Dear fellow Canadians: This is what Stephen Harper has done to our international image

 Posted by on 2 December 2009  Modern Life
Dec 022009
 

The following story is one of the top-five most-viewed on The Guardian:

Canada’s image lies in tatters. It is now to climate what Japan is to whaling

Subheadline: “The tar barons have held the nation to ransom. This thuggish petro-state is today the greatest obstacle to a deal in Copenhagen”

Yes, that’s right — we’re a “thuggish petro-state.” But here’s the money quote:

So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petro-state. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest commodity known to man. The price of this transition is the brutalisation of the country, and a government campaign against multilateralism as savage as any waged by George Bush.

Columnist George Monbiot also calls Canada “the real villain” (eclipsing the United States) and says “Canada now threatens the wellbeing of the world.”

Yes, this is about climate change and if you don’t agree with global warming then nothing I can say will convince you. But hopefully you care about international opinion. And even if you don’t, hopefully you’ll see that the Harper-led process to evade international climate-change agreements and to develop and commercialize the oil sands has been a scorched-earth political process that is wrecking more than just the climate.

Thanks, Harper. Thanks a lot.

Grant Hamilton

  • Stacey

    Awesome. He’s inching closer and closer to the top of the ‘Worst PMs in Canadian History’ list every day. If only we had an alternative to vote for…

  • Colin

    Seeing the image of our country coarsened by this visionless, crude thug is very dis-heartening but not surprising…as the saying goes, garbage in/garbage out.

    He has no plan, other than power at any cost. Nothing – absolutely nothing – is off limits to him getting his paws on all the levers of power.

    We’re doomed if he ever gets a majority. If this is how he acts with a minority, well…

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    The real story of the Harper years* is the triumph of partisanship over patriotism. It no longer matters what’s good for the country; only what’s good for the party is considered.
    _____
    *Blame where blame is due — this wasn’t begun under Harper’s watch, nor is it strictly a Tory strategy. Heck, it’s not even a Canadian thing. But they’ve definitely accelerated the process. And it’s corroding the political system.

  • Colin

    Leave it to good old Canada to take up the miserable failure of George W Bush tactics, when even America’s left it behind.

    Of course, being in Brandon gives one a good appreciation for doing things 20 years after everyone else has stopped doing it…

  • Wynston

    If only the Governor General had actually followed the rules and allowed a coalition to form last year, oh well parliamentary democracy doesn’t matter I guess.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    @Wynston — I agree with you completely. The faux-public rage that the Tories whipped up (tea-bagger style) was a seething foam of ignorance. Canadians needed to be taught that majority/minority is a false dichotomy. A coalition government is a gold mine of unexplored governing potential.

  • Colin

    It could be argued that a minority government forces our manufactured-outrage style of gov’t to actually learn the concept of compromise…as opposed to the failed reactionary lunacy still emanating from the Republican rump down south.

    A permanent set-up in that regard would go a long way to preventing the cynical embarassment this article is exposing us to the world on.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      Colin — normally, I’d think you were spot-on. Unfortunately, the current minority government seems to have mastered the ability to exploit divisions in the opposition. The Liberals look like shrieking fools, perpetually hysterical over the latest government outrage. And, while I share their anger at the the Tories it a) isn’t making them look like credible alternatives; and b) isn’t feeding the government any minority humble pie.

  • http://google.com Janet

    I’d say canada has more black eyes these past 10 years then other countries…??
    Now with those wind turbines invading like huge Giant Sized Monstors, who wants to work the land, when you have to navigate around obstackles like that, not to mention the huge shadows they will be downward casting constantly as they rotate, rotate , rotate, rotate , rotate.. makes me nauseous thinking about it.. what a HUGE EYESORE on such Beautiful , Magnificent Landscapes… try your scenery photography now… not to mention those poor mammals and avians that have to try to live alongside those huge ugly things too.. another black eye.. but we should be used to that by now.. but ,,,, when the dumb stay dumber, there isnt much use is there.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      Janet, I see what you’re saying, but no matter how little you like wind turbines, surely you agree that in some ways they’re better than coal-fired plants spewing smoke, gigantic hydro dams flooding historic valleys, or massive fields of silicon solar panels.

      I’ve been up close to the wind farm at St. Leon. I found it awe-inspiring, if a little spooky (it was in the middle of a thunderstorm). And if you don’t think windmills are good for scenery, someone should probably tell the Dutch.

      But honestly, this is one of the good things that Canada’s done in the past little while. (Though I don’t think it has much to do with Harper.)

  • Colin

    There’s lots of places to put wind farms — not everywhere is appropriate or adviseable, but then again amount of wind is just one of the deciding factors, methinks.

    A smart policy realizes that one technology can’t provide an overall solution to everything. Until there’s cold fusion or something, I doubt you’ll find an energy source that can ‘do everything’ to the extent that petroleum can.
    A bit here or there, where it can do the most good, in a scenario where many different options complement each other seems to be the way to go.

  • thebanana

    I think the perfect place for wind farms is right in front of the Parliament Buildings.