Camille Labchuk

Last week wasn’t a good week for Stephen Harper. No, I’m not referring to the much ado about nothing that was “wafergate”—I’m talking about his series of gaffes at the G8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy. He was late for the group photo (for the second G8 summit in a row), and he made some bizarre comments about summit host Silvio Berlusconi (not to say the man isn’t a creep, but Harper shouldn’t have gone there). But most egregious was his unprompted attack on Michael Ignatieff before the media—an attack that was based on erroneous information, and for which Harper was later forced to eat his words and apologize.

I’m more than used to our Prime Minister’s vicious personal attacks on Ignatieff, other opposition politicians, civil servants, NGOs, artists, disadvantaged people, and anyone else who gets in his way. Like most Canadians, I disapprove. But using the international stage to play politics and throw partisan mud at his opponents amplifies Harper’s poor behaviour many times over, and reflects very badly on our country. It’s highly inappropriate that, instead of using airtime to address foreign policy, Harper chooses domestic trash talk. He was so eager to bash Ignatieff that he didn’t even bother to use factual information. It’s like he just can’t help himself.

As Embassy Mag points out today, this isn’t the first time Harper or one of his ministers has embarassed Canada by using a foreign visit to diss his competitors instead of talking about Canada, about our issues, about our contributions. It’s no wonder that Harper has arguably the lowest profile of G8 leaders. As Canwest reporter David Akin explained to Embassy, he is so little-known that “photographers are constantly asking who Mr. Harper is.”

It’s easy to make the case that Harper is bad for our international image. His irresponsible, do-nothing climate policies isolate us. His vitriolic defence of the internationally-condemned commercial seal slaughter is an embarrassment. His refusal to seek repatriation for Canadian child soldier Omar Khadr is scandalous. These are only a few examples.

For the sake of our reputation, I sincerely hope we are rid of Harper soon. I’m tired of being embarassed by his ideologically-based policies and his frequent gaffes.