Stephen Harper: Plagiarism

My guess is that Stephen Harper will be in deep, deep doo-doo over the following video which shows that he clearly plagiarized his famous speech on Canada's involvement in Iraq from Australian President John Howard.



How does Stephen Harper explain the coincidence that half of a major speech he delivered in House of Commons calling for Canadian troops to be sent to the War on Iraq was a word-for-word copy of a speech delivered by then Australian PM John Howard a day earlier? The same speech which he used as the basis for op-eds in the Wall Street Journal and the National Post.

The same speech which Paul Wells at the time called the best that Harper had delivered in his career.

The same speech which Tom Flanagan in his book Harper's Team called "eloquent" (Harper's Team, 89). Flanagan also says "we printed the speech in pamphlet form and mailed out thousands of copies. As far as - could judge, there was strong support from the grassroots of the party." (89)

How does the leader of a political party in Canada's Parliament, on such a crucial issue, give the exact same speech as any another country's leader, let alone a member of W's “Coalition of the Willing”?

How can Canadians trust anything that Mr. Harper says now?

At best this is plagiarism, an offense for which kids in school are failed, university students are expelled and reporters are fired. At worst, Harper is a Stooge for the Americans (along with Howard) and he has no credibility on foreign policy whatsoever.