Harper avoids the AIDS conference
As expected, the Canadian Prime Minister distanced himself from the AIDS Conference yesterday – while the opening ceremony happened in Toronto, Stephen Harper was in Nunavut.
On CP24 they’re running a telephone poll asking if Harper should apologise for not attending the conference – I don’t think he should. (Huh?) One should only apologise if one is sorry, and given he had about four years’ warning of this event I very much doubt it was an accidental scheduling conflict.
The biggest problem, I think, is that his absence has a knock-on effect – diplomatic protocol (as I understand it) is not to send more senior representatives that the host country, which means national leaders can’t attend if they wanted.
Comments
One Comment on Harper avoids the AIDS conference
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Ron on
Mon, 14th Aug 2006 9:38 pm
I agree that he shouldn’t apologize. I mean, to me it just seemed like a giant photo op and fundraiser while giving out information about AIDS.
Instead, he was up north doing other things a Prime Minister should (like checking out the Inuit and see how they’re doing) instead of saying “Hey look! A photo op with Bill Gates!”
The health minister was there. The Governor General was there. Go figure… representative of the Queen as well as the guy who’s in charge of everyone’s health in Canada… and people STILL aren’t satisfied? If people are crying over the fact he wasn’t there, what about the MPs? Where were they?! Why won’t anyone think of the MPs! *whines*
The whole debate is absolutely ridiculous.
–Ron
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