Stephen Lautens, Calgary Sun Columnist, 22 February, 2010

I’ve often thought about public attitudes towards government and politics, and how recent events in Ottawa have further brought the public faith of government into disrepute.
It strikes me this government, more than most others, has treated our democratic and parliamentary institutions with disrespect, if not outright contempt.
I’m not surprised, because they showed the same contempt for government before they were elected.
In a word, Harper’s government treats government like it is the problem. In other words, he’s his own worst enemy.
It was an article of faith of both the Reform party and the hard-right Conservatives that government is bad, small government is not quite as bad, and democracy is best fine-tuned with a sledgehammer.
Not to sound like a Grade 9 civics class, but since the 1600s, Parliament has been the government.
Not the prime minister, not his cabinet, not his political party — Parliament, which includes Opposition MPs.
When allowed to function, it guarantees responsibility, accountability and transparency.

Read the full article here….

Friday Feb 12, 2010
The Star

The pattern is set: someone says something critical about the policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government and the Conservative mud-slinging machine goes into attack mode. On the receiving end have been Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff (“unCanadian”), NDP Leader Jack Layton (“Taliban Jack”), Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (“the small man of Confederation”), whistle-blowing diplomat Richard Colvin (“hearsay”), and any critics of Israeli policies (“anti-Semites”).

Now added to the list is Ed Clark, CEO of TD Bank and one of Canada’s pre-eminent business leaders.

Read the full article here

Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday called on Iran to halt enrichment of its uranium.

Harper said the move would bring Iran “considerably closer” to possessing weapons-grade material.
Utter nonsense! 20% enriched uranium isn’t even close to weapons grade.

“It is time for Iran to end its defiance of the international community,

What ‘defiance’? They are perfectly within their legal rights.

suspend its enrichment activity and take immediate steps toward transparency and compliance

Iran has been in full compliance with the IAEA

by halting the construction of new enrichment sites,
and fully co-operating with the International Atomic Energy Agency,”
Iran have co-operated, consistently with the IAEA knowing full well that many of the so-called inspectors in the IAEA’s teams were CIA agents

Iran has agreed to ship out it’s 3% to Russia or France, IF, they can be guaranteed that the upgraded material will be returned to them.
Feb 9, 2010 The Star

Harper said in a statement.
…
“Canada will continue to work with our allies to find strong and viable solutions, including sanctions, to hold Iran to account,…”

Now he’s threatening Iran! Hasn’t he heard of diplomacy???

Remember when Harper warned us about Saddam, and said that attacking Iraq was necessary … ?

“These allies did not seek a military conflict today any more than they sought it 12 years ago. The world has tried other means for years but to no avail. We cannot walk away from the threat that Iraq’s continued possession of weapons of mass destruction constitutes to its region and to the wider world.” Stephen Harper, 2003
He was wrong then, and he’s wrong now

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/02/10/iran-stephen-harper-uranium-nuclear.html#socialcomments#ixzz0fLgQcJBu

From a March 2003 speech by Harper

The full report of Harpers statements are here