I think Harper is just plain vindictive. He is a collective punishment kind of guy through and through. One look at his foreign policy of collective punishment against the Ukrainian Russians, and the Palestinians… and one gets an idea of his ethic.

Harper is vindictive that Northern Gateway has been opposed and skipping the Canada games was his way of showing he has no interest in PG even when hosting the nations largest sporting event for youth.

If Harper can’t find the time to visit, then why would one assume he would have the time to put PG issues into his budget for infrastructure like Highway 16.

Who cares? Seriously? Didn’t we have enough “dignitaries” pounding their own chests already?

The opening and closing would have been a lot more enjoyable if we didn’t have to listen to all the other windbags that did attend.

1 point for axman. And besides, isn’t Alberta the pm’s home province?
It’s done(the games), give it a rest.

“Now heaven forbid if the reason Harper didn’t attend was tied in some way to the fact that the Tory candidate they were hoping to anoint, finished third in a three person race.”

At first I thought this was a real stretch. But it’s really not that hard to imagine someone (Stephen) disliking Dick Harris or Todd Doherty.

…..or maybe he went to the briar because calgary is his real home away from Ottawa. The maintenance of highway 16 is a provincial issue well before it becomes a federal concern. That’s like complaining that Harper isn’t filling the potholes on your street.

I always thought the “Games” were about the athletes !!!

Not the politicians.

If the PM did show ,then all the wingnuts and protestors would also show up.

Which then brings us to the cost of security and the security protocols that have to be put in place when the PM is around.

Oh and by the way , was there not somebody arrested at UNBC, Sunday
afternoon for uttering threats.

Maybe Harper was worried he would get hooked on BC’s pot then have to go into rehab.

There is no excuse in my books for him not to be part of the CWG. He just didn’t see it as important or he would have made it. He has known about it for years, the mans arrogance astounds me..

On the other hand let us count our blessings that our party was not pooped by some Ottawa politician who is convinced that he is the world’s wisest human being.

The trans Canada Yellowhead highway has had federal dollars for capital upgrades to the other three western provinces,so why should BC be any different? Sure BC pays for the maintenance, but on a trans Canada highway the fed has a role in capital up grades.

Harper very well could make an excellent municipal politician, were he to cut taxes and the only neighbour he could bad mouth is Quesnel..what harm could be done….

Myself, I’d prefer politicians just stay away. It costs so much money every time they want to go somewhere. Imagine the poor RCMP – “oh, btw, the PM is coming, so I realize you’ve all been working overtime for the games, well, not only are you going to keep working, but big shot RCMP Inspectors from Ottawa are going to come and tell you how to do your job while the PM is here.

Thanks for staying away Stephen, I actually like the Governor General, he’s kind of a cheerleader sort of guy. Last thing anyone needed was people booing you at the closing ceremonies.

Eagleone: “collective punishment” sounds bad because the term is used to designate a crime in international law. However, it does not by any means refer to all actions taken against nations and comparable groups. It refers to such things as executing ten French civilians for every German soldier killed by the Resistance. The kinds of action to which the Ukrainian Russians and Palestinian Arabs have been subjected, such as blockades, and even military action, are explicitly not considered “collective punishment” in international law. Indeed, the UN, which as we know is extremely hostile to Israel, conceded in the aftermath of the Mavi Marmara incident that the blockade of Gaza is legal.

Harper’s policies in these areas may be wrong, but they do not involve “collective punishment” as the term is used in law and do not provide a good parallel to his behaviour with regard to the nomination and the Games.

I believe it was a good move that Harper did not attend the Winter Games. I am sure, terrorist groups would have loved to ruin an event like this. The security would have been tripled. Harper is a great leader of Canada, Canada Winter Games were a success, I am very proud to be a Canadian…

I would argue that point Billposer. I think when a bull dozer comes to flatten your house based on your ethnicity that is collective punishment. Or when when the Israeli’s use F-16 to bomb 20-story residential towers, UN schools, and UN hospitals as part of a blockade to punish people in a policy that is explicitly stated as aimed at the families of those suspected of working for the elected government in Gaza… then surely that is collective punishment by definition for all those that are collateral damage to the revenge attacks on both sides.

As for the Ukraine… after the Maiden when Kiev politicians outlawed the Russian language that was the start of collective punishment for those that voted for the prior government. Top Kiev officials are on record as saying they will force the Russians out of Dunbas, so they can ‘never vote for a Russian friendly government again’ because the Russian speaking people will be gone… hence the artillery on Russian populated cities in an effort to drive out those that don’t vote for Kiev. The total disregard for the Russian speaking refugees from the fighting in Ukraine, and now laws to round up anyone that supports the Russians even when spoken in their legislature. That too is a form of collective punishment for which Harper turns a blind eye in his partisan zeal.

To say otherwise is just semantics.

Now we have the specter of a Harper government that labels environmentalists as terrorists and has put forward legislation that would allow the government to collectively treat them that way. Harper is a politician that lives by the motto, ‘you are either with me, or you are against me’… and no shades of gray in between. No one can deny that.

That said I too am glad he didn’t come because Harper is a polarizing politician, and we didn’t need that at the games… but he is our Prime Minister and he has gone out of his way to avoid ever working for a vote in PG by coming here to understand the issues that are important to this region. He canceled the billion dollar pine beetle program that first wiff of opposition to Northern Gateway, and we have been off the map ever since.

If the games had been held in vote rich Ontario where riding are in play he would have been there for sure no question about it. We have nothing more to offer him (he has it all already from the historical perspective) so he has no reason to visit. It makes it doubly worse for PG since we don’t even have an area MP that lives within a five hour drive of the city.

Collective punishment and collateral damage are terms which are often applied when defining methods of warfare and oppression.

However, I think it matters not to the victims whether or not a method of collective punishment practiced by one country is thought of as more defensible than that of some other country. A short examination of the methods used for instance by Uncle Joe Stalin against Germans, Ukrainians and a host of other ethnic groups before, during and after WWII will explain what history commonly chooses to reveal and what is better kept out of the limelight.

There are good people in every country, yet they were and still are lumped in with the bad ones and they are still becoming the collective victims of punishment, oppression and collateral damage.

In politics, even in peace time, politicians calculate where and how they get the most votes for their efforts. If vindictiveness brings better results and more control ethics fly out the window.

I think Eagle is more correct than wrong.

Harper’s snub of Canada’s Games and PG is one of the major untold stories of the games. He is Canada’s leader and the games brought together the best of across the nation. He should have been there out of respect. The PM has attended most of the past games but somehow PG wasn’t worth a stop.

The other untold story was how poor BC did in the final overall medal count. There were big plans to invest more to develop BC’s young athletes prior to the games coming west but even with four years to get ready those responsible for developing young athletes in BC failed miserably and at a time when the host province was expected to do well, they actually lost ground to Quebec and Ontario. 88 medals was the same as in 2011 for BC but the gold count was higher in Halifax. So much for home field advantage.