Stephen Harper made like Vladimir Putin last week, camping and target shooting in the Arctic. Fortunately, the PM neither took off his shirt nor wrestled a polar bear.
But by playing tough yet holding back, Harper set himself up for ridicule — much like Mike Myers did with the character Austin Powers when parodying James Bond.
Photos showed Harper standing awkwardly in front of a campfire made of logs that must have been flown in specially, because the camp was 800 kilometres north of the tree line. Putin would have killed a seal with his bare hands and ignited its oil by striking a rock against his teeth.
Harper’s rifle was one of the 65-year-old relics used by the Canadian Rangers, relics that Harper once promised and then failed to replace. Putin does his target shooting with a Kalashnikov. Just for fun, he hunts Siberian tigers with a tranquilizer gun.
Harper, bundled up like a toddler at the rink, went for a ride in a motorboat. Putin swims naked in Arctic lakes.
Harper could not even match Putin in dealing with the media. When a Chinese journalist tried to ask an unapproved question, he was scolded for the misdeed. In Russia, inquisitive journalists have accidents. In the old days, when Harper was sorting mail at Imperial Oil in Edmonton, Putin was pulling out fingernails in East Germany.
On Arctic development, too, Harper is a pale shadow of Putin.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/09/01/stephen_harper_the_austin_powers_of_the_arctic.html
No comments:
Post a Comment