Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper was in New York to accept the World Statesman of the Year award from some obscure organization called the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, founded by an equally obscure New York City rabbi.

He had been invited to address the United Nations General Assembly, but for some reason he is passing on that opportunity. It did not go so well the first time around. As Homer Simpson once said "If you don't succeed the first time, just give up".

Here my top 10 reasons why Stephen Harper has been awarded World Statesman of the Year.

In the four years that we have lived outside of Canada, there have been some events that have surprised, shocked, and angered us. Now we are wondering if we should return.

The worst, without a doubt, was on June 26 & 27 last year in Toronto. That is when Prime Minister Stephen Harper hosted the G8/G20 meetings. Harper has barely commented on the most important events that weekend. His majesty stays above it all.

His government has made every effort to thwart a proper public inquiry. Instead they have supported a hodge-podge of toothless panels, committees, and review boards populated by people more concerned keeping their jobs and ducking responsibility.

So I was listening to one of my favourite songs the other day (no, it wasn't Stephen Harper singing A Little Help From My Friends - but keep reading) when a bit of inspiration struck me.

Loser

I'm a music guy. This song is one of the few I love for the lyrics alone. The music is pretty sparse, except for percussion. The lyrics are mostly nonsense, but the rhymes and the rhythms just get in your head.

It's been awhile since there was a new blog on this site. There have been other diversions, which shall manifest themselves soon. Hee-hee, I've been up to some mischief.

This blog draws its inspiration from one of Scott Feschuk's caption challenges, a feature that appears in the Maclean's magazine online edition. The picture above shows Prime Minister Stephen Harper making some kind of gesture while Governor General Michaëlle Jean looks on.

Welcome to the Stephen Harper Goo page, your chance to have some fun with Stephen Harpers mug.

This page makes use of a java applet so in order to work properly, your browser must be java enabled.

Welcome to the Stephen Harper Goo page, your chance to have some fun with Stephen Harpers mug.

This page makes use of a java applet so in order to work properly, your browser must be java enabled.

Move the mouse pointer over something in the picture, like an eye or nose, hold down the mouse button and move the mouse around. You'll soon get the idea of why we call it a Goo picture.

Today was protest day. It was frantic for me. I had to make the Jan 22 news update. Living in the Netherlands, there is this time shift issue I have to deal with . Since I am 6 hours ahead of most of Canada, news arrives kind of late (yesterday's news today!) and the demonstration here in the Hague was one of the first to happen.

So I also had to get my news page updated, the Netherlands Facebook rally group page updated and prepare for a protest/rally that I organized at the last minute. I fully anticipated a rally of one.

Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm goin' to fade away

War children,
 it's just a shot away,
  it's just a shot away

War children,
 it's just a shot away,
  it's just a shot away

Stephen Harper put on another performance for his caucus the today, in a bid to stem the rising tide of protest about his prorogue of parliament.

With membership to the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament approaching the 200,000 mark, demonstrations planned across Canada for January 23, and plunging poll numbers, conservative MP's are getting a little nervous about the situation.

Since he does it so well, Harper sang another song - this time a cover of a Rolling Stones hit, in yet another command performance.

Stephen Harper has done it again. He crossed the line, was too clever by half, and he prorogued parliament for no good reason. Now he has pissed off more people than most anyone could ever imagined. People have reacted.

The breaking story from the CBC garnered over 4200 comments, the first Globe & Mail story logged over 2000 comments, all within 48 hours.

Harper has unleashed a tsunami of protest. A facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament now has close to 80,000 members, which is 22,000 more than it was just 18 hours ago! The debate on Facebook group is passionate, the activity intense.

An election is now on the horizon when parliment resumes sitting in March. Mr. Harper, you are responsible for this one. You, and you alone. You reached too far, assumed too much, and acted too imperially.

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A couple of years back, not long after we arrived in The Netherlands, a good friend paid us a visit. I was marvelling at the bike paths, the canals, the absence of mosquitoes in a landscape filled with calm water. Public transport was great, trains were on time and frequent. Who needs planes? Most things were more expensive but bread, milk, wine, beer and cheese were cheap. Life was good.

Holland was clean. It was safe. It seemed to work remarkably well. My friend quipped that Dutch society was probably 100 years ahead of Canada. I thought this was a bit exaggerated, reckoning maybe 50 years tops. That was before 2009. Now I'm thinking 100 years is a being very kind.