Harper is responding to his Western base who have felt neglected the past coupld of years.  Alberta, BC, and Sask have been promoting financial relationships with Chna for years.  With the delay of the Keystone pipeline, Harper has to be seen to be doing something for the West, or he risks alienating his base. 

In addition, it provides one more cause to suck off the time and energy of his real opponents in Canada with no cost on his part.

It probably also fits in with the agenda of the money people who, I believe, are guiding Harper on his path to the incremental elimination of the ability of the Canadian Government to support social program.  It also divides the First Nations community which is helpful to Harper,.

What's that saying...the enemy of our enemy is our friend? Then is the friend of our friend our enemy? No, wait. That's not right. Or is it? Somethings up here...and I am sure it has something to do with the middle east crisis as well...but I cannot even begin to guess what kind of a multi-layered chess game these guys play.

The war drum is beating loudly, there's no question. There's no point in blaming or speculating about who's at fault and who's on whose side. It's a mixed up convoluted disaster of massive proportions...we've had conflicts and wars over oil, and the middle east has been in turmoil over it, and other countries have had to pick sides for their own economic energy interests, since how long?...since the invention of the gas powered automobile probably. Why is it still happening? Why have we fallen asleep and allowed it? No more bitching about politicians, no more blaming. Work for peace, among people, nations, and "environmental peace"...let it become your vocabulary and your character. That's what I intend to do.

PANDA POWER!!!!!

They won't be happy and they'll cost us a bomb (perhaps literally), but they are Soooooo CUTE!!!

Graeme is right up to a point, I suspect. Harper knows that if the US thinks China is going to get Canadian oil, the US may loosen up on Keystone. It's working, too. Gingerich and other right-wing Republicans are taking the bait and turning it into an election issue.

From my standpoint, any kind of friendlier relations with a country other than the US is a good thing. We are far too tied into them in too many ways and having closer ties to China or the EU or anyone with a different perspective on trade and foreign policy is going to be a good thing, even if only because we can play them off against the Americans in negotiations.

To be clear, though, I'm likely to be seriously biased here because closer, friendlier relations with my wife's homeland (China) can only make things easier for us in terms of family visits and our travels there, as well as for family members involved in export-related businesses (and some, indeed, are). So, yes, we were loudly cheering Stevie on for once (still wouldn't vote for him, though).

And I, for one, welcome our furry, black and white overlords!  (meme from another board)

Mendalla

I was in a very down mood yesterday about everything going on in the world. All I can think of is peace efforts. Everything else seems secondary. Sorry. I think i'll stay off the forum for the most part. To clarify, I don't disapprove of Harper improving relations with China in itself. It could really bring about good changes for them and for us. Who knows? But like  Graeme, I did notice it. I have been following other concerns more. I also wish we could get off of our dependence on oil, and look to alternative energy, instead of looking for other places to make oil deals...but, alas, that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon.

I saw the baby panda photo...very cute.

selling out Canada to the commies?

strengthening ties with a strong economy 'just in case' the US experiment fails more?

he like visiting the yellow district?

I don't know about the selling out part being a recent development. If it wasn't China, it would be somewhere else. It seems we already have a strong trade relationship with China, and so does most of western world. Everything comes from China or is manufactured there. The leaders of countries will sell their citizens out for money, whoever's giving the best deal, no matter what. I just pray for good diplomatic relations all around, and an end to all this war. It's beyond me why there needs to be war in this global economy, global village, where we are so obviously all interdependent...and I have no idea how leaders think violence is a solution to anything. It's so sick, I can't stand it...yet, it's just games to them. Even they, I'm sure, teach their children in everyday society  to be good to others, honest, hospitable, forgiving, and not to throw punches to settle disagreements...I mean one can't and shouldn't behave otherwise at school or on the street...most countries seem to have awareness of civility, and laws surrounding it...yet, there is war. It is mind boggling.

EDITED by me

Sorry for the derail .Back to Harper. I need a break from discussing the news.

nice riff, Kimmio :3  i especially liked the making testosterone a controlled substance

I'm afraid one cannot separate economic and military power. The American empire was built on military power. It needs military dominance to maintain its economic position. And it needs a  healthy economy to sustain its military.

That means it is necessarily at war, hot or cold, with any rising state. Obviously, American leaders see that their empire is under challenge - and they have decided the only possible response is to use their military power while they have it.

I think Harper has already declared war on Canadian citizens.

It looks like he'd prefer to turn us into "China West" with all of the changes he wants to make. I'm so disgusted with this week's shenanigans by Vic Toews saying that if there's opposition to Bill C30 giving police free reign to monitor people's internet activity without a warrant, then you must be onside with child pornographers. I'm pretty sure they are just wanting to track opposition (dissidents who don't agree with totalitarian government) and to establish by any means, big government control. Isn't that kind of counter to the conservative mandate? This is only one example of how Harper is trying to shut down democracy. 

This is just the beginning and we won't recognize Canada when his term is over. Can't believe he has the support that he does -- even among Conservatives. I thought they were all for less gov't, not total control of everything. 

I get a sick feeling these days whenever a new unilateral pronouncement comes from the PMO.

End of rant for now.

I have the same fear/paranoia as Ninjafaery!

It's fear. But it's not paranoia.

