A Commentary by Doug Draper
“Foreign affairs minister flees media;” reads one of the headlines on the front page of the Thursday, Sept. 10th edition of The Toronto Star.
It’s time to send Niagara Falls riding’s Conservative MP Rob Nicholson packing.
The minister who did the fleeing was Rob Nicholson, the federal Conservative MP for the Niagara Falls riding, and it should come as no surprise that he might run, if he can, from any questions reporters want to ask him about Syrian refugees.
So there he was fleeing for a door during a campaign stop his political boss Stephen Harper made in the neighbouring riding of Welland this September 9th, with reporters from the national media in not pursuit.
Rob Nicholson – at least the one I remember when I covered some of his early election campaigns two to three decades ago – seemed like a fairly bright guy who used to mind going eyeball to eyeball with members of the press. But it’s a far different story now.
In every federal cabinet position he’s held in the Harper government over the last nine year, Nicholson has given all the appearances of someone who’s in way over his head – who is nowhere near as versed or verbally competent as the recently retired John Baird and Peter MacKay, both of whom held the foreign affairs portfolio in Harper’s cabinet before he did.
So like a novice cyclist still in need of training wheels, Nicholson seems unable – even after all these years – to do a competent job answering reporters’ questions unless he’s handed a deck of cue cards prepared in advance by message massagers in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Indeed, it was only a few months ago, according to a CBC report, that “foreign affairs bureaucrats were told … to produce three terrorism-related statements for minister Rob Nicholson to make to the media each week, ahead of a fall election which security and Canada’s response to terrorism are expected to be key issues.”
Rob Nicholson has a demonstrated record of being a hardcore Harper loyalits
No wonder Canadians have heard everyone from Jason Kenney, Harper’s defense minister, to a deputy minister for foreign affairs, to Michele Rempel, a Calgary area MP and Harper’s current minister of state, and (when he was finally smoked out after those photos went viral of the drowned boy on a Turkish beach) Immigration Minister Chris Alexander field questions on Syrian refugees over the past 10 days or so. But not from cue card Rob, however much this crisis and Canada’s response is a foreign affairs issue.
Seems Nicholson failed to instruct his bureaucrats to prepare talking points for him on that one.
Other than dogged loyalty to Harper, it’s a wonder why Nicholson was appointed to such a heavy post as foreign affairs in the first place. There is nothing in his bio to suggest he has a working background in foreign affairs or that he ever served in combat zones in the military, which is the case for many who have held the equivalent “secretary of state” post in the United States.
Three years ago, when Nicholson was holding the justice portfolio where he was served as a mouthpiece for Harper’s get-tougher-crime and fill-the-jails agenda – for every criminal but white collar ones who cost Canadians countless billions of dollars each year and even though overall incidence of violent crime has been on a decline – he went along with Harper’s decision to close the Canadian Consulate Office in Buffalo which operated under the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Nicholson was reported saying he felt the need for the office had disappeared because visa requests by those wanting to enter Canada can now be more easily dealt with on-line. It showed a gross level of ignorance about the important role this office) which other politicians and members of the business community unsuccessfully petitioned the Harper government to keep open) this office played for many years in cross-border trade and other matters of concern to Niagara and other communities near the border.
Walter Sendzik, now Mayor of Niagara’s City of St. Catharines and CEO of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce at the time Harper was closing the office, had this to say about its importance to communities on both sides of the border; “The Canadian Consulate in Buffalo plays an important role in fostering strong bi-national trade relationships,” explains Walter Sendzik, CEO of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. “As a community that benefits directly from this trade with close to 30 per cent of all Canada-US trade passing through Niagara, the Consulate is a significant resource for one of Canada’s largest trade and commerce corridors.”
Many other business and political leaders expressed the same points at the time and the fact that Nicholson either didn’t know or had no appreciation for the significant role the office played should have been enough, in itself, to disqualify him for the foreign affairs post.
