I know it’s now general wisdom that Harper was the person who coined “Canada is Back”, but actually, Harper just stole this line from the Liberal communication strategy for the roll-out of the International Policy Statement in 2005.

In the fall of that year, DFAIT dispatched plenty of people to give presentations on the IPS throughout Canada’s unversities, and I was fortunate enough to attend one such session at Dalhousie University. It was entitled “Canada is Back: Canada’s 2005 International Policy Statement” and you can find proof of this at http://centreforforeignpolicystudies.dal.ca/seminarseries.php on the entry for September 28, 2005.

I also found this Embassy magazine article where Michael Pearson, an advisor to DFAIT Minister Pierre Pettigrew, uses similar language and says that “Canada is “back in the game.” Coincidently Paul Wells was interviewed for that same article. http://embassymag.ca/page/view/.2005.may.4.spin

I know I heard this repeated in several media interviews and I’d probably place money that someone could find a quote with Paul Martin saying it as well.

None of this is to say that “Canada is Back” is not a silly statement – because it is. It also doesn’t mean that great pundits like Paul Wells shouldn’t be using it to beat the Harperites over the head. My only point is that it wasn’t Harper that first coined the phrase.. he’s a thief.

“The invitation represents a considerable coup for Brown, who will become only the fifth British prime minister to deliver a speech to a joint sitting of both Houses of the US legislature.

The speech – almost certain to focus on the global financial crisis – will bolster his claim to be a world leader in economic affairs.”

It’s a coup for Blair or UK as a whole, not Brown. From what I’ve read, many in US government have come to loathe Brown and his typically Scots dour demeanour. Brown is a terrible public speaker, maybe even worse than Harper, and his speech will be forgotten a few minutes after he’s done talking.

And even tho Congress is Dem at the moment, I don’t believe they will be that receptive to Brown’s message which is likely to be that a global body is needed to regulate financial systems around the world. Brown doesn’t have much credibility in financial affairs either because he was Chancellor for a decade and it’s many of his policies that have led to UK being one of the most adversely affected countries by global recession.

Can we assume that Michael Ignatieff will fly to Dulles International, give a speech to everyone who happens to be at Gate C1 and C2, then pay to have a pic of his “Joint Address” beamed to unrelated metropolitan centres in the lower 48?