It's bad enough that -- back when he was opposition leader -- Canadian Prime Minister Harper gave a major speech to parliament in 2003 in support of the United States' invasion of Iraq. But it was far worse than that. It has just been revealed that portions of Harper's war speech had actually been plagiarized from a speech given by John Howard to the Australian parliament.
If Stephan Harper had plagiarized almost any other speech, it would be forgivable. But the decision whether or not to support a preemptive invasion of another country requires deliberation; the seriousness of the matter demands that one's arguments be composed with care. The fact that Harper simply plagiarized another leader's speech on the matter suggests that Harper's support for the US invasion had not been carefully thought through; that the merits of the invasion plan had not been carefully researched and weighed by the Canadian opposition leader. Coupled with our knowledge of the astounding lack of planning and preparedness by the Americans for the aftermath of the invasion, the plagiarized speech seems tantamount to proof that Stephen Harper was blindly following the US Administration and its Australian and British allies into war.
It does not appear that Harper was the opposition leader in at the time of this event. The official Canada government website: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Files/Parliamentarian.aspx?Item=0218bf67-ef3a-4a8d-8ab4-0229e4fcaa54&Language=E&MenuID=Compilations.FederalGovernment.PrimeMinisters.Gallery.aspx&MenuQuery=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.parl.gc.ca%2FParlinfo%2FCompilations%2FFederalGovernment%2FPrimeMinisters%2FGallery.aspx
ReplyDeleteshows that Mr. Harper became the Conservative Party of Canada leader on March 20, 2004.
From May 2002 Harper served as the leader of the Alliance Party and Leader of the Opposition.
ReplyDeleteIn March 2003 -- when Harper plagiarized the Iraq war speech -- Harper gave the speech as leader of the Opposition Alliance Party -- a party that would cease to exist in 6 months.
In Oct. 2003 Alliance Party and another political party merged to create a whole new party called the Conservative Party. Harper remained Opposition Leader for the rest of the year.
According to Wiki, "On January 12, 2004, Harper announced his resignation as Leader of the Opposition, in order to run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. Harper won the Conservative leadership election easily... on March 20, 2004."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper