political fanboyism in the highest echelons -- an "oops" of the 2008 election campaign

[eliyes]

Two days ago, it was in the paper that our current Prime Minister here in Canada -- who's with the Conservative party, by the by -- much admires how the Australian PM made changes to immigration laws etc.

Today, the Liberal party, as part of their anti-Harper (the PM) smear campaign started waving around proof that back in March 2003, Harper gave a speech that yon Aussie PM had given two days prior (or actually like a day and a half, given time zones).

I LOL'ed.

The speech writer has admitted to copying the bulk of the speech, but insists Harper didn't know -- which, considering it was over five years before anyone spotted it, seems pretty likely to me! The Liberals are nonetheless demanding Harper be charged with plagiarism.

Canadian politics actually did something interesting y/n?

Comments

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

See, at least your politics are BWA HA HA funny, and not just depressing funny like ours.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Are you kidding? Yours are far more exciting. There are a lot of Canadians ignoring our own election campaigns in favour of watching footage of yours. (Largely because we're always very concerned aobut what your country might do. It's that whole mouse-and-elephant analogy at work.) We don't brand our politicians the same way, really, so they're a bit less entertaining. Also, there's more of them. We have over 43 parties! But only 5 "major" ones this year.

I miss Jean Chrètien. He beat a burglar over the head with a soapstone carving, and once punched an attacker in the face before his body guards had time to react. Not bad for an old Quebecois dude who'd had a stroke, eh?

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Punching people is pretty damn awesome. :D

Our politicians USED to be cool -- Andrew Jackson being shot at, the guns misfiring, then nearly beating his attacker to death, for instance. But it has been some time.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Hey, that reminds me, I saw a book about Thomas Jefferson the other day. Something about secret missions. Interested ~?

It was this one (http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-Coast-Jefferson-Marines-Mission/dp/140130849X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222992932&sr=8-1). Although this (http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Jefferson-Letters-Complete-Correspondence-Jefferson/dp/0807842303/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222992791&sr=8-5) would be very interesting.

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

The first sounds really interesting. I wish I had time to read it, should I ever get my hands on a copy. I've still got 1776, the cousin to John Adams, on my bookshelf, unread and essentially untouched because of school.

The second, I have seen here in many forms. They even come in dinky little dime-novel-sized versions for ~$7. In addition to that, the Library of America has released a collection of letters between just John and Abigail, which is a wonderful thing. :3

*noms you lovingly*

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Possibly I will purchase it and send it to you.

Hm. I wonder if they might be found on Project Gutenberg...

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

:o~ Bookmeets. <3

I do not know. It is very likely. You can also check The Library of Congress, for they have a lot of stuff, as well.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Well, I ended up blowing most of my money on a prescription, so we'll see if it's still there after I next get paid.

Hrm. *eyes Congress*
Congress: *eyes Ely back nervously, fully aware that just last night she was reading some President McKay AU fic where Congress got pwned*

[kermitdef.livejournal.com]

I am le confused. You say up there that Harper gave the speech years ago, then the Aussie dude gave it recently. Doesn't that make the Aussie's speech writer the fucktard? Or did you get your info crossed?

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

You say up there that Harper gave the speech years ago, then the Aussie dude gave it recently.

Replace "ago" with "before". The speech was given in Austrailia on March 18, in Canada on March 20. Also, I've edited the post. Thanks for catching the error!

[kermitdef.livejournal.com]

Ok, less brain hurting, except for the "charged with plagiarism" part. Not only is plagiarism NOT a crime (just highly frowned upon...perhaps they mean copyright infringment upon the original writer's speech), which you'd think that a major federal party would be..umm...aware of, but they can't charge Harper with shite if his speech writer has already admitted that he was responsible, and not Harper.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

...See, if you wrote the articles I read about politics, I would not have this lexical problems. *nods*