Specifically, what if Stephen Harper were found to be a U.S./Canadian dual citizen. What would the media reaction be? Ezra Levant has a theory, which he invoked to launch his now infamous smear campaign against Stephane Dion:
Imagine the shrieks from the media if the Conservatives were to elect a leader who is a dual citizen of the U.S. He would be called a U.S. poodle at best or a spy at worst. Every time he opined on a subject, it would be scrutinized through the lens of Canada-U.S. relations. Everything from military spending to foreign treaties like Kyoto would be looked at through the question: Was the Prime Minister of Canada truly pursuing Canadian interests, or was his loyalty to his other homeland at play?
Since many Conservatives commentators appear to agree with this theory, it is probably worth examining.
One obvious flaw in the above reasoning is that people already refer to Harper as a U.S. poodle. And indeed, it is fairly commonplace in the MSM and blogosphere to wonder whether Harper is pursuing Canadian interests (vis-a-vis, for example, the Afghanistan Mission) or merely attempting to curry favor with his ideological counterparts South of the border. Would this kind of criticism be more or less prevalent if it were discovered that Harper was a full-fledged American Citizen? Probably not. It is based on the unarguable historical fact that Canadian Reform/Conservative Party policies have usually inclined towards American poodledum, especially when Republicans have been running the latter country, the most obvious example being Harper's support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq in the face of all Reason and common-sense.
When you have policies which is this Amero-Centric, so goes the thinking, actually being an American is redundant.
On the other hand, since we are playing with thought experiments, lets imagine that a solid, Blue-State type like Hillary Clinton was kidnapped as a child and raised in Calgary,where she grew up and decided to run for Leader of the CPC with the express intention of pulling it Left into the Canadian Mainstream. Would there be an uproar when her true status was revealed? Given her ideological leanings, I think not. She would be judged on her ideas, not her country of origin.
And if the nation found her policies to be a comfortable fit, her dual citizenship would be entirely forgotten.
so you took a double dose of stupid pills this morning eh ??
ReplyDeleteWhen all else fails, just make stuff up.
ReplyDeleteAnon wrote:
ReplyDelete"When all else fails, just make stuff up."
Which is what Ezra did in the first place. The difference being my stuff is funnier.
In Evra's little scenario, does he say how he, Harper and his conservative friends would react to his predicted Liberal criticism? Would they:
ReplyDeletea)Force Harper to renounce his US citizenship to remove any question of his loyalty?
b)Call Liberals anti-american and anti-family for daring to suggest Harper should give it up, and be outraged that we'd dare question his loyalty?
There was a Conservative candidate on the West Coast last election who was a US/Cdn Citizen . . . the libs went nuts
Do you recall a name? Because other US citizens in the Con caucus include Myron Thompson and Diane Ablonczy and I don't recall the issue ever being raised about them, and they've been in the House since 93, iirc.
Yeah...I'm big nasty American-hatin' Canadian, and the last thing I think about is Ablonczy's and Thompson's citizenship. People who live here, and, especially, people who are participating in our politics don't pose any problems for me.
ReplyDeleteLet's face it...Ezra's complaint is simply pandering to anti-francophone bigotry, no matter how the idiot spins it.
Ezra is the Cherniak of Conservative blogdom, a blimp looking for an audience.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. I don't even like Cherniak all that much, but I think he has way more integrity than Ezra Levant.
ReplyDeleteAt least Ezra pays his own way. Cherniak used his blog to pitch for donations to pay for his trip to that Liberal bun fest in Quebec. I mean how Liberal getting early practice at troughing.
ReplyDeleteDion showed weakness. He was adamant he would keeep his citizenship, then he buckled under pressure.
ReplyDeleteThen said he would give it up IF he would lose votes because of French citizenship.
Message received:
No convictions.
Do & say anything to win.
Big mistake....
Dion showed weakness. He was adamant he would keeep his citizenship, then he buckled under pressure.
ReplyDeleteStop lying.
Levant's using the standard deflection argument that right wingnuts have been using for years.
ReplyDeleteInstead of admitting that he is an amazingly narrow-minded little bigot, he tries to claim that "the left would do it if XXX was YYY" to justify his own expression of ethnic nationalism.
Of course, he completely ignores the reality that during the Alberta PC leadership race, nobody made an issue out of Ted Morton's dual citizenship. (Made an issue out of what Ted Morton says, yes, and may have mapped it back and said it was 'too American', but I don't recall anybody seriously attacking Morton's citizenship or loyalty to Canada.
(Oh yes, did I need to point out that Ezra was oh-so-joyfully backing Morton?)
LeRant is sleazy little hypocrite. (and that's being charitable)
BCL said:
ReplyDelete"...and decided to run for Leader of the CPC with the express intention of pulling it Left into the Canadian Mainstream. Would there be an uproar when her true status was revealed? Given her ideological leanings, I think not. She would be judged on her ideas, not her country of origin."
Right wing ideas = BAD! :(
Left wing ideas = Good! :)
I SEE!! Why was I missing it before?
Ken,
ReplyDeleteExactly, country of origon has nothing to do with it.
So if country of origin has nothing to do with whether or not an idea is good or bad, then we won't be hearing any more use of the term "American-style" in the derogatory form, will we?
ReplyDeleteNot likely.
Once a sleazy do-nothing liberal hypocrite who will do anything for power, ALWAYS a sleazy do-nothing liberal hypocrite who will do anything for power.