Well, gosh. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this:
For Immediate Release
September 30, 2008Harper copied John Howard’s speech on Iraq
TORONTO – Prime Minister Stephen Harper must explain how it is possible that almost half of the major speech he delivered in House of Commons calling for Canadian troops to be sent to the War on Iraq was a word-for-word recitation of the speech Australian Prime Minister John Howard delivered less than a day and a half before, said Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae.
“How does a leader in Canada’s Parliament, on such a crucial issue, end up giving almost the exact same speech as any another country’s leader, let alone a leader who was a key member of George W. Bush’s Coalition of the Willing?” said Mr. Rae.
“How can Canadians trust anything that Mr. Harper says now? The decision on whether to commit troops to join the War on Iraq was by far the greatest test leaders across the globe faced this decade. We now know when Mr. Harper faced that test, he not only made the wrong choice, but he made that choice so blindly and carelessly that he ended up delivering a word-for-word repetition of someone else’s words and thoughts,” said Mr. Rae.
Mr. Rae said it was “shocking” that Mr. Harper had resorted to lifting someone else’s words for such a key speech.
“Liberals have been arguing for over two years that Canada is losing its independent voice in foreign affairs under Mr. Harper,” said Mr. Rae. ”We just had no idea that Mr. Harper was prepared to borrow the drafting of the actual words he would use from another country.”
A line by line comparison, courtesy of the Liberal Party is here, or you can “watch Mr. Harper and Mr. Howard deliver their speech” here.
ELSEWHERE IN THE MACLEANSDOTCAVERSE:
The Conservatives’ rapid non-response team weighs in
Aaron Wherry liveblogs a Senior Conservative Source giving the most well-attended virtual background briefing here.
Paul Wells digs through the archives
