…for the rude, snotty dickweed we have for a prime minister. Canadians are a polite lot in general, but you’d never know it to look at our PM. The Harper Index, a progressive news site that follows the foibles of the Stiffy, has a list of folks he’s snubbed (which is sure to grow as time keeps on slipping-slipping-slipping into the future), and there are some doozers on it:
Bono, the international rock star and AIDS activist, was snubbed by Stephen Harper at the G8 summit, who said he was too busy to discuss the African AIDS crisis with him. “Meeting celebrities isn’t my shtick,” Harper said. “That was the shtick of the previous guy.”
Black History Breakfast Clubs were snubbed by Harper on a scheduled visit to Ottawa in February, 2007. While students from an inner-city breakfast club in Toronto had the opportunity to tour Parliament, Harper stayed far away from the quick, scheduled hello. He failed even to send an MP in his place to the event, scheduled as part of Black History Month. Every other political party with seats in Parliament sent a representative to greet the visitors. Present were the deputy leader of the Liberal opposition party, Michael Ignatieff, and prominent NDP MP Olivia Chow, who is the wife of NDP leader Jack Layton.
[…]
Climate scientists. Nobel Prize-winning scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were snubbed by the Harper government when it boycotted a celebration for them staged in February 2008 on Parliament Hill, hosted by the Swedish ambassador, and featuring speeches from all party leaders except Harper.
[…]
Johnson-Sirleaf, Ellen, the Liberian president and the first woman elected as a head of state in Africa, and who Time Magazine named as one of the top 100 people shaping the world today, got passed over for an official welcome from Harper when she visited Ottawa earlier this month. She met with foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay, but was overlooked by Harper, who met with Russian goalie Vladislav Tretiak the same day.
I fail to see how a hockey player could be more important to him than the president of Liberia, unless this somehow ties in with the African AIDS relief thing or the Black Breakfast Club thing. I can well believe that Harpo is racist. The Conservative party has an ugly tendency to attract racists, especially from out west (where Harpo, a former Reform Party member, hails from); its campus arm in particular has that waft of Eau de Nazi.
His dismissal of climate scientists is also pretty much in line for someone who takes his ill-mannered cues from the Repugs south of the 49th Parallel. Although, knowing Harpo, he will continue to dress up his unoriginal attitude with a bogus “Made in Canada” label.
How gauche can you get?
