Canuck Politics

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff delivered similar messages denouncing ”the new antisemitism” in speeches at the second annual Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism.

Demonization, double-standards, delegitimisation: the three “D”‘s.  It is a responsibility of us all to stand up to them … and as long as I am Prime Minister … Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost.

- Stephen Harper

Not every criticizm of the government of Israel is antisemetic. But there is a form of criticizm of the state of Israel which passes into active delegitimization of a recognized democratic state.

I refer of course, in my own country, to Israeli Apartheid Week.  Israel is Israel; Apartaid in South Africa was a crime against humanity.  To conflate the two is to deligimize a democratic state and Canadians must stand against it.

- Michael Ignatieff

September 20 to 24, 2010 - Liberal leader Micheal Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton comment on Canada’s bid for a temporary seat on the UN Security Council, while Prime Minister Harper makes his pitch at the United Nations.

Former Prime Minister Paul Martin advocated binding global financial regulations and limits to national sovereignty in a speech to the Empire Club and Canadian Club in Toronto.

A voluntary process of  global coordination will lead nowhere.  In short, if there is anybody who thinks that the voluntary subscription to global standards will be sufficient, then I’d like to introduce them to the tooth fairy.

- Paul Martin

Related Videos:

• Stephen Harper’s ‘enlightened sovereignty’ and humanitarian agenda (January 28, 2010)
• Prime Minister sets five priorities for G20 summit in Toronto (March 18, 2010)

Stephen Harper says the G-20 has become the steering committee for the global economy, and that such global governance is required to prevent instability created by the free market.

A completely unregulated, ungoverned market, a market without governance, is unstable. And to the extent we now have a truly globalized economy, we need some semblance of a global governance …

We’re not talking about world government.  I don’t think anybody is going to come in and say we’re prepared to surrender our sovereignty to the G-20 or some other body.  But what they are going to say, in practice, is that we have to coordinate our policies to create stability for all of us.

- Prime Minister Stephen Harper

February 16-17 2010 – Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff slams Prime Minister Harper for making a “cheap shot” against the Liberal Party in an address to Canadian Forces in Haiti.

Harper said the recent investment in the C-17 heavy-lift aircraft is an example of his government’s focus on increasing Canada ‘hard power’ capabilities, as opposed to the ‘soft power’ policies of past governments.

I single out the C-17 for a reason. There was a time when that kind of heavy lift aircraft didn’t fit Canada’s ‘soft power’ policies. But our government bought them for the ‘hard power’ requirements of today’s world. Now we’re using them for relief work.  What is the moral of the story?  To do soft power, you need hard power; you need a full range of capabilities.

- Stephen Harper

Every time Mr. Harper gets within a mile of Canadian military equipment, he takes a swipe at the Liberal Party … It’s inappropriate to use Haiti, to use a Canadian military base to make an attack on a political party … Every time he takes a cheap shot like that, it just sours the atmosphere.

- Micheal Ignatieff

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged nations to practice “enlightened sovereignty” in his keynote speech to the 2010 Wold Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Notions rooted in a narrow view of sovereignty and national self interest must be reconsidered. We cannot do business as though for one to have more, another must have less.  That is not true, it is not just, and it cannot be the path we take.

Our ambition … must be a shared belief that the rising tide of recovery must lift all boats, not just some. This is the exercise of soverignty at its most enlightened.

- Stephen Harper

Related links:

• Stephen Harpers article in the Toronto Star: G8 agenda: Focus on human welfare
• Full video: Stephen Harper’s keynote address at the 2010 World Economic Forum

Canada’s Haitian-born Governor General Michaëlle Jean made an emotional appeal for solidarity with the people of Haiti in the aftermath of an earthquake that devastated the country.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff took an unusual stance in support of China’s diplomatic rebuke of Stephen Harper made during his first visit to Beijing.

September 16 and 17, 2009 - Stephen Harper delivers an anti-protectionist message at meetings with President Obama in Washington and business leaders in New York.

We know that a dynamic market economy does require governance. Now we’re not going to create a world government, but we do have to have the countries of the world come together and look at global problems together, and look at the global economy as a system.

We have to start to look at things … from a more enlightened view of our national interest that understands that if we don’t think globally, and think about global solutions, if we all simply work on national solutions, we are going to continue to have these kinds of problems.

- Stephen Harper

Michael Ignatieff says the Liberal Party no longer has confidence in the Conservative government, and they will work to trigger an election at their earliest opportunity.

Liberals say they will not negotiate, and there is nothing Harper can do to change their minds.

The game is up for this Conservative government … Mr. Harper, your time is up.  We cannot support this government any further.

- Michael Ignatieff

Related videos:

• The Ignatieff Ultimatum (June 15, 2009)
• Tories and Grits cooperate on EI Reform (June 17, 2009)