In Light of...

...this, perhaps it's time to dust off this old entry from American Thinker.

Canada's New Attitude

"One of the first things Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper did after the weekend arrests of 17 suspected Islamic terrorists in Ontario was to pick up the phone and thank President George W. Bush for American assistance in tying the alleged plot together.

That was most assuredly unlike the attitude of former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who tried to sooth and smooth Canadians fears after 9/11 by telling them since Canada was a 'multicultural society' they were safe from the threats of a terrorist attack. Or from the stance of Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin — Chretien's succesor and Harper's predecessor — who ignored Royal Canadian Mounted Police and security service urgings that the Tamil Tigers organization should be put on Canada's list of banned terrorist groups and instead attended at least one of their fundraising banquets in the hope of winning Tamil votes.

Since the Jan. 23 federal election in which Harper's Conservatives won a minority government there's a new attitude in Ottawa, Canada's capital, and it's simply not because one of the revelations from the round—up of the suspects by some 400 police and security officers was of a plot to storm the Parliament Buildings, capture the prime minister, and behead him.

That grisly revelation surely shook average Canadians — and politically may enhance Harper's standing — but the Conservatives had already started moving in far, far different directions than the previous Liberal administrations. The Tamil Tigers — involved in a civil war in Sri Lanka — are now on Canada's list of banned terrorist groups. Canada was one of the first, if not the first, nation to halt funding to the Palestinian Authority when it was taken over by the Hamas terrorist group. And, after more than a decade of either supporting anti—Israeli resolutions put forward in the United Nations by Arab sheikdoms and Third World nations or simply abstaining from voting, the Harper government has made it clear it regards Israel as an ally.

As for the U.S.A., Harper and his team signaled from Day One that the era when Chretien and Martin snubbed Washington at every touch and turn is over. The U.S. is, in Harper's words, Canada's closest and most important friend and trading partner. Coincidentally, Harper now ends his speeches with an American—like, 'God bless Canada.'

It's fair to say that after 13 years of Liberal rule under both Chretien and Martin a great many Canadians had become not only complacent, but smug, after being repeatedly informed by Chretien and Martin their nation from safe from terrorism."

Sheds some light on this, too.