This one episode alone, along with many others, should also be enough to convince people in the border communities of Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake that makeup Niagara Falls riding that Nicholson would throw the interests of this region under the bus if there is a choice between standing up for those interests and kissing Harper’s ring.
This coming October 19th voters in the Niagara Falls riding can do our region and country and throw Nicholson under the bus. They have Carolynn Ioannoni, a veteran City of Niagara Falls councilor running for the NDP, and Ron Planche, a long-time assistant to former Liberal MPP Kim Craitor running for the federal Liberals, to vote for.
Surely they can draw enough votes away from Nicholson to send him looking for another job.
Visit Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary for and from our greater binational Niagara region.
(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
The puppeteer told Nicholson to run and hide. As an obedient puppet Nicholson ran and hid. One of the few times Nicholson did not make himself available for a photo op. Then again, the camera got the true picture of Nicholson the Ostrich.
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What I did notice with disgust was the sea of “BLUE” election posters located in just about every nook and cranny…which I guess just goes to show they are running very scared….Then again Nicholson’s office staff on the calls that I made in reference to OAS were very arrogant and they seemed totally Ignorant of the burden on the elderly and the disabled caused by a government too eager to buy without tender unproven aircraft from the U.S.A. yet too small to care for the people of Canada ……Except the Corporate CEOs
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Disgusted “with the sea of blue election signs…” ? Are you serious? This is a democratic society and election signs are part of the process whether you like it or not. The populace will decide who is in power or not , by free democratic elections. I’m sure you think the world revolves around you and your political views but that is not the case. Why not move to Syria?
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How about Rick Dykstra in St.Catharines too! Its time for a change Niagara.
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Nicholson’s staff were also rude to me and claimed total ignorance when I approached them about a Canadian woman, Hana Gan, and her children, all citizens, who were prohibited from leaving Israel. Her passport….property of the Canadian government… was taken from her and her children put into state custody (she was also pregnant) on charges which appear to be wholly made up by her parents who had emigrated to Israel and become ultra orthodox. Apparently she did not agree with their ultra orthodoxy and when she tried to leave they accused her of child abuse, as yet unproven. In videos I saw, the children were screaming for their mother as they were taken away. Abuse? Their main claim was that she was a spending addict yet she recently divorced and was given custody of the children so obviously Canadian courts deemed her a worthy mother. The grandparents also claimed that they did not wish to raise the children. She should be allowed to return home and, if there are any problems perceived, they should be dealt with here.
Should the Minister of Foreign Affairs not be aware of the plight of these three Canadian citizens, demand return of their passports and return to their country, the only country the children ever knew, regardless of apparently false accusations? What about the baby she is carrying? The same lack of forcefulness was apparent regarding the Egyptian/Canadian Al Jezeera reporter incarcerated in Egypt for reporting “false” news. It seems if you’re Canadian, don’t rely on Nicholson for help. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs seems to be AWOL except for photo ops.
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Voters will have to rally behind one candidate in order to defeat Nicholson. If the vote is split he will win again.
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We are launching a Vote Together campaign in the riding! Go to Leadnow.ca and find the Niagara Falls riding to sign the pledge. With 500 pledges we will launch a local poll to find which candidate has the most supportive other than Nicholson (looks like Ioannoni has the best chance for now.)
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Like many of the ministers that are appointed by Harper, few qualify for their position. Many are lawyers and Harper feels that renders them suitable for any vacant ministerial position. Rob Nicholson at one time represented Niagara but not any longer. He is like so many of the Conservative MPs, just a puppet, only capable of repeating (and sometimes incapable of) what his master tells him.
I came across an interesting read the other day that brings all of what Harper is doing into clear and concise facts. Read if you will. Mr. Draper, keep up the great work.
Harper guided by evangelical Alliance Church
There is a detail about Prime Minister Stephen Harper that is very mum in Canada. It is a detail that may and will explain every decision he has made to date and every decision he will make in the future.
