Harper Speech Stirs Wide Outcry

This strengthens the concern that Harper is NOT ready for real leadership,
despite recent attempts at spit and polish (and despite whether or not you
agree with his platform).

Any half-brained politician should know nothing is gained in contemporary
politics by playing the "Hitler card". Maybe the few remaining old tories will
take him out back for a good beating.

Way to go, PC party.

I've never been a fan of Harper, but as far as partisan politics goes, what else is new? Anybody who thinks liberals are beacons of egalitarianism is wrong. He is quite true in his facts, it was a liberal government who refused entry to jews and one MP did make that quote. It serves a purpose, namely exciting the media and canadians to focus on this issue instead of any others. We know that Chretien succeeded in putting this off for almost a decade and it certainly wasn't the federal government who 'lead the way' on this issue-it was the provinces. Even in the house there is considerable fuss about many liberals who want to vote against it, how different are they being? As well, it was also Mulroney who brought in divorce rights for native women, something that Trudeau adamantly opposed. The idea that 'conservatives' are against rights and 'liberals' are against them is quite an over generalization. Let the venting begin....

It was a different era. Jews were not given the right to be there because democratically no one wanted them there.

Harper is just trying to give the Liberals a majority.

That's all beside the point, which was about Harper's leadership grooming. You just don't play the Hitler card, it's politically stupid even if the facts are sound.

Again, way to go PC party. Harper should also get a smack for trying to recast the PC legacy as his own. The Progressive Conservative Party is entitled to that legacy (for better or for worse). Harper's party forfeited the right to it when they dropped the "P".

Maybe it's time for another schism.

To me it doesn't matter what has happened in the past. (As deplorable as it was, it is now in the past.) Now is the time for politicians to do the right thing for today. Bringing up mistakes of the past is only a tactic of taking the debate away from the real issues of the day.

It wasn't 'another era' that's for sure, the claim that 'democratically nobody wanted them here' makes no sense whatsoever. There was no referendum held where 'canadians' decided what they wanted, it was a government decision pure and simple, just as letting in german war criminals after the war was. When the war was announced even the vaguely functioning democracy we had was shut down and we became essentially a totalitarian state with the government taking over industry. I don't even know what 'the Hitler card' pertains to, that Canada refused entry to jews certainly is an indictment, one that hasn't changed, we haven't exactly bent over backward to allow muslims or kurds into the country, people who would certainly rather that than being bombed and ethnically cleansed. Turkey just finished practically wiping out the kurdish population under the guise of a 'civil war', while the canadian government had to apologize for a private members bill that finally gave recognition to another ethnic cleansing in Turkey almost a century ago. Meanwhile, well educated Indians and chinese are welcome to our universities so long as they have the money.

These are all liberal policies, Harper never even mentioned Hitler, he mentioned all sorts of rights issues for which Canada has been culpable. Like I said, I'd never vote for Harper, but that he's saying anything different than any other opposition party has I think is overblowing it. Take a look at some of Chretien's quotes when he was in opposition, there's some real beauties in there! Of course Martin doesn't have that problem since he was basically drafted from the boardroom.
That Harper would make a good Prime Minister is pretty idiomatic, people don't realize the power that the PMO's office has and that it essentially runs the country, which means the idea of a 'good' Prime Minister is like saying 'Attila' was a good hun (by hun standards he was:) We've been lucky since the best form of government we can have is a minority one, unfortunately by design they don't last long. Everybody just remember to vote for exactly who you voted for last time!

Well put. To answer your question on what the "Hitler card" is:

"Let us not forget it was the Liberal party that said none is too many when it came to Jews fleeing from Hitler." (Harper)

One of the dirtiest dirty tricks in western political rhetoric is to use the name of your opponent and "Hitler" in the same sentence. It backfires more often than it works because it sounds melodramatic or shrill, again despite what the facts might be.

Once more, my argument is not with the substance of his statement, but his decision to make it. The old tories who decided to bear with this new party and now see their voice in parliament being degraded to this type of bush-league farce (no pun intended) will be rolling their eyes.

In case you didn't read the entire message, like I said, Kurds are being ethnically cleansed right now but you don't see our politicians doing anything about it. In fifty years people may be asking why the issue didn't even warrant a rascist remark by a politician while a culture was eradicated. As far as tactics of 'what is talked about' essentially it makes no difference WHAT we say here, none if is going to affect those making the decisions. On the internet virtually everything past and present is being discussed somewhere, the only thing the government needs worry about is what is portrayed on either the CBC which is dependant on the government for it's funding, or in the national media which is essentially corporate owned to varying degrees.

I agree that this was a huge gaffe since any reference to anything 'minority related' sets off bells in Canada, particularly eastern Canada. As I've said elsewhere, why he doesn't make the point that as far as marriage rights go, why can't I marry two women, or a teenager of concentual age (14 in BC)? That seems to me to be a far more plausible argument since those rights are also being infringed on.

Harper -- what an idiot. His argument seems to be: The Liberals were once as bigotted as we are now.

Pretty smart.

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If you don't like these ideas, I've got others. --Marshall McLuhan

Before we get too carried away, it's worth remembering that the Liberal Party (though morally dubious on anti-semitism) had positioned themselves in the safe centre of the national feeling. Anti-semitism was extreme in Quebec and from social conservative factions alike. The far-left opposed Hitler, but more for his anti-Communism than his anti-Semitism. There were few voices speaking out on their behalf. Before the horrors of the war were revealled, antisemiticism in most corners of Canada (especially in French Canada) was not impolite.

The boat Harper referred to travelled up and down the coastlines of the Western world and was turned out at every port -- by conservative and liberal politicians and populations alike. The back-turning on the Jews in need was sadly universal. To point fingers is to miss the shame on everyone's failure.

G

George Bush, Stephen Harper, Paul Martin are all from the Bilderberg Group. They are working in concert to make sure one or the other get into a majority situation. Bush chastizing Harper makes Harper look good. McKenna stating openly that we are already in Missile Defense makes the Liberals look bad. Linking Hitler with Paul Martin will get some to study their history and think maybe the conservatives are the lesser of two evils while they ignore their third choice. Meanwhile there is no mention of deep integration or a North American currency. I hope people clue in to the disgusting manipulations that are being waged against Canadians and get the NDP into a stronger position to take this contry back from these guerilla a**holes.

Simply put, what Harper said had nothing to do with the issue at hand. It was just a tactic used to disguise what he really wanted to do, draw your attention away from the question and issue at hand to past "crimes against humanity".
Same-sex marriage has nothing to do with Canada's notorious past with racism, prejudices, and inequalities. Yet, it is important to state that these racisms, prejudices and inequalities exist today. They are still going strong.
From my perspective, I think that Canada has to first get deal with its racism, prejudices and inequalities before it can make any "changes" to consitituitons or amendments or bills. Without dealing with the legacies they have left and still carry within the Canadian Polticial/Governmental State, the changes made on paper will be just that, something written on paper but nothing to believe in. An example of how paper is enforced, look at the law. People follow the law because they believe in it and the enforcers of it believe in it as well. When in reality, that piece of paper used to be just a tree.
Harper is simply an idoit. The lesser of two evils sadly seems to be our inept current Prime Minister. At least he hasn't dug up past issues of racism and extreme prejudices in order to gain polticial clout. Digging up old issues only serves to open old wounds and reinforcing a growing mistrust minorities have of the Canadian Government.

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"The wind mocks me"- JA

To marry two women is against equality rights because they only get half a husband!!!!!

Sorry to tell you all this, but Godwin's Law only applies in the online realm. And surely you leftists on here who throw out the word "fascist" at every opportunity have nothing to complain about.