Strong Leadership Builds the Future

Today Canadian astronaut Steve MacLean sat at the controls of the Canadarm 2 on the US space shuttle Atlantis. There could be no better symbol of the strength of cooperation with our neighbor to the south. Last weekend however, Jack Layton tore a page from Paul Martin's playbook and tried to villify Prime Minister Harper as a "cheerleader for President Bush."

No matter what you might think of the US president or his policies, we have no better partner in progress than the United States of America. It is bigoted and naive to link and entire nation to an adminstration whose policies are a source of irritation. Even the press darling, Bill Clinton, has never appeared on a Canadian ballot and is not likely to in the near future - so why do the Liberals and the NDP stir the passions of their minions by attacking Americans?

The United States consumes something in the order of 90% of our foreign exports. That means Canadians have jobs because they buy our stuff. The only reason that the Liberals could get away with 12 years of systematically humiliating our military is that we understand that the US would never permit an attack on their northern neighbour. With Sea Kings falling out of the sky, submarines catching fire just off Nova Scotia and 25 year old Iltis jeeps exposing our troops to death by the smallest IED (Improvised Explosive Device), how could our military possibly do it's job? For Pete's sake, when the Liberals first sent out troops into Afghanistan they didn't even have clothing that was suited for the environment!

The point is that if we are to be a truly sovereign nation, we need to stand on our own two feet. It is disingenuous and dishonorable to take so much from the US and then set them up like a straw man for target practice during an election. If they're so bad, let's quit selling to them. If they're so bad, let's have a military that actually has the equipment to credibly defend our country's interests and borders. If they're so bad, let's sever our diplomatic relations and recall the thousands of Canadian families who live in the US part time, or for years at a time.

If they're not that bad then we should quietly go about the business of governing our country, and let the US presidents campaign for popularity on the other side of the border. It is time for us to come out from under the shadow of the United States. We have one of the most robust economies in the world. We have a huge wealth of natural resources including forestry, agriculture, minerals, gems, livestock, fresh water, fishing and of course the second largest reserves of oil in the world. As long as would be leaders keep playing the "I hate America" card to arouse nationalism we will be degraded to the lesser of the two north american neighbours. The strong and independent do not feed the bigoted fears of the proletariat, they merely build successful partnerships that are mutually beneficial and strengthen our position on the world stage. Congratulations to PM Stephen Harper for resisting media pressure and making our country strong, independent and free.

TruBlue