Stephen Harper has refused to answer questions about his beliefs and which groups inform him. However, if he were to answer such questions, he would reveal his membership to the Alliance Church which is dominant in Alberta and represents less than 10% of Canadian beliefs.
This same church has declared war on the environment, believes the Earth is 6,000 years old – like former Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day does – and believes that the scientists and environmentalists are preaching a fraud to destroy the economy.
The kind of people backing Harper come from the Cornwall Alliance, which is a right-wing coalition of scholars, economists and evangelicals who instill doubt on mainstream science and climate change, view environmentalists as a “native evil,” and supports libertarian economics.
His church teaches the “truths” of the bible which he takes very dear to himself. There are 4 fundamental beliefs, as cited by a 2007 article in the Vancouver Sun, which Harper adheres to.
According to Professor Philip Geoff from the Indiana State Purdue University religious studies:
“The Alliance Church places an intense focus on the need for personal salvation, emphasizes the importance of leading a ‘holy’ life and encourages spiritual healing, says Goff.
“The denomination also stresses that Jesus Christ’s return to Earth is imminent, says the evangelical specialist, who was raised in the Alliance Church.
“Alliance Church rules, like those of other evangelical denominations, strongly oppose homosexual relationships, describing them as the ‘basest form of sinful conduct.’
“The Alliance Church is also tough on divorce and holds that Christians who have been adulterous do not have a right to remarry.
“The denomination’s leaders, in addition, oppose abortion, stem-cell research, euthanasia, the use of marijuana and ordained female clergy…”
These are the same beliefs that justify his creation of the Office of Religious Freedoms at the expense of Environment Canada, the internal Conservative fight to reopen the abortion debate and the Conservative cravings to get into people’s lives – both online and through their bedrooms.
Everything that has been stated thus far would allow Canadians to anticipate Harper’s contradictory view about reopening the abortion debate, his government’s decision to appeal a BC court’s decision to grant a patient euthanasia, and his clear disdain for human rights and freedoms.
From his government’s obsession with getting into people’s personal lives to dictate what they can and cannot do online and with a woman’s body to his complete dismissal for scientists, it is clear that his actions can all be justified and predicted knowing his relationship with the Alliance Church of Canada and the Cornwall Alliance.
The Harper government abolished Kyoto and is cutting programs geared towards land preservation. They are cutting the regulations that would make oil extraction in Alberta a much safer task to workers and to the environment. However, his guidance doesn’t dictate this at all. In fact, the Cornwall Alliance that is backing him want to see the death of green policy and all those who promote it.
The Alliance believes that “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human contribution to greenhouse gases is causing dangerous global warming.” They also believe that any attempt to reduce greenhouse emissions would “greatly increase the price of energy and harm economies.”
The Alliance also believes that environmental regulation goes against god’s will. “We aspire to a world in which liberty as a condition of moral action is preferred over government-initiated management of the environment as a means to common goals.”
The Alliance published a book called Resisting the Green Dragon: Dominion not Death which labels environmental groups as “one of the greatest threats to society and the church today.”
They go further to declare that “The Green Dragon must die… [There] is no excuse to become befuddled by the noxious Green odors and doctrines emanating from the foul beast…”
This would explain why the Conservatives have labeled environmentalists and activists as radicals and extremists in their bid to destroy them.
To make matters even clearer – and which will really explain the Conservative rush for oil in Alberta and Shale gas in eastern parts of the country, the Alliance believes that renewable forms of energy are for the poor or rural people until nuclear and fossil fuel plants “meet the needs of large, sustained economic development.”
If Canadians would have known this detail about Stephen Harper, Bill C30, Bill C38, his war on the environment and his war on freedoms would not have been a surprise. Knowing this one detail about Stephen Harper is enough to allow people to predict his future moves as he flirts with the tenets that have dominated the Republican Party in the United States in recent years.
