to his everyday behavior at home – steps in to validate Israel’s ghastly behavior in East Jerusalem, never once saying anything about human or democratic rights.

And why does John Baird choose to behave in this obtuse fashion?

Because he is a creature of the Harper government which has as its goal, by its leader’s own admission, the elimination of the Liberal Party in Canada, a party which was always been even-handed in the Middle East, reflecting the attitude of a majority of Canadians.

Harper’s strategy includes having ended state support for political parties, using every disagreeable parliamentary dodge he can think of, being an enemy of transparency in government, suppressing the voices of experts in the civil service, and actively seeking a new and substantial flow of private financing, as it happens, from apologists for Israel eager to fund a turn in Canada’s historic and fair-minded policies.

In the United States, this pattern of funding is now an integral part of its foreign affairs. In just one example – and there are countless examples – the unpleasant Newt Gingrich received the best part of $20 million from just one wealthy American heavily involved in Israel’s affairs to run his presidential bid.

The price for that money? Newt’s peppering his speeches with ignorant assertions like “There’s no such thing as a Palestinian.” In another notorious example, Dick Armey, former House Majority Leader, once openly suggested that Israel just go ahead and run all the Palestinians out of the occupied territories – surely the kind of assertion that does not come naturally from an ultra-conservative economics major for whom property rights are virtually religious dogma.

And just so, John Baird’s bull-in-a-china-shop behavior in East Jerusalem and at the UN or Peter Kent’s sudden outbursts, almost like someone given to speaking in tongues, about Canada defending Israel or Harper’s regular speeches claiming credit as a warrior against (virtually non-existent) anti-Semitism and deliberately conflating legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

In the normal world, we know peace in any violent disagreement is often only obtained by outside intervention and patient talks and mutual respect, but somehow when it comes to Israel, this common understanding just disappears. Israel is never pressured to treat its neighbors with respect, and it is never pressured to talk to them without arrogant preconditions. Never.

No one dares say a word about the decades of abusing 4.5 million people, of Israel’s endless torture and assassinations. Nor do the “brave” John Bairds of this world raise their voices when Israel kills 400 children as it did in its invasion of Gaza or when it commits piracy on the high seas or when it murders a Canadian officer serving as a UN observer or when it drops a million hideous cluster bombs on civilians as it did in Lebanon. No condemnation over the theft of farms and homes is ever heard. Not a word about endless illegal arrests and the imprisonment of thousands. Nor a word about the seizure of taxes and foreign aid moneys from their rightful owners.

Of course, there is never a word about the Six Day War so many decades ago, the very event which put all those people at Israel’s mercy, a war which Israel cynically started knowing it could win, aiming ultimately to create what is known as Greater Israel. Nor was a word said about Israel’s attacking a well-marked American intelligence ship, of which they had been advised in advance, during that war to silence signals informing Washington that Israel was turning around its armor to seize all of what it controls today. And there was not a word about the mass murder of hundreds of Egyptian prisoners in the Sinai to expedite that turnaround.

Does anyone in his right mind believe peace is obtained the way Israel has claimed to pursue it? Only if your definition of peace is Israel’s taking all the additional land it covets without any of the people who own it and live there, which is pretty much what the concept of Greater Israel involves. I suppose that is a kind of peace, the kind of peace brutal American soldiers achieved in My Lai, Vietnam, or in Fallujah, Iraq.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

While Chretien’s observation is already shared by most citizens genuinely concerned with international affairs, his testimony still is welcome.

Chretien is one of our most respected former prime ministers, a man who is admired by a number of world statesmen as an ethical statesman and a remarkable politician.

The grotesque and clownish stunts of Peter Kent, Maxime Bernier, John Baird, Helena Guergis, Peter MacKay, Rahim Jaffer, and the bloodless, narrow ideology of their leader do not go unnoticed in the world.

There is an inherent lack of commitment by this government to openness, honest communication, genuine democratic principles, and balanced human rights.

Everything from cheap stunts like pernicious robo-calls, ceaseless negative advertising, ugly outbursts, and blatant catering to special interests reduces our stature.

There is also – and quite in conflict with the historic role of Conservative Parties in Canada – a marked spirit of following America’s lead in almost all matters of international consequence – almost a visibly servile posture.