What's happening all over the western world is the big move by major corporations to take over all functions of the state. It's not just the US one percent. It's the one percent in Canada, Britain, France, Germany. They are looking for massive privatization of even basic services. This has been going on for well over fifty years. But it's increasingly coming into the open.

And that's emerging in China too, Graeme.

It is in our craven fawning on "The Economy" that we "sell our birthright for a bowl of pottage"… we've got into the habit of compromising or sacrifiing everything — everything just, everything good, everything joyous, everything true, everything of meaning — if our immediate material standing is imagined to be at ANY risk. In fact, "The Economy" is the biggest game in the casino that the World has very largely become. And everyone packs a gun.

In fact, of course, a bowl of pottage would be a very much better deal. At least you can eat it and it is more nourishing than many of the other things we consume. The woozy world of endless gain is no more secure for us than it was for Croesus whose story we'd do well to hear again and think on.

Wealth — sought for, imagined, not even actual — distorts all of our interactions with our society: it introduces little instabilities, anxieties, unnatural relationships, values shifts and networks of interaction. As the little instabilities compound themselves and usurp our birthright, life becomes harder, more fraught and less sustainable and less meangingful, not better.

Harper is just very good at expressing this sickness that apparently debilitates a majority of Canadians.

Pottage: thick stew-like soup.

I had to look that up.

And awful stuff. historically, the food of the very poor. That and no-name chocolate bars.

Guess it would depend on what you had on hand to throw in it and a knack for seasoning. Could be good. My old roommate, early twenties, had a knack for making awesome 'pottage'....we ate it for days. But sorry, I'm derailing.

Actually, I derailed it.

Harper has a very American vision of Canada. It's a vision in which the only function of the state is to serve corporations. Human rights are irrelevant. property rights are everything. The environment of the next decade is not important. What's important is industrial development and exploitation now.

It's a very present tense atttitude, with the medieval aristocracy of warriors replaced by an aristocracy of wealth.

My hope is that Harper has po'd enough people that it will cause a democratic backlash and improve the voter turnout next election. I almost wish he keeps it up -- without gutting and damaging anything irreparably during his term.

If he keeps up his current policies of prevarication, looting social safety nets, passing draconian bills to destroy social democracy, flagrant waste and misappropriation of tax dollars, bizarre priorities, etc, MAYBE he'll just shoot himself in the foot. We can just stand back and watch he and his posse of Reformers self-destruct.

Too bad the opposition is so WEAK. I joined an organization -- Cooperate for Canada which is attempting to address this dilemna at least for the next election.

http://www.leadnow.ca/cooperation

I wish I believed this has a chance to change anything. Join a party -- any party but the CONS!

The opposition is really terribly weak. And this at a time when we are being swept up in american paranoia and, quite likely, war.

You've been wrong before.  It wasn't that big a deal.

I suppose.

After all, it doesn't really matter if Canada ceases to exist.

then we'll all be just one, big Alberta.

Harper is busy destroying Canada and all the good things it once stood for.

Currently he is frantically trying to get some prisons ready to hold the drug addicts going through withdrawal.  Yeah, I know, I can be totally sarcastic!

It may have just been trumped by another news story. There's some evidence (a lot) that the conservatives may have been guilty of pretty criminal vote tampering. It's even possible that the tampering is what gave them the majority.

We;re getting into dangerous ground.

This guy just keeps getting more frightnening by the day.

What are the chances that there will be any accountability even if that could be proven? Zilch. The foxes have taken over the henhouse and our freedoms will be the carnage.

Wow! I'm old enought to remember those.

What's the bottom one?

The women of Britain in the spirit of Boadicea being called on (by a man, of course) to support the extension of the rule of Britain and of Christ over the heathen world. It's not unlike the American Manifest Destiny to rule the world, as God's chosen people.

Women go crazy over a guy with wings.

That's thanks to Emperor Wilhelm II :3

Source wikipedia "Yellow peril" entry:

"Many sources credit Kaiser Wilhelm II with coining the phrase "Yellow Peril" (German: gelbe Gefahr) in September 1895.^{[citation needed]} The Kaiser had a portrait of this title — depicting the Archangel Michael as an allegorical Germany leading a charge against an Asiatic threat represented by a golden Buddha — hung in all ships of the Hamburg America Line. It was ostensibly painted by the Kaiser himself."

:3  do you remember what you thought of them at the time?  did you ever get a chance to see any of Emperor Wilhelm II's "yellow peril" painting?

No. In fact, I hadn't connected it with Wilhelm at all. I thought it was purely British. But your explanation makes more sense. So Brittania is just in company with all those other women representing Europe.

In my own lifetime, I remember the one of Hitler as a passenger in a car. I also remember Loose Lips Sink Ships, and V..._

I remember the front page of a newspaper with a picture of a mushroom cloud after Hiroshima. And, of course, i remember Rosie the Riveter.

In a different vein, I vividly remember the day about 1965 when a US aircraft carrier visited Halifax. I particularly remember the private radio station in Halifax that day when, as school got out, urged all the high school girls to do down to the docks and make those sailors welcome.

Oh, another wartime sign. I saw it on VJ Day. We've won the war. Now we've got to win the peace.

It made no sense to me.we'd won. that was it, wasn't it?