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October 24, 2006
So very, very stupid
A Republican attack ad stirring controversy in the U.S. mid-term elections does a drive-by smear on Canada, suggesting America's northern neighbour is a do-nothing country on world affairs.
...
Produced by the Republican National Committee, the ''man on the street'' ad features a hefty man wearing suspenders and a ball cap, commenting sarcastically on his view of Democratic foreign policy.
''Let Canada take care of North Korea. They're not busy,'' the man says.
For the love of god, it's a joke. It's a bad joke, but it's not at Canada's expense. If anything the good old boy's sarcasm implies that Canada is busy. Behold:
The Post continues:
Just how Canada got caught up in the mid-term mudslinging remains a mystery. The Republican National Committee did not respond to calls from CanWest News Service. [Laughing too hard at Canada, perhaps -ed.]
But the ad fosters stereotypes about Canada's engagement in international affairs that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has tried hard to dispel.
Meanwhile, Canadian Cerberus decided he'd use this to partisan advantage:
The Republican ad, which apparently makes all of the nasty Liberal and Conservative ads from the last election look like playschool (including the obligatory sexual innuendos against the Democrats' candidate), shows the Republicans are willing to stoop to any low level, even risk an international incident, just to win a few votes.
Which raises the question: Is Prime Minister Harper going to just take this from the Republicans or is he going to stand up for Canada?
Cripes. Well, at least we still have thicker skin than Kazakhstan. Whoops, no we don't.
Posted by Chris Selley at October 24, 2006 08:33 PM
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Comments
Cerberus is wrong - the really mature, cool, Fonzie thing for Harper to do is to ignore it.
I do think the ad is more than merely in bad taste. Does it "offend" me?? No way, not in a million years. But it's silly - not "wrong", just "silly" - to not champion your allies. I don't feel "denigrated", but I do feel "not championed" - which is not negative, but it's not positive, either.
It's of course not an "international incident".
Posted by: Anonymous at October 24, 2006 10:13 PM