Informed people in countries around the world – politicians, members of international organizations, and private citizens – note these things and their goodwill towards our country must inevitably be reduced.

And this has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with core traditional conservative principles.

It is strictly a reflection of the ugly ideological bent of this government.

A bent demonstrated in everything from contempt for Parliament, contempt for important international forums and organizations, unbalanced and almost viciously partisan statements on the Middle East, and its cheap way of expressing itself on many solemn occasions, such as the recent death of the widely-liked President of Venezuela.
____________________

“Talking to other leftists and anti-american socialists is obviously going to get the desired result of Canada being disliked. I fully expect nothing being done by our current governemnt to be gain acceptance with the worldwide pro terrorist socialist alliance. Nothing to read here….and to think a criminal thug like Chretien should be given any further respectability is beyond me.”

You are too uninformed to comment with any meaning.

A number of prominent world leaders have in the past made public statements of admiration for Chretien.

No one but Mr. Netanyahu – a genuine thug who has committed murder, piracy, and theft – expresses admiration for Harper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

 

POSTED RESPONSE TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

“Lack of transparency is harming Chief Spence’s cause”

And lack of transparency is not harming Stephen Harper’s cause?

Please, this is the most secretive, most manipulative, and least democratic prime minister we have experienced.

Only in his case, hundreds of billions in dollars are at stake and tens of millions of lives.

And he has no excuses such as poor infrastructure, lack of expert advice, and a generally poor environment.

Indeed, he has the best of everything at his disposal, but he only uses the facilities to hide, dissemble, and play nasty political games.

The Globe’s cheap editorial pomposity and selective attention find yet another easy target.

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Amazing, our robot-ideologue gets something for once.

We have no interests in Mali and no interest in Mali.

But those facts didn’t stop Harper’s most brainless minister from floating the idea that we should get involved in America’s next foreign adventure in mass murder.

I guess Harper received enough feedback to convince him that the public could not stomach his Minister of Rescue Helicopters for Fishing Trips’ brainless proposal.

Concern over Mali, apart from normal humanitarian concerns, is solely the territory of America’s giant blundering military-intelligence establishment.

But that is the case in so many other matters too, and was the case in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, and Libya.

We did waste a good many lives and a great deal of treasure in some of those places just in order to gain “creds” with America’s military Frankenstein.

And this is, after call, a government whose ministers’ surest route to a big appointment is to suddenly blurt something out, almost like a devotee at a Pentecostal Church’s speaking in tongues while writhing on the carpet, about fighting for another place in which Canadians in general have no interest, Israel.

That certainly was the case for Peter Kent and is an ongoing obsession for John Baird, aka the junk yard dog of vicious attacks and gushes of seemingly pointless enthusiasms.

I suppose we should be grateful for small things: we will not be winging our way over to Mali, dribbling away billions of dollars we don’t have, just to interfere in matters about which we have zero understanding.

 

[Note: Shortly later, Canada offered limited use of a C-17 transport plane to France, whose military had agreed to do America’s dirty work in Mali. Fittingly, given the clownish nature of  our Minister of Defense, after some fanfare in sending it off, the plane had a problem and was stuck on the runway for some time.] 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

A little kindness I would hope.

Having been a child-soldier is only a small part of what happened to this bright and brave young man.

He was shot in the back by American soldiers.

Then he was treated in prison for a long period with no appreciation for his horrible wounds, wounds that would take a long time to heal.

Indeed, his early American military interviewer deliberately used the pain and discomfort of his wounds as a form of torture, making him sit up for his sessions.

He was held in Guantanamo with no access to lawyers or family or the Red Cross, a place which in those days resembled outdoor zoo cages with men in orange suits chained on their knees.

And we know terrible things were done, a number of prisoners having died from their abuse.

Every day would be smirking American torturers who did everything they could to make their prisoners uncomfortable, including sleep-deprivation and ugly acts like the desecration of the Koran.

It would be hard to imagine the terror a 15- or 16-year old experienced under such circumstances.

And in all of this, the basic fact remains that Omar Khadr did not kill that American soldier for which he has been found guilty. We have independent testimony to that fact.

But Khadr was finally reduced to pleading guilty to the charge since it was clear it was his only hope for any kind of future.

