Buckminster Fuller always referred to politicians as the “stooges for the Great Pirates”.  As it is with our american cousins, so it is with us to the North.  Politics is archaic and no comprehensive answers will be found coming from their specialized ranks.  On the bright side, specialization leads to extinction.

As clunky and scarifying as life appears to us today, remember that there is nothing about the caterpillar that predicts a butterfly. We have the resources, skills and common-sense to provide for all without depriving anyone.  Is it unfashionable to say “We can do it.”?  Perhaps.

I wish Truthdig would do an in depth article about Stephen Harper. They would find many similiarities between Harper and G.W. Bush.

Harper is a wannabe right wing religious nut case, and some of his caucas (like Stockwell Day) believes humans walked with dinosaurs.

Harper is a mean spirited Dictator, who took advantage of the global financial crisis to attempt to impose severe financial burdens on the opposition.

Harper stirred up the age old Quebec Separation issue to scare voters into supporting him, when he knew that he would lose a ‘Legal’ vote of confidence in the House of Commons, and his neoconservative party would be sent scurrying to the back benches.

Under Harper, who is trying to emulate Bush, the Canadian Government isn`t lilly white in its Foreign Policy. An example is how the Canadian International Development Agency (and Canadian NGO(s)) aided and abetted the USA overthrow of the democratically elected ‘Aristeed” in Haiti. Ironically the Canadian Governor General who allowed Harper to prorogue the House of Commons (to avoid the vote of Confidence which would have toppled the Harper Government) is herself a Haitain.

The Military Industrial Complex has flourished under Harper.

Sadly, the voting public is becoming apathetic and/ or scared, that, and a nucleous of religious right voters are keeping Harper in a minority position . Sound familiar??

Under Free Trade, we would trade Harper for one of your cotton snout beetles any day !

Ray

Instead of a banana there should be a swastika with one political party mentioned: the Conservatives.  It’s leader and (unfortunately) Canada’s Prime Minister somehow brow beat the Governor General into suspending parliament to save his political hide, a gross violation her authority.  Harper, with his minority governments, governs with a merciless vengeance and an iron fist in the furthering of his agenda, which is to dismantle the social safety net, destroy pay equity for women, continue the war in Afghanistan, and turn Canada into a US colony.  He makes Dick Cheney proud and is right at home with the likes of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh.

I find it a bit much when a fellow Canadian self-righteously lectures our cousins to the south on the topic of American imperialism and how Canada is, well, little miss snow white. (In response to Sol).Don’t Canadians, well at least some and you can image who, benefit from the so-called liberation of Afghanistan? Isn’t Canada a healthy participant in the international weapons industry? Doesn’t Canada have a wonderful history of French and English imperialism? And boy wasn’t it a hoot when our European Ancestors arrived and well, to put it politely, nudged the First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples off their lovely little vacation properties.
Whether north or south of either the 45th parallel or the Rio Grande, power and greed need no passport.

Unless my eyes deceive me, this cartoon was published in the Ottawa Citizen.  Can we all relax before instead of throwing a big hissy-fit about America’s opinion of Canada?  I suspect most Americans have much bigger fish to fry than angsting over the fate of our prorogued parliament.

I like Canadians, and I’ve mostly admired your independence and ability to tell us to stuff it.

That said, Harper and the Conservatives has aided and abetted the ass in DC at every opportunity. Talk about the “Coalition of the Willing”!

I was stunned when I heard you had signed a “Free Trade” Agreement with Columbia. Talk about signing up with the scum of the world.

I thought that was the meaning of the Banana Republic cartoon. I should have known your disgust stops at the doors to the vault.