Canada is back on the world stage, Stephen Harper triumphantly proclaimed way back in the unstable days of minority government. In those ancient times, the Prime Minister saw foreign policy, as he saw everything that lived and breathed, as an opportunity to divide Canadians. Play exclusively to the base, expand that base by exquisitely calculated fractions, and let the majority of the country go hang.
Politically, it worked like a dream. You parade your yawning indifference to climate change with gratifying results: Canada gets singled out for ridicule by international environmental groups, proving to deniers and unthinking business types alike that Harper is indeed their main man.
You make yourself the servile handmaiden of the ultra-right, ultra-nationalist government of Israel. You're the last man standing to demand that Egyptian president Mubarak resign. It's perfect for picking up maybe another two or three seats from the Liberals, and never mind that Canada loses all currency with progressive forces in the Arab and Muslim worlds and those who cheer them on.
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