However, even supposing he had killed the soldier, Americans just overlook the fact that they were themselves the invaders of the country, and invading soldiers get killed all the time.

Khadr and others in volunteering over there only did what tens of thousands have done in the past, including in emotional events like the Spanish Civil War which drew volunteers from many lands.

And Americans have a long history of being soldiers of fortune, going over to distant lands to kill just for adventure and pay.

There is no tradition of treating such volunteers the way Khadr was treated.

And there is an international convention on the treatment of child soldiers to which the United States is a signatory and which the United States deliberately ignored in all of its dealings with Khadr.

On top of everything else, this is a boy of superior intelligence who has been deprived of any kind of proper education.

In God’s name, one hopes that Harper does not display his worst instincts with this young man, playing to the ugly crowd of witch-burners and anti-humanitarians, but I am not hopeful and feel sure comments will be posted here by the hate-filled extremists to whom Harper regularly caters.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Peter MacKay is simply an embarrassment.

He doesn’t know what he is talking about, yet he insists on talking in public.

And he does so as part of his ridiculous trip to accept an award, an award from, of all institutions on the planet, the Pentagon.

His “award” represents the kind of plaque given to aluminum siding salespeople for exceeding an annual quota.

Had he any effective intelligence and pride, he would have quietly turned down this “award.”

After all, his only merit in getting it is committing our poor country to spend tens-of-billions dollars on a useless plane which cannot even do what it was designed to do.

But the Pentagon is happy because Canada is helping subsidize their long efforts to rejig this high-tech albatross.

Boy, if I ran a aluminum siding company, I’d sure award a salesman who dumped a carload of unsalable merchandise like that.

But as a citizen of Canada, it is degrading to see this mediocrity – supposedly a senior minister of Canada – go grovel in front of powerful Americans in exchange for a crummy plaque and a moment of press exposure.

What does MacKay know about Iran? Nothing.

What does MacKay know about nuclear technology? Nothing.

What does MacKay know about the use of Israeli propaganda like the phrase “red lines”? Nothing.

And what does MacKay know about telling the truth?

Nothing, as he has amply proved through his entire national political career from the way he tore up an agreement that gave him a leadership position to the way he insulted a woman in public and just laughed and to the way he abused the authority of his position with men and equipment intended for serious purposes dedicated to his fishing-trip travel.

A moral and ethical nullity.

That is the value of the words coming from this man.
____________________________________

“Wow, the HARPER Government keeps sweeping up these international awards, don’t they?”

There’s an award out there somewhere for anything you care to name.

The indescribably repulsive Tony Blair has received a number of them for his efforts as mass murderer.

Harper is called a “statesman,” after blowing every single opportunity to achieve anything meaningful in the world and lowering his country’s reputation.

He was given his award by a smiling and charming elder host in a yarmulke whose idea of statesmanship undoubtedly focuses on Harper’s self-declared crusade for Israel and Israeli values, having nothing to do with Canada or with the welfare of the world in general.

MacKay is given his award by the world’s largest institution dedicated to killing people, as a sign of gratitude for a fat contract.

Awards are nothing more than presents from wealthy people used to promote their purposes. Rarely do they represent genuine merit or achievement.

It is a form of marketing.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

This was the act of an extremely foolish and impetuous man.

Canadians traditionally are people who try to resolve issues through diplomacy, and you can’t have diplomacy without diplomats, a point I would have thought rather obvious, but apparently not so to all, judging from a sampling of mindless comments.

There is not one good thing that can result from this act for Canada or Canadians, with the sole exception, if you are a Conservative, of the Conservative Party’s campaign coffers owing to special interest donations.

Then there are the hollow cheers from the little mob of unofficial representatives for Israel’s interests (interests as defined by the three madmen currently running the place: Netanyahu, Barak, and Lieberman) who swarm like flies on any story of this nature, trying to bury thoughtful comments and prevent meaningful discussion.

You can tell them, almost to a person, despite the pseudonyms used in almost every case, by their tone: it lacks all logic and is devoid of ethics.

They never argue the genuine merits of one side or the other: they just call names, advocate the destruction of millions of innocent people, and offer limp efforts at frat-boy jokes.

