Free Republic

Stephen : We hardly know you Harper was supposed to be a boring technocrat as PM ... what happened?By LORRIE GOLDSTEINBy now it's apparent that we conservatives got much more than we bargained for in Stephen Harper. Then again, so did the Liberals, Bloc, NDP and the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Conservatives thought we were getting a technocrat as prime minister who would gradually shrink the federal government down to its core responsibilities of finance, defence, foreign affairs, justice, immigration, transportation and communications. We thought his view of the world was pretty much limited to Alberta. Boy, were we wrong. In...

Be nice. It's now the law in one Canadian city. Calgary, Alberta, has new regulations that ban public fighting, spitting, defecation and urination. Loitering or putting your feet up on public benches are no-nos, too. Officials said they're tired of the disgusting and disrespectful behavior. Violators can be fined, under an ordinance passed Monday. But critics charge the anti-rudeness regulations are aimed at the homeless in city parks. The city council narrowly passed the legislation. Laurie Fuhr of the Calgary Housing Action Initiative said she and her group tried to quash the bylaw and they plan to continue fighting it,...

One of the most significant phenomena in current Canadian politics – i.e. the growing shift of Canada's Jewish community from the Liberal to the Conservative Party – took a major stride last week when the top contender for the Liberal leadership accused Israel of committing a war crime. Michael Ignatieff, a longtime Harvard authority on human rights and international law who came back to Canada two years ago to seek the Liberal leadership, seemed to stumble into the accusation. In an interview with the Toronto Star last August, he was asked about the Israeli bombing of the Lebanese town of...

Canada's Harper government delightfully surprised both its friends and its foes last week. It leaked the fact that it may bring in a "Defence of Religions Act" to protect critics of homosexual practice from prosecution under human rights codes, and to prohibit the firing of marriage commissioners who refuse on the grounds of their religion to "marry" homosexual couples. Social conservative allies were surprised because opposition to gay marriage, which had begun to seem a lost cause, was being revived. Government foes are equally delighted, because they assume that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has finally made a blunder that will...