We all know (don't we?) about Governor General Michaelle Jean's consumption of raw seal heart.
Well, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in the Arctic this week for the first time since the GG's gustatory bravado and while he's not carving up a seal and eating raw meat, he is, by both his words and his actions, demonstrating his support for Canada's sealers.
His actions first:
Harper arrived in Iqaluit, Nunavut on Monday night with a planeload of the cabinet ministers that sit on cabinet's Priorities and Planning Committee. P&P held a meeting in Iqaluit Tuesday. At lunch, at Harper's request, cabinet was served a menu of boiled and raw seal livers and ribs.
On Wednesday, as he bantered with reporters (left) aboard the HMCS Toronto while sailing on Frobisher Bay, Harper noted that even Transport Minister John Baird, a vegetarian, tried some seal meat at lunch.
“I'm tired of John's vegetaranism,” Harper joked.
But lunch on Tuesday did not, apparently, quench Harper's appetite for seal. For dinner Wednesday, Harper requested seal steaks and encouraged his staff to try a bit. We have been told that journalists travelling with the prime minister this week — I'm one of them — will see seal in some form or another on the menu Thursday. (I had a muskox burger on Tuesday … gulp!)
Eating seal is the prime minister's way of showing solidarity with east coast seal hunters who are suffering economically after the European Union banned Canadian seal products because they are apparently upset about the way the annual hunt is conducted.
Here is what the prime minister had to say about that during a press conference in Iqaluit on Tuesday:
The government support for our sealing industry is well known. This industry … has tight standards, the tightest in the world. The standards of this industry, quite frankly, are better than many other industries that deal with animal products. There is no reason the seal industry should be singled out for discriminatory treatment by Europeans or any other nation, and I've been very outspoken on that. I've been outspoken on that in this country. I've been outspoken on that when I've been in Europe and elsewhere. The government of Canada is already taking and will take every measure necessary to assert our rights, because it is important, obviously.
We have to remember, as I said in Europe, this is an industry that is not just vital to Canada, but that is undertaken in communities like this one and communities in Atlantic Canada that are very poor, where it is for the people who do it the only game in town, and it is simply unfair to single it out for treatment. I would in fact recommend – I rarely recommend anything in the media – I would recommend the recent editorial in The Economist, a European publication, on this very issue, which I think laid out the case crystal clear of why the sealing industry should be treated the same as any other industry involved in the husbandry of animals and why measures being taken against it are discriminatory and unacceptable.
…he is, by both his words and his actions, demonstrating his support for Canada's sealers.
No he isn't. He's merely pretending to demonstrate his support for Canada's sealers after turning his back on them two years ago.
“Eating seal is the prime minister's way of showing solidarity with east coast seal hunters who are suffering economically after the European Union banned Canadian seal products because they are apparently upset about the way the annual hunt is conducted.”
Okay… but… the EU is upset about the slaughtering of seals for the international trade in furs. We're talking here about the traditional indigenous slaughter for food. Kind of different issues, aren't they?
First of all, just for your information, about 3 or 4 of the links in your post no longer work.
Secondly, I fail to see how giving that pouty poupée dépassée more visibility, not to mention any credibility, by granting her a meeting with the PM would have proven PM Harper’s support for sealers. It would only have given her even more publicity, that’s all.
The lady is unhinged, to say the least. Upon looking for a bit of background on her, I came upon this gem:
http://www.editionbeauce.com/actualites.asp?nID=775&Cat=1 [H/T Google Translation, with my minor revisions]
Par René d'Anjou
4/1/2006 2:02:02 AM
“Brigitte Bardot to the rescue of maple trees
During her recent trip [2006] to Canada, Brigitte Bardot, well-known not only as a movie actress but also as “protector” of baby seals, was bent on visiting the Beauce to meet the organizers of the Beauceron Maple Festival because she has a new cause to defend.
Indeed, Ms. Bardot was moved by the sight of our maples sacrificing their sap each spring for us benighted humans, who wallow in a flood of maple syrup to the point of increasing our cholesterol levels, while our maples risk wasting away before our very eyes. …”
Mme Bardot continues to be an irritable and irritating grande dame. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Bardot#Politics.2C_controversy_and_legal_issues
Let her continue to shriek her views from a distance in France, if they can endure her. Here, she is persona non grata.
It would only have given her even more publicity, that’s all.
The reverse is true. Meeting with Bardot would have given Harper more publicity where he needed it; in Europe. Since neither he, nor Hearn–who was fisheries minister at the time–met with Bardot or any of the other high profile celebrities at the time, the public outside of Canada only saw one side of the story.
Simply put, you cannot counter public opinion if you hole up in a cave like Harper did. And now he's only talking to Canadians. The Europeans that support the ban on seal products won't even hear him.
“Simply put, you cannot counter public opinion if you hole up in a cave like Harper did.”
Nor can you sway public opinion by posing next to a hypocritical former sex kitten.
Had PM Harper cosied up to Mme Bardot, the media here would probably have mocked it as Harper seeking a spot in the limelight of the celebrity.
As for the PM holing up in a cave, here are some of the steps the government has undertaken – where it counts: at the WTO
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=1613557
“Canada criticized for posting Economist's seal article on website
Peter O’Neil, Europe Correspondent, Canwest News Service
Published: Wednesday, May 20, 2009
… “By posting this antagonistic article [the Economist editorial] the Canadian government seems to have lost all sense of perspective in the matter and is not thinking of the best interests of the Canadian people,” said Adrian Hiel, a Brussels-based spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
Rebecca Aldworth, director of Human Society International Canada, said Ottawa is “putting the interests of a globally condemned, minor industry above the interests of Canadians.”
Canada has taken other steps to make Europe aware of its anger, starting with a declaration that Ottawa would fight the ban before the World Trade Organization.
The Canadian government also blocked last month the EU's application to sit as an observer in the Arctic Council, an intergovernmental body of Arctic countries including the U.S., Russia and Canada. …”
Notice: the International Fund for Animal Welfare spokesman deems the posting of the article “antagonistic.” But their videos aren't?
Of course, it is difficult to counter the kind of propaganda tugging at the heartstrings of people whose opinions are based on celebrities' deceptive campaigns.
A meeting with Paul McCartney, though … maybe.