What is Canadian about such behavior? Just as what is Canadian about Baird’s utterly foolish act?

Nothing, unless your idea of being Canadian is to sound and act like America’s Republican buffoons, the pathetic likes of Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh or indeed Mitt Romney.

None of whom ever uttered a thoughtful sentence, and all of whom regularly go out of their way to say obtuse and abusive things that create conflict and division.

Divisiveness and conflict – that literally defines Stephen Harper’s legacy to Canadian politics.

The audience you draw does tend to define the nature of your acts, and you’ve only to read a sampling here to understand what Harper and Baird have achieved, and it is not something in the interests of the vast majority of Canadians.

But then Harper is a 39% prime minister, isn’t he?

And our democracy is badly bent when that kind of support allows acts and words that will do damage for years to our long-term interests.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

“There is a good chance the Canadian Iranian Embassy was being used for more than public relations. Espionage, spying whatever, it should have been closed years ago.”

Israel is well known in intelligence circles for its relentless espionage on Canada and the U.S.

American counter-intelligence has a special, large assignment in working against the efforts of their so-called ally.

The ally who produced the most destructive spy in American history, Jonathon Pollard.

The ally who sold some of Pollard’s “product” to the Soviet Union.

The ally who, during its 1967 war, deliberately attacked, for two solid hours, the American intelligence ship Liberty in order to blind the American government to what they were doing in that war.

The ally whose spies were caught during 9/11 watching and photographing the disaster from a phony moving truck, an event never explained.

From Canada’s point of view, it is the ally which time and again has abused Canada’s passports by using phony ones on assassination assignments.
_______________________________________________

“Yes, Ahmadinejad is an idiot, but then again so are you and people still speak to you. “

Ahmadinejad has said a few foolish things, mainly under his irrepressible tendency to poke fun at the pretensions of theirs.

But a highly successful politician in a country with a greater population than that of France or Britain and who holds a PhD in Civil Engineering is anything but an idiot.

It is foolishness to say so.

He is likely more intelligent than most of the recent presidents of the United States.

And the foolish things he has said should be compared to the collected words of a Bush or a Reagan or a Romney.

Assuming a bright, capable man is wild-eyed plays right into the hands of Israel’s around-the-clock propagandists, and it certainly does not contribute to understanding.
___________________________________________

“Why is Mulcair a lobbyist for Iran?”

Why are you a lobbyist for stupidity?
__________________________________________

“I see now, we need those absurdly expensive F35’s to combat the enemies Harper is making on behalf of Canada, how American!!”

Well said.

And just watch, if we do buy these absurd machines, and if they do fly as advertised finally after billions more spent, when Netanyahu yells, we’ll be flying the dozen or so operational at any one time (they require horrific maintenance) to wherever Israel has decided once again to bomb someone it doesn’t like.

On a per capita basis, there is one country whose armed forces, including every weapon imaginable, is obscenely out of proportion to its size in population or wealth, and that country is Israel.

It sits by the Mediterranean like a Crusader enclave, a virtual garrison state, a country with the population of Ecuador and the arms and army of France.

And it is currently run by a madman.
__________________________________

‘And how exactly do they think to “retaliate”? After we nuke the crap out of them, there won’t be a bacteria left to live in that stinky country.’

“Bacteria’ is the plural form of the noun, requiring a plural modifier, not “a.”

But then that covers the intelligent part of your words.

How can anyone but a complete madman lightly speak about exterminating 70 million people?

But I do believe we’ve had such talk in the past.

In Germany during the 1930s.
_________________________________

“Look at the lefty socialist twisting in the wind trying to defend Iran, an exporter of terrorists.”

Well, I don’t know about Iran exporting terrorists.

Seems an absurd thing to say since there isn’t one genuine news story about Iranian terrorists anywhere.

Iran also remains at peace with all its neighbors.

Can we say the same for Israel? I don’t think so.

Of course, we do have stories of what Israel exports.

At least half a dozen people were killed by Israeli soldiers in Gaza – that giant refugee camp – this week alone.

And Israeli’s Barak just made threats – his favorite hobby, making threats – about how the IDF could easily conquer and run Gaza.

Of course, there’s all that wonderful human-rights stuff about Israeli terrorists assassinating totally innocent Iranian scientists with car bombs.

