Canuck Politics

The Aga Khan, spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims worldwide, has become the fifth person to receive honorary Canadian citizenship in recognition of his humanitarian work advancing religious tolerance and pluralism.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered the Aga Khan Canadian citizenship at a founding ceremony for a Muslim cultural centre and museum in the Toronto suburb of Don Mills.

Harper previously granted honorary Canadian citizenship to The Dali Lama in 2006, and Aung San Su Kyi in 2007.

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

January 28 to March 25, 2010 - Liberal Party leader Micheal Ignatieff has re-opened the abortion debate in Canada, following Stephen Harper’s pledge to make maternal and child health a priority for the G8.

Stephen Harper defended his government’s economic stimulus package in response to a recent Fraser Institute report claiming the stimulus had no effect on GDP.

We’re not going to act on the basis of ideology, we’re going to act on the basis of what the economy needs.  And that is what we have done.

- Stephen Harper

Related Links:

• Fraser Institute: With all due respect Mr. Harper, you are wrong. Stimulus spending doesn’t work

February 10 to March 18, 2010 – The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois are moving to assert the supremacy of Parliament over the government’s refusal to provide uncensored documents related to the treatment of Afghan detainees.

The opposition parties have introduced motions that would find the government in contempt of Parliament and could lead to a snap election.

Related Links:

• Parliamentary motion demanding uncensored documents (December 10, 1009)
• Justice Iacobucci’s terms of reference (March 13, 2010)
• Attorney General Rob Nicholson’s response (March 31, 2010)

Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered an anti-protectionist message to top officials representing the leaders of the G20 as he presented five priorities for their upcoming meeting in Toronto.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper participated in a Q&A session with Canadians in a YouTube sponsored event.

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

Prime Minister Stephen Harper encouraged Canadians to express their patriotism in support of Canadian atheletes at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia.

President Bill Clinton praised Canada’s humanitarian response to the Haitian earthquake disaster at the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.