MORE STUPID...
and surprisingly it touches Jack Layton twice. First see this paragraph from a Windsor Star article 'he' penned yesterday on climate change:
"This was just one of the embarrassing lessons coming out the UN climate change conference in Nairobi, where Canada was ranked 51st out of 56 states for our record on climate change. That's one spot ahead of Kazakhstan, Borat's fictional home country, and two spots ahead of the perennial global warming denier and climate change foot-dragger -- the United States. "
What I think Jack meant to say was that Borat was fictional... not the country of Kazakhstan which, Jack, is very much a real country. NDP foreign policy on the march... what next that fictional country of Uter... Germany, or that fictional country of Jaun Valdez, Colombia... At this rate we'll have the carebears being criticized for their work running that fictional organization the UN (although this point may have more basis in truth than the others...)
Anyway, the other STUPID is the growing controversy over Mr. Dion's dual Canada-France citizenship. Really why is this an issue. The guy has lived his whole life here, has fought most of his politial career to protect this country from itself and is now the leader of the opposition and the Liberal Party of Canada. Why is this an issue? In the US I can see, but here... aren't we past this sort of thing?
I'm going out on a pretty big limb here and going to say that in these days of a multiethnic, pluralistic Canadian society which depends on immigration for population growth, a goodly percet of our population has dual citizenship. Look at the situation in lebanon last summer. Anyway Mr. Dion's dual citizenship makes him more, not less, representative of modern Canada. It shows his immigrant roots, it demonstrates that he, like Canada, is tied to the interantional community, and that he is not afraid to be at home here and in the world.
Mr. Dion... please win the next election.
Cheers,
Patrick
and surprisingly it touches Jack Layton twice. First see this paragraph from a Windsor Star article 'he' penned yesterday on climate change:
"This was just one of the embarrassing lessons coming out the UN climate change conference in Nairobi, where Canada was ranked 51st out of 56 states for our record on climate change. That's one spot ahead of Kazakhstan, Borat's fictional home country, and two spots ahead of the perennial global warming denier and climate change foot-dragger -- the United States. "
What I think Jack meant to say was that Borat was fictional... not the country of Kazakhstan which, Jack, is very much a real country. NDP foreign policy on the march... what next that fictional country of Uter... Germany, or that fictional country of Jaun Valdez, Colombia... At this rate we'll have the carebears being criticized for their work running that fictional organization the UN (although this point may have more basis in truth than the others...)
Anyway, the other STUPID is the growing controversy over Mr. Dion's dual Canada-France citizenship. Really why is this an issue. The guy has lived his whole life here, has fought most of his politial career to protect this country from itself and is now the leader of the opposition and the Liberal Party of Canada. Why is this an issue? In the US I can see, but here... aren't we past this sort of thing?
I'm going out on a pretty big limb here and going to say that in these days of a multiethnic, pluralistic Canadian society which depends on immigration for population growth, a goodly percet of our population has dual citizenship. Look at the situation in lebanon last summer. Anyway Mr. Dion's dual citizenship makes him more, not less, representative of modern Canada. It shows his immigrant roots, it demonstrates that he, like Canada, is tied to the interantional community, and that he is not afraid to be at home here and in the world.
Mr. Dion... please win the next election.
Cheers,
Patrick
posted by Patrick at
7:10 AM
2 Comments:
I agree that Dion's dual citizenship is really no big deal. I'm with you Pat - I have no problem with it; in and of itself.
It is only a matter of optics, and sometimes in politics optics is everything. Stéphane Dion recognizes this, which explains his interview on TVO last night and his statement that he will renounce his French citizenship if required ("with sadness"), but he does not believe it is required. He wants the critics to tell him what the problem is. I don’t think the "problem" goes beyond optics, so I hope Dion holds strong and true to himself.
After all, it wasn't an issue for John Turner (England), Mackenzie Bowell (England), Alexander Mackenzie (Scotland) and John A. MacDaddy (Scotland).
Point of clarification though; Dion is not an immigrant, in that he was born in Quebec City in 1955. His mother was a French nationalist, who emigrated from France and "gave" Stéphane Dion his French citizenship on top of the Canadian citizenship he gained automatically by being born here.
By
Anonymous, at 8:08 AM
Ah yes...
Sorry, I was probably typing too fast. I meant to say that he was from immigrant stock like 90% of the rest of the country.
Thanks for pointing that out!
Cheers,
P
By
Patrick, at 8:19 AM
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