And your words are a perfect example of the kind of dishonest rubbish-thinking exported by Israel.

Day after day after day.
______________________________________________

“I’m guessing principled decisions such as this, totally escape the left.”

No, you have it the wrong way round.

Decisions such as this totally escape the principled.

And we should add that language such as your “the left,” intended to characterize large numbers of people you don’t like, would have been perfectly comfortable on the tongue of a Dr. Goebbels.

Indeed, all your fellow name-callers entirely miss or ignore that damning fact.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Fact 1: Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program according to every expert and credible intelligence agency.

Fact 2: Iran belongs to the Non-proliferation treaty and it permits regular inspections.

Fact 3: Iran has demonstrated no aggressive intentions in its modern history.

Fact 4: The President of Iran likes to make tail-twisting statements and likes to poke fun at pretensions, but he has never threatened Israel. He is often misquoted by Israel in that regard, but what he actually said is nothing more than what the CIA itself has said in internal studies of Israel: it does not have a long-term future in its present state, and that fact has nothing to do with war.

By the way, with all the propaganda we have dumped upon us regularly, not many people know that Iran’s President is an extremely intelligent man, possessing a PhD in Civil Engineering. He is not a wild-eyed fanatic, a description which much better fits the current Prime Minister of Israel.

Fact 4: Israel does not belong to the Non-proliferation Treaty, and it allows no inspections of any kind, ever.

Fact 5: There’s a good reason for not belonging to the treaty because Israel in fact has a nuclear arsenal of about 150 warheads. It broke every law there is in achieving this status.

Fact 6: Israel is one of the only countries known to have worked towards the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It worked with and assisted apartheid South Africa in becoming a small nuclear power. The current President of Israel’s signature is on documents from decades ago offering to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa.

Fact 7: Israel has very much demonstrated aggressive intention – indeed, it has done so for the last 60 years, attacking every neighbor that it has, many more than once. It started several major wars and it has committed outright atrocities against the people of Gaza and Lebanon.

Fact 8: Israel is led by screaming madman, a man who daily issues threats against those who have not attacked his country and works tirelessly to get the United States engaged in yet another war. Both the Presidents of France and the United States are on record as saying that he is liar who cannot be trusted.

Grovel, grovel, grovel. Mr. Baird, it’s okay to get up off your knees now. It truly is distasteful to see a Foreign Minister of Canada behaving in this irrational fashion.

Is there any stupid behavior this government is incapable of as it chases campaign donations from special interests?
____________________________________________

“Nothing quite like a story about Iran to bring out the Jew haters.”

This kind of carelessly stupid rhetoric is repeated every time anyone criticizes Israel.

The only merit in this boringly-repetitive and hateful man’s words – and those of several regular chums here in the cause of defending what cannot be defended – is that this charge is becoming hopelessly threadbare.

The words already have become close to meaningless from constant repetition.

But the words are well on their way to becoming laughable, in a black comedic sort of way.

Remember the fairy tale of the boy who constantly yelled “Wolf!” He enjoyed himself with his stupid antics, but when a real wolf appeared, there was no one who would listen and help him.

It is the people with hard ethics and concerns for human rights who always are the only real friends of people undergoing terrible treatment.

The likes of Harper and Baird – right-wing opportunists – were the very people in every country of Europe who never spoke up in the late 1930s. They were busy joining Bunds and Fascist organizations of every description in Britain, Germany, Italy, and the United States.

Not a single liberal of conscience joined such filthy outfits.

And it is liberals of conscience today who criticize Israel’s outlandish and savage behavior.

The leader of North Korea – a state often described as “rogue’ – is comparatively quiet and peaceful compared to the madman running Israel today.

There is no other way to see the facts, unless you are blind ideologue who cares nothing for truth, which of course is exactly what your use of language says of you.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO AN EDITORIAL IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

That’s all Harper ever does…build momentum…political momentum.

That’s why all the vacuous photo-ops in parkas.

Maybe they could just build a little fake arctic set in Ottawa, all refrigerated and with a few Inuit kept around in native costume, for filming these ridiculously meaningless efforts.

You know, like the fake lake for the G-20?