The Common Tenets between Evangelists, the Republican Party of the United States and the Conservative Party of Canada
Disdain for the environmental movement
Distrust of mainstream science in general
Distrust of the mainstream media
Loyalty to the party
Libertarian economics as God’s will (God is opposed to government regulation or taxation)
Misunderstanding of divine sovereignty (God won’t allow us to ruin creation)
Unreconstructed Dominion theology (God calls on humans to subdue and rule creation)
Source: The Tyee
You may or may not agree with the evangelists and Cornwall but if you don’t, they will see you as “lost.”
With this knowledge, the Conservative actions become explainable and predictable and their agenda is far from over. From the cuts to services to fund federal bureaucrats to the divisive and cunning attacks toward opposition and scientists – who are recently mourning the death of science in Canada after being muzzled as an “established practice,” this one hidden detail about Stephen Harper is enough to explain everything and it isn’t a pretty sight.
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I got a similar response from his office manager when I queried about the abnormally high gas pump prices in Niagara when oil was selling at around $56 per barrel. In fact, if I didn’t know he was the office manager for my MP, his response could have been a cut and paste from a special assistant to an oil company CEO. I want my MP to care about me and not about his boss in Ottawa.
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The incumbent Rob Nicholson is a shoo-in here. No amount of defamation will alter the outcome, which will also be affected by split-voting for the opposing candidates. PM Harper remains the only adult in the leadership race, and if any of his subordinates resort to cue-cards, so be it. It’s a sign of solidarity regarding policy. The whole refugee issue amplified by the notorious Media Party has deliberately played to the emotions of Canadians, further influencing the already Harper-hating crowd by injecting gasoline into the tinderbox of political hay-fields.
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What has Nicholson done for the Niagara Falls Riding? Other than to be available for photo ops he is a “No Show – No Do”. At the dictate of the corporations making money on the activities of the Middle East rather than that of Canadians, Harper chose to interfere in the Syrian civil war. First he provided weapons to the rebels (today known as ISIS) to overthrow the Syrian President. Harper then changes his mind and decided to start bombing these rebels he once supported. As a result, the homes of the Syrians are being completely destroyed forcing the Syrians to leave – creating the refugee problem.
Why is Harper not addressing the atrocities of the Boko Haram? Could it be that the corporations dictating to Harper have no interest in Nigeria and the surrounding area? “Boko Haram controls about 20,000 square miles of territory (about the size of Belgium) and is fast becoming a terrorist state razing villages and killing innocent victims.” T David Blair 10 Jan 2015 in The Telegraph.
Harper is “THE MAN OF THE HOUR … ALL TALK”!
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The 2010 book, The Armagedden Factor, by Marci-Macdonald, spells out the PM’s evangelical roots with the Canadian Alliance Church. The Tyee, which I support, is reporting what MacDonald’s research already has stated. Many books have been written about Harper, more than any other PM, but this 2010 makes the religious ideology extremely clear. Harper attended (until recently?) The East Gate Alliance church in Ottawa. If you are not likely to read this book, you can still find all sorts of references online to this topic: a particularly good one is by Doug Todd in the Sept. 2010 Vancouver Sun, which outlines the basic tenets of the church, and explains much about Harper. That source states that about half of Conservative MP’s are evangelicals.
As for Rob Nicholson, other comments here are spot on, in that vote splitting will let him back in power, cue cards in hand or not. I doubt Nicholson is an evangelical, but two Niagara area MPs are, Dean Allison for sure, and (I’m guessing) Rick Dykstra.
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GREAT – All we need running the country are a bunch of idiotic religious FANATICS. The earth is 6000 years old, Jesus rode a dinosaur, talking snakes, women came from the rib of a man!!!!!!
Mr Tripp says the only “adult” in the race for PM is Harper.
OMG, “adult”, he’s not even “human”! He’s robotic and the controls are the crazy, US right wing who are financing him and creating all his phony, bigoted advertising bits, right out of the evangelical Republican playbook.
