Stephen Harper, Vladimir Putin, and the Arctic Follies

I must admit that when I first  heard that Vladimir Putin had replied to Stephen Harper's stirring Arctic Challenge.

The one that went basically like this: "Hey Putin, the Arctic and the North Pole are MINE, and so is Ukraine. And I'm a Great Strong Leader, so THERE. You Nazi !!!"

By calling Harper and his friends Nazis, and threatening to invade the place. 

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has hit back at accusations that he has effectively invaded Ukraine, accusing Kiev's forces of behaving like Nazis in the conflict in the east and ominously threatening to take his standoff with the west into the disputed Arctic.

I thought Great Leader would be delighted. Now at last he would be able to show that fascist dwarf Putin that they don't call him Boss Harper for NOTHING.

And hoover up the ethnic vote like Jason Kenney hoovers up a buffet table.

But now I've changed my mind eh?



Now I think he must be quaking in his jackboots after Putin called his bluff.

Because sadly, despite heroic scenes like this one from his recent Arctic junket.

And his latest taxpayer funded propaganda video...



Canada is in no better position to defend its sovereignty or repel the Russians, or anybody else, than we were when he came to office.

We don't have the boots on the ice, or the planes, or even those fancy new icebreakers he once promised. 

In December, 2005, then opposition leader Stephen Harper promised three new heavy icebreakers to defend Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic. One month later, he reaffirmed the promise during his first press conference as prime minister. Eight years later, nothing has come of the plan – and foreign experts are shaking their heads at Mr. Harper’s all-talk, no-action approach to Arctic policy.

Despite his outrageous claim that the North Pole belongs to Canada....



It actually belongs to Denmark. 

Like it or not, the North Pole falls on the Danish side of the equidistance line – it will never be Canadian.

And he knows it.

These legal realities would have been explained to Mr. Harper before he sent Canadian icebreakers to map the North Pole. In other words, the Prime Minister knows that Canada’s claim will fail. But he also knows that the failure will emerge only after he leaves office. In the meantime, the North Pole presents him with an opportunity to rehabilitate his image as a champion of Canada’s Arctic sovereignty.

It's just another shameless SCAM.

And of course, as Jeffrey Simpson points out, how could anyone trust that Con artist to defend the Arctic when he can't even recognize that region's most dangerous enemy?

The greatest threat to the people and the animals who live there. 

Climate change.



Nowhere in Canada is the impact of climate change more increasingly evident than the North. And yet, the words “climate change” are never heard from Mr. Harper in the North, as if the idea they connote are so distasteful that he cannot bring himself to utter them.

For not ONCE in SIX days of travelling through the ARCTIC did those words cross his icy lips.

Which although it must have been quite a challenge, must surely make any rational person question his competence, his moral values, and/or his mental stability.

The surrealism of a Harper visit is like that of an explorer who lands in an unknown place, takes careful note in his diary of the animals, flora, fauna, rocks and trees but misses all the human inhabitants. Mr. Harper’s refusal even to speak the words “climate change” in the North cannot be from ignorance or inadvertence; it must be by design, like everything he does.

Because let's be clear. Even by the low standards of this complacent country, that's CRAZY STUFF. 

And of course now that Harper has irritated Putin with his empty rhetoric we're all in trouble. 

Because Putin is also CRAZY...



He looked relaxed but his tone grew intense as he spoke of Russia's military might, reminding the crowd that Russia was a strong nuclear power. "Russia's partners … should understand it's best not to mess with us," he said.

Thanks Steve. I mean Great Strong Leader.

I'm feeling safer already...



And the good news?

Putin has too many other serious problems to open up another front in the Arctic, or bother about Stephen Harper. At least no more than anybody might worry about a particularly aggressive horse fly.

And Harper won't get any mileage out of his Arctic posturing, even if he uses government helicopters, to shoot his propaganda videos...



Because we've seen them all before, and we're tired of paying for them.

And because him and ghastly regime of shabby Con artists, climate change deniers, and oil pimps are about to hit an iceberg called Canada and its REAL values.

In the next election.

So his heroic voyage will soon come to an abrupt halt...



And end very badly...



Yup. We shall use his Arctic follies against him. We shall mock him mercilessly.

And along with all his other crimes against Canada.

And the planet.

They WILL help sink him...

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