John Baird, baring his teeth, could pass for a sled dog too if the camera did only a head shot.

Sovereignty in the North has only one serious threat, and that is the hyper-militaristic United States.

But our Boy in Ottawa not only is the most servile in our history towards that country and its goals, he is ready with agreements on our borders which will only further and quickly erode claims to sovereignty.

If you recognize the importance of our North and its future to us, you cannot support Stephen Harper.

But you do very much support Stephen Harper.

So this is all empty blather, just as his photo-ops are.
___________________________________

If Harper genuinely wants a research facility in the North, we know there are plenty of unemployed government scientists to man it.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Boost Canada’s role in Syria?

What role?

We have none so far as the people of Canada know.

Is Gorilla Boy planning something of which we haven’t been advised?

Stay out of other people’s civil wars.

Even when they have been deliberately engineered by the United States and Israel.

But, of course, the genuine authors of this war are the people who have extraordinary influence in this most un-Canadian of governments, and that’s the real reason he’s going.

His job is to add to the phony western clamor the U.S. orchestrates to protect its nefarious investment in creating terror.

Saying anything else is just blather.
___________________________________________

Our country has never been at so low an ebb in world affairs as it is under this extremist government.

A nasty loudmouth is our foreign minister and a servile American wannabe is our prime minister, and in every international forum – from climate change to war – Canada has lost the prestige it had by vigorously serving the wrong side.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSES TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

If Harper is serious about Pacific trade, then there isn’t even an issue here.

The obstacle of course is the United States, which takes exception to major Chinese investments, a ridiculous position based on militarism and not economics.

So far as Canada’s genuine interests go, substantial Chinese investment is an excellent investment in future relations with this economic powerhouse.
__________________________________

“Nothing like a Chinese State owned outfit, buying up large tracks of our energy resources…’

Since Alberta is already owned – virtually lock, stock, and barrel – by the United States, some diversification can only be good for Canada.
__________________________________

“What a hot potatoe.”

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the comments, she’s back!

Ericka from Americka.

And just like good old Dan Quayle, she can’t spell “potato.”
_________________________________

“A lot of the West’s animosity of Chinese is pure racism. We don’t like Chinese unless they’re under our thumb.”

There is some truth there, undoubtedly, but it is far from the whole story.

The fact is that Alberta is in many ways an extension of America.

Going back to the days of offering Crown Lands, I believe something on the order of half the takers were Americans crossing the border.

The Alberta oil industry is virtually owned by Americans.

The towers in Calgary are filled with Americans.

Alberta’s only serious market, except for gas in Canada, is America which puts a crimp in producer prices.

The government in Alberta even sometimes styles itself in American fashion – for example, its website speaking of “the executive branch” when of course there is no such thing under a parliamentary government.

And note Preston Manning who runs an outfit that is a miniature replica of one of America’s “think-tanks,” institutions which are little more than well financed propaganda mills and sinecure positions for those who’ve served the imperial cause well.

And just so Manning, playing president of a propaganda mill financed by some of America’s most right wing oil boys.

Albertan views on the Senate too have nothing to do with genuine democratic interests. They reflect a desire to copy America’s most paralyzing and corrupt political institution.

Our Dear Leader has made many statements over time reflecting his obsessive American bias, and he too is a protégé of good old Preston Manning.
___________________________________________

“All the regular welfare unemployed lefties out in force today.”

Why are people who have a different point of view to yours characterized as “welfare lefties”?

Your views are rendered stupid simply by your choice of words.

You write without ever informing yourself of anything, and you write with contempt as well as ignorance.

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

I love the accompanying photo of Peter MacKay at the controls.

You can imagine the photographer or a public relations flak telling Pete to place his head at a certain angle so that his eyes, which are too close together, don’t disturb viewers.

The posture, too, was suggested to demonstrate a man in control.

And the subtle lighting on the face to make him stand out from the background.

But despite all their efforts, and likely a $100,000 invoice for the session, in the end all I see is a fool trying to pretend he’s serious.

Or a twelve-year old playing grown-up.

Yes, with a guy of this caliber in charge, changes are definitely called for in DND’s authority over costly acquisitions.

 

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY JOHN IBBITSON IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

“It’s what the Chinese and Indians and Japanese and South Koreans and Malaysians and Indonesians and Filipinos and Vietnamese and all the others think of us that matters now.

