The other night the CBC chief anchor Peter Mansbridge interviewed PM Harper and asked him about some of those "hidden agenda" issues and what he would do about them when he gets a majority. Mansbridge was clearly setting a trap that PM Harper so cleverly did not step into. Here is the exchange on the "controversial" capital punishment.
PM: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?How much clearer must the PM be? PM Harper is NOT bring that issue forward in Parliament. Nothing controversial here. Charles Adler thinks so too. Here's his take:
PMSH: I don't see the country wanting to do that. You know...
PM: YOU DON'T SOUND AS FIRM AS...
PMSH: Well, I personally think there are times where capital punishment is appropriate. But I've also committed that I'm not, you know, in the next Parliament I'm not... no plans to bring that issue forward.
The latest exhuming of that corpse had to do with the prime minister “revealing” to our mortician-in-chief, Peter Mansbridge, that he, Stephen Harper, is a mainstream Canadian. The PM told “Morty” that “there are times where capital punishment is appropriate.”Bingo! Another one out of the ballpark from Adler again. PM Harper was just voicing his opinion not a Conservative or a government policy. Thank you Mr. Adler for stating what the most of us are feeling and thinking.
I watched this and couldn’t figure out why any normal human being would take this as a controversial remark. Let’s take the CBC trophy sound bite to a place where all Canadian issues need to be aired to see if they pass the sniff test. (If you start sniffing gas, just stop me). Let’s take the issue to Tim Hortons.
Coffee talk
You and I are having a double-double and the conversation turns to crime. At some point you blurt out, “You know what, Chuck. I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep if they fried that freak Russell Williams.”
My response would be, “Who would?”
My response would NOT be to go into the Corus radio studio the following day and turn on a private-sector national microphone to say: “Folks, you are going to have a hard time believing this, but a friend of mine shocked me yesterday at Timmy’s. He told me, and I hope you’ve got your emotional seatbelt fastened, but he told me he wouldn’t lose any sleep over the idea of this country putting Russell Williams to death.
“Can you believe any decent person with Canadian values saying that? I thought I knew my friend. But I guess you just never really know for sure what the strange thoughts go through the minds of human beings. I never thought my friend could ever feel this way. I guess he’s been hiding this from me. You might call it his hidden agenda.”
Of course this scenario is preposterous. The purpose of my show is not to find ways of condescending and sneering at my neighbours, the people of Canada. I don’t work for the CBC. The PM thinks there are times when capital punishment is appropriate. Can you find me even one person at the coffee shop you go to who would find that strange or frightening.
To some of the PM’s political and media opponents, Russell Williams is just a misguided person. They think Stephen Harper is the freak. To the rest of us, the PM is just the rest of us. He’s able to see through the increasingly transparent agenda of his media and political foes. They want us to be embarrassed about what we think about life and death and justice.
In my Canada, a prime minister would look the Canadian camera in the eye and say, “In a just society, Russell Williams would hang.”
Related:
I think PM Harper has always been consistent on this issue. Here from the transcript is the exchange on abortion, another item the Libs and their media cheerleaders drag out from time to time. I don't why they keep bring this up but anyway.
PM: WOULD YOU RE-OPEN THE ABORTION ISSUE?What caught my attention here was what I highlighted. That is if you want a change in the abortion rate, hearts and minds have to be changed. PMSH is exactly right. You can't change anything if you can't change the hearts and minds.
PMSH: No, no. Look, Peter, I have spent my political career trying to stay out of that issue. It's one on which people, including in my own party, have passionate views. They're all over the map. And you know, what I say to people, as you know, many people I know are pro-life. What I say to people, if you want to diminish the number of abortions, you've got to change hearts and not laws. And I'm not interested in having a debate over abortion law.
