I'm ashamed to be Canadian over this issue:(

[Locut0s]

FUCKING STEPHEN HARPER AND HIS CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT. YOU DON'T REPRESENT ME!!

So I'm sure you know Canada was among the 9 UN nations to vote against recognizing Palestine as a "non-member state".

[holdencaufield]

1. Were you ashamed of ...

... Mr Harper when he apologized on behalf of the Canadian government for two centuries horrible mistreatment of Native Canadians? It seems Mr. Harper has the courage to stand up for what he believes.

[mike_c]

2. that's just about the reddest herring I've seen all day....

And DU is a font of scarlet fishes, LOL. Pray tell us what "two centuries horrible mistreatment of Native Canadians" has to do with recognition of Palestinian rights?

[Purveyor]

3. Indeed. eom

[TomClash]

5. Nothing

The only good thing in that post is the avatar. And that has been tarnished miserably by the rulers of the realm.

[Ken Burch]

7. That apology had nothing to do with Harper's beliefs

He was forced into it by public pressure from below. If he'd really meant that apology. Harper and his government wouldn't ALSO be pushing to extinguish First Nations land claims so that Harper's buddies in the extraction industries could despoil traditional lands at their will.

[TomClash]

4. We can both be ashamed to "North American."

There is plenty of shame to go around.

[delrem]

6. You are far from alone!

There were over 1000 comments on the Globe and Mail article
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-temporarily-recalls-palestinian-un-envoys-but-says-it-isnt-breaking-off-relations/article5832220/
and I scrolled through 8 pages of them. In those 8 pages *100%* of the comments expressed shame, dismay, an intense feeling of loss for how far Canada has fallen from the vision of Lester Pearson. And they expressed well-deserved contempt for Harper.

[kayecy]

8. Not being Canadian.......

Not being Canadian.......Does anyone know why Harper is so pro-Israeli?........What about the Canadian people in general?.....I always thought of Canadians being almost boringly neutral with regard to overseas conflicts.

[delrem]

9. Harper's motivation??

I can only guess.

Harper was one of the original founders of the Reform Party, a western Canadian based group founded to protest and replace the "leftist" Conservative party. The Reform Party was US-centric (had no ideas of its own) and heavily promoted by right wing radio crazies of the kind that promote the "Tea Party" in the states. It was "way gone". The Reform Party eventually merged with the defunct Conservative Party, thereby rebranding itself as mainstream conservative by appropriating that name (oh yes, control of terminology and semantics is critically important in politics!), and after a couple minority gov't wins it won a majority gov't in 2011. And now we're in for it.

After reading what he's had to say about several important social, economic and geopolitical issues, I think it's fair to say that he is far and away to the radical right of what appears on the bland gray saccharine surface seen by the casual midstream voters of whatever leaning who get their news from headlines, press releases and photo-ops. He has said that Canada will be unrecognizable when he's finished with it. Bottom line, he has said that what's good for the USA is good for Canada, and what's bad for the USA is bad for Canada (*not* vice-versa). So evidence is that he sides ideologically with the USA whatever the current USA political/economical position might be, even if to the detriment of Canada as we know it - the ostensible justification being that Canada would derive some trickle-down benefit.

So my guess is that he's simply doing what comes naturally to him, demonstrating the fact that he's as close to being an absolute quisling of his US master as it's possible for a Canadian PM to be.

[kayecy]

10. Thank you for that explanation.........................n/t

[ocpagu]

11. The worst...

...is that Harper said that turning Palestine into a non-member state was an "impediment to peace"...

Gladly, now Harper must only just accept this is a global consensus.