We laugh at those idiots, as does most of the sane world, yet we are dumb enough to elect our own? Are we Americans or Canadians? Last time I checked we were the latter. Are we rational or led by the noses by such backward morons who deny climate change in spite of all the evidence, think gays can be converted and are evil, think there are terrorists behind every bush (there will be if we keep interfering) and Jesus is coming any day now….I wish he would and take these idiots with him before they destroy everything. What century are we living in?
PULEEZE vote people. Don’t just say it’s no use! That’s what these idiots want while they use every means in their arsenal, legal and illegal, to get out their supporters. All they care about is power, not you or me. This REALLY scares me!
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YOU really scare me! You’re just as narrow-minded on the opposite end of the spectrum as these logic-defying Biblical literalists. Furthermore, I’m not exactly sure why the mainstream is so paranoid re. “evangelical Christians.” In essence, that would be the only adjective to describe true Christianity. I’m sure Christ rode a dinosaur at one time, during the phase of God’s experimental garden, millions of years before he was a Cowboy or anything else; but it’s true that God reached down to mankind through Him, to have fellowship with those created in His own image, and perhaps with a dash of human intelligence thrown in. PULEEZE people, vote indeed!! It is a privilege not restricted to the discontented.
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Well Mr Tripp, grown ups with imaginary friends SCARE ME. If you want to live in a theocracy, I suggest Iran. Will you have the same viewpoint, that of religion controlling government, if and when another religion, Islam for example, out populates Christians? Bet you would rapidly change your tune. It IS happening elsewhere. Religion has NO place in government. Who decides which religion? Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu? Which denomination of a particular religion? Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian…all Christian?
If you think “Christ” rode a dinosaur I suggest you seek medical help. Even many Christians think that ludicrous. In addition you say this occurred “millions of years” ago….but, but, but…I thought the earth was only 6000 years old!!! Which is it? Even the religious can’t agree so which group will call the shots in government? See why this is problematic?
Interesting that the most secular nations in the world are also the most altruistic and socially progressive AND rate the highest in the satisfaction of their citizens with their way of life. They are also the most advanced in environmental concerns and are quite stable and comparatively wealthy.
Enough of this because I do not want a contentious religious debate nor do I suspect Doug wants to be responsible for one occurring on his site. Religion vs non religion is always divisive and nothing will be achieved by arguing here. The point of Mr Gravelle’s presentation is that Harper wants a theocracy according to HIS church’s views which represent only about 10% of Canadians. That is no longer a democracy because 90% don’t agree and particularly so when he purposely hides this agenda from voters. Furthermore, if he believes in his faith and its doctrines, why is he hiding them? Could it be because he KNOWS they do not represent what people want?
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Harper doesn’t want people to vote. Why do you think he pushed through the unFair Election Act?
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Yes, it makes it more difficult for students, aboriginals and minorities to vote and they are the ones least likely to vote Conservative. Yet another page from the Republican playbook.
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Your necks must be sore from turning totally Left. To my delight, you can’t even recognize facetiousness. I realize that the separation of church and state is vitally important, to both and to those who experience neither. Atheists can’t really offer more than a so-called humanist interpretation of anything spiritual, so any argument is null and void. Live and let live, and you can give monetary gains to your own shrink. I’m happy to leave this deluded political hoi-polloi to those more self-gratified…
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You side with the decapitators. Your altruism and denunciations of anyone who would protect you would get you nowhere but enslaved. You seem to have a thing for the “Republican playbook” which I hope is not indicative of anything more perverse than typical hatred. The so-called political spectrum holds many points of view, but if the needle were pointed to strictly a Liberal-Democrat setting, you would have no balance at all. I know I’m pretty lonely on here, a virtual “candle in the wind” against the hurricanes, but I do appreciated Doug’s integrity in allowing such freedom of expression.
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A PROUD ATHEIST.
I haven’t decapitated anyone for at least a month.
Yes Doug, thank you for allowing all points of view.
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