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Stephen Harper's Address to Ultra-Right-Wing American Think Tank |
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Written by LPC
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Thursday, 15 December 2005 |
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper delivered a speech in Montreal to a secret ultra-right-wing American think tank, the Council for National Policy (CNP), in which he denounced Canada as a “Northern welfare state in the worst sense of the term.”
“Your country, and particularly your conservative movement is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world,” Harper told the American audience in his June 1997 speech.
Yesterday, a spokesperson for Mr. Harper tried to excuse this piece of his history, saying it was intended to be “tongue-in-cheek.” This is simply not credible, given the serious topic and the audience he addressed.
Mr. Harper’s speech, billed as a discussion of “Developments in Canada’s Political System,” not only disparaged every major political party, but also universal medicare, women’s rights, the unemployed and francophone Canadians.
The speech begins with a diagnosis of Canada as a “welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and very proud of it.” Mr. Harper then turns to the jobless, who he says the audience should not feel bad for, since “they don’t feel bad about it themselves, as long as they’re receiving generous social assistance and unemployment insurance.”
Harper then goes on to describe Canada as “basically an English-speaking country . . . not a bilingual country. It is a country with two languages. And there is a big difference.”
Next on the agenda are Canada’s political parties. He describes the NDP as “a branch of the Canadian Labour Congress and” the Bloc Quebecois as an “ethnic separatist party.”
He then talks about some of the policies of the Liberal government, saying it introduced “a constitutional package which they put to a national referendum. The package included distinct society status for Quebec and some other changes, including some that would just horrify you, putting universal Medicare in our constitution and feminist rights and a whole bunch of other things.”
This is very serious. These are the words and views of a man who aspires to be Prime Minister of Canada in 40 days. And this is the way he describes our country to a gathering of Americans.
Even more alarming is that Mr. Harper’s comments were never meant to be made public. They were made to a secret ultra-right organization composed of U.S. conservative leaders, financiers and religious right activists. Founded in 1981 by three Texas conservative millionaires, the group meets three times annually with council meetings closed to the public and off-limits to the media.
Other speakers who have addressed the CNP include televangelist Jerry Falwell , who spoke on Christian conservatism on Aug. 25, 2004; U.S. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld; former U.S. Attorney general John Ashcroft; Founder of Focus on the Family James Dobson, who spoke on abortion in February 1998; and Reagan-era Secretary of Defence Casper Weinberger, who spoke on national defence under Bill Clinton in January, 1999.
Stephen Harper’s words reveal a deep contempt for the Canadian political system and Canadian values, such as universal medicare. In this campaign, Canadians have seen a very different Stephen Harper. The question is: which one will govern if elected Prime Minister? |
