Don Martin of the National Post brands Harper a "warrior" to Dion's "wimp"

No doubt, in today's National Post opinion article, Don Martin was thinking of that warrior episode contained in Stephen Harper's Wall Street Journal editorial below of March 28, 2003 entitled "Canadians stand with you".

Just imagine if we'd followed GI Joe Stephen Harper's warrior advice on Iraq, circa March 28, 2003, we too could be celebrating five years of Iraq invasion morass.

Come to think of it, the false premise of weapons of mass destruction as the pretext for the invasion of Iraq turned out to be as credible as Stephen Harper's equally unproven assertion that income trusts cause tax leakage as the pretext for inflicting a $35 billion loss on Canadians retirement savings to the benefit of all who read the Wall Street Journal, such as US private equity firms and Goldman Sachs.

Why would anyone fight for democracy abroad, when there is so little of it here at home? Meanwhile Stephen Harper may be the inner warrior, but would anyone actually be daft enough to follow him into battle?

I can't speak for Don Martin.

Wall Street Journal |
March 28, 2003
Canadians Stand With You

By STEPHEN HARPER and STOCKWELL DAY

Today, the world is at war. A coalition of countries under the leadership of the U.K. and the U.S. is leading a military intervention to disarm Saddam Hussein. Yet Prime Minister Jean Chretien has left Canada outside this multilateral coalition of nations.

This is a serious mistake. For the first time in history, the Canadian government has not stood beside its key British and American allies in their time of need. The Canadian Alliance -- the official opposition in parliament -- supports the American and British position because we share their concerns, their worries about the future if Iraq is left unattended to, and their fundamental vision of civilization and human values. Disarming Iraq is necessary for the long-term security of the world, and for the collective interests of our key historic allies and therefore manifestly in the national interest of Canada. Make no mistake, as our allies work to end the reign of Saddam and the brutality and aggression that are the foundations of his regime, Canada's largest opposition party, the Canadian Alliance will not be neutral. In our hearts and minds, we will be with our allies and friends. And Canadians will be overwhelmingly with us.

But we will not be with the Canadian government.

Modern Canada was forged in large part by war -- not because it was easy but because it was right. In the great wars of the last century -- against authoritarianism, fascism, and communism -- Canada did not merely stand with the Americans, more often than not we led the way. We did so for freedom, for democracy, for civilization itself. These values continue to be embodied in our allies and their leaders, and scorned by the forces of evil, including Saddam Hussein and the perpetrators of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. That is why we will stand -- and I believe most Canadians will stand with us -- for these higher values which shaped our past, and which we will need in an uncertain future.

Messrs. Harper and Day are the leader and shadow foreign minister, respectively, of the Canadian Alliance.