Michael Harris is not happy with the "Canadian Value" of politeness (via Norman Spector).
...Finally, the shocked-and-appalled set went into hyperdrive over Jack Layton's little chin-wag with Himself. In a Texas minute, the leader of a national Canadian political party became Lefty Layton, and y'all know what the president thinks of lefties.
Never mind that Layton was the only Canadian official who managed to remain on two legs for the entire visit. Never mind that he was able to extract the only real piece of information from President Bush during this unrepentant victory lap -- that the missile defence shield will include putting weapons in space as everyone, including Paul Martin, already knows.
Obviously Mr. Harris is not in favour of Nukes in the Milky Way (or whatever the buzzword is these days and check out Babbling
Brooks for a discussion of whether Escalation of the Constellations™ is defensive or offensive):
...If we can measure possible seismic shifts ahead by palpable tremors, the Martin government has already hinted the direction in which it is leaning. Last August, the Liberal government signed a deal with the Americans to turn over the running of the missile defense shield to NORAD, of which, of course we are a member. Not noticed by many at the time was a subtle name-change in that organization, from air to aerospace defence.
And this week, our ambassador at the UN, Allan Rock, announced that Canada will abandon its traditional "honest broker" position in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Instead of abstaining from a resolution denouncing the illegal occupation and settlements, Canada will for the first time vote against the resolutions along with the United States -- despite crystal clear international law on the subject. The Arab world has already taken note of what they see as a profound shift in the Martin government's policy.
