OTTAWA, December 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The smashing success of true-blue conservative George W. Bush and Fox media has their wannabe conservative Canadian counterparts spinning wheels.
Last week Canada’s National Post, which – except for a short while after its launch – has so utterly disappointed conservative Canadians with its frequent liberal bias, slammed Canadian Conservative Leader Stephen Harper for not being enough like Bush. Responding in a letter to the editor published in the Post today, Harper, who has himself greatly disappointed conservatives with a lackluster performance on most things conservative, blasted the Post for not being a conservative paper. An editorial in Thursday’s National Post hints that Harper is more interested in climbing into bed with the morally and politically leftist Block party separatists than pursuing Conservative ideals. LifeSiteNews.com has also been hearing increasing rumours lately that a power hungry Conservative leadership has cooked a deal with the Bloc to take over the reigns of government from the minority Liberals and rule the country jointly until the next election.
The Post editorial stated, “Mr. Bush’s decisive win last month did not come from aping his opponents’ policies, nor from adopting policies that clash with his party’s basic principles in hope of picking up votes in one particular region. Mr. Bush took on his rivals, head-to-head, and earned Americans’ respect by being true to himself and his values. That he has been infinitely more successful south of the border than Mr. Harper has here speaks volumes.”
Responding today, Harper slams the Post for unsupportive silence when the Conservative Party tackles “national defence, unethical conduct, Kyoto, child care or taxation.” Further, in words that surprised social conservative Canadians with their forcefulness, Harper even slammed the paper for non-support of moral issues. “We fight against the weakening of marijuana laws that protect children. The Post supports the government’s misguided approach. . . . . We fight for the traditional definition of marriage. You are silent.” The last item is particularly astonishing since during the last federal election, much to the consternation of Canadian conservatives, Harper went out of his way to avoid making defence of traditional marriage a central part of his campaign. A choice which, some conservatives contend, cost him the election. Concluding his letter Harper writes, “In our meeting last week, President Bush and I did indeed discuss conservatism. I was able to tell him that Canada most certainly has a conservative party. What it lacks is a national conservative newspaper.” Life and family leaders were nonetheless pleased with Mr. Harper’s recent comments. Campaign Life Coalition President Jim Hughes reacted to Harper’s letter saying, “I’m happy to see that Harper is championing support for traditional marriage.” But as for agreeing with him on whether there exists in Parliament a truly conservative party, Hughes said, “Certainly we have small ‘c’ conservative politicians, but it remains to be seen whether we have a truly conservative party.” Jhw