“That’s where the growth is. That’s where we have to go. Even if the Pacific alternative is a much, much harder row to hoe.”

Yes, Mr. Ibbitson, that statement is very true so far as it goes, but in fact it doesn’t go very far.

I believe you are playing word games, being essentially dishonest while seeming to say true things.

Harper’s only “achievements” in widening our world trade has been to walk in lock-step with America, both in the pathetic little agreements with small states in Latin America and in joining the Pacific Rim effort.

Both of those efforts have more to do with America’s desire to lock-in these smaller states in geo-political terms than any meaningful extension of the world’s free trade.

Nothing of substance has been done by Harper concerning the world’s growing future giants: China, India, Brazil, and Russia.

Again, that failure relates to his servility towards the U.S., an imperial power which is very wary of closer relations with these countries and would not appreciate genuinely Canadian initiatives.

In fact, we have not had in my lifetime a prime who cares quite so much about what Americans think.

Indeed, in his words and actions, I think it completely fair to describe him as an American wannabe.

Yet he is your man, Mr. Ibbitson.

The basis for the rupture in American-Canadian relations, if it may be called that, is simple: Harper has been hit with the stunning truth so many leaders in the world have been hit with in the past: when you cozy up to the big bully to the South, giving him everything he wants and then some, you do not earn any reciprocity or special status.

In fact, you just keep getting asked for more. My favorite recent example is Tony Blair, a man who demeaned the office he occupied with lies and crimes serving American interests, and yet who was not even listened to on issues where he thought he could make a contribution to world affairs.

He became a pathetic figure, having money showered on him in his retirement (the way America tends to reward those who have served it acceptably), but having made no contribution to humanity worth mentioning and having served American interests with war crimes.

Harper has, along many lines, badly compromised the integrity of Canada’s traditional identity and role in the world while chasing the fantasy of becoming America’s favored son, a traditional identity which most American governments did not like but had some grudging respect for.

Now we look to American eyes as a rather pathetic figure, begging for pipelines, begging for inclusion in trade talks, begging for their honoring free-trade treaty terms which they have regularly violated when it suited their needs.

And we’ve compromised ourselves heavily, more or less cutting the attachments in the world that depended upon the perception of Canada as an honest broker, a fair-minded and progressive society reaching out to the world.

And we owe it all to your boy, Stephen Harper.

http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.ca/search/label/CHUCKMAN%20CARTOON%20-%20HARPER%20-%20CANADA%27S%20HARPER%20-%20THE%20VISION%20THING%20-%20FLAG%20OVER%20ROCKIES

 

 

 

JOHN CHUCKMAN

POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY PRESTON MANNING IN TORONTO’S GLOBE AND MAIL

Another pathetic secular sermon from Preston Manning.

The preacher has never quite been left behind by the manipulative, career politician, having blended into an unpleasant Right Wing identity with roots in Texas and the Midwest.

I recall a few years ago, as CBC Radio was quietly adjusting to unpleasant new realities in Ottawa determining its destiny, Manning received a brief show called “This I Believe.”

Each spot was introduced by Manning’s scratchy, whiny little voice and featured a notable Canadian giving a little lesson or sermon about something he or she believed.

It was pure dreck, annoyingly sentimental and at the same time virtually meaningless to anyone not sharing the person’s love for this or that often trivial notion.

Interestingly, the idea was lifted – lock, stock, barrel, and even the very words of the title – from the United States.

And that source, the United States, remains an enchanted one to Preston Manning, despite all of his protestations about Canada.

He is the self-appointed president of a self-created think tank, which just happens to be paid for by American oil money.

He is the man most responsible for Stephen Harper’s rise to destructive power, having selected him as a protégé many years ago.

And just like the American Right Wing they both so desperately admire, Manning wallows in a strange pool of vague religiosity, patriotic kitsch, and homespun notions which softens and disguises his relentless drive to push the people of Canada in a direction they really don’t want to go, towards American interests, American values, American special interests, and American hypocrisy.

Readers may enjoy:

http://chuckmancartoons.blogspot.ca/2009/09/canadas-harper-vision-thing-flag-over.html