Harper’s Canada

Harper’s Canada

Postby Oscar » Tue Jun 08, 2010 11:18 am

Harper’s Canada

June 8, 2010

To the Editor,

The United States of America [USA] are our [Canadian] neighbours. They are, by far, the most powerful military force on the planet Earth, with hundreds of military bases throughout the world.

When the Pilgrim Fathers first set foot on that part of the world that is now the USA, they had a dream of a new world. A place where there would be freedom of religion, individual rights and opportunity for all. A land that was teeming with natural resources which could provide reasonable prosperity for all people of goodwill. Most of these ideals were eventually proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the USA.

The nation grew and prospered, despite the problems of the 1860 war of Secession and the abolition of slavery through the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. The trauma of WW1 eventually passed and the nation flourished until the financial catastrophe of the Great Depression in the 1930's. During this period, unemployment in the U.S. and the severe drought in the Great Plains of the mid-west caused exceedingly difficult times for many American citizens.

However, the American dream was rekindled under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt with his government's New Deal program. After WW11 America was being recognized as a world power in the commercial and military sectors. The ten year American invasion of Viet Nam, which ended in 1975, cast a dark shadow over American military activities in a foreign land.

Despite that, the great activist and philosopher, Martin Luther King Jr., in the 1960's, spoke eloquently on behalf of America's citizens of African descent in his famous "I have a dream " speech. He was assassinated on April 4th, 1968.

It is quite understandable that most Americans were encouraged and supportive of the "American Dream". In hindsight, it certainly appears that the voting public were inadvertently or otherwise not aware that powerful interests in the U.S. had long been planning control of foreign jurisdictions beyond American shores. It was spelled out clearly in a statement by an American Senator from Connecticut in 1894. This is what Sen. Orville Platt stated: " I firmly believe that when any territory outside the present territorial limits of the United States becomes necessary for our defense or essential for our commercial development; we ought to lose no time in acquiring it".

U.S. history reminds us that in the period between 1898 and 1934, American Marines invaded Cuba 4 times, Nicaragua 5 times, Honduras 7 times, the Dominican Republic 4 times, Haiti twice, Guatemala once, Panama twice, Mexico 3 times, and Colombia 4 times. In total, Washington intervened overtly, covertly or militarily, in foreign countries more than 200 times! Note that I have not mentioned the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why am I bringing up this dismal and bloody history now?

Canada presently has a minority government, whose Prime Minister, the Honourable Stephen Harper, is seeking a majority in the next federal election. It would be wise for Canadian voters to understand Mr. Harper's basic political agenda.

In 1997, Mr. Harper was asked to address an American right-wing political organization, the Coalition for National Policy. There were ten main points in which Mr Harper referred to Canadian political policies in rather derogatory terms. In the interest of brevity here are only two: he did class Canada as a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term, and proud of it.

But in his closing statement he said this: "Your country [the USA], and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and inspiration in this country [Canada] and the world"

Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, SK S0K 1B0
Phone (306) 256 3638
Oscar
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