Harper gives speech to Economic Club

Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech before the Economic Club of New York last night, and it looks like he hit a lot of right notes, both with Canadians and with his audience, who applauded him roundly.

Some highlights:

• He drew attention to the fact that Canada is the only stable and growing producer of oil, and the importance of this for continental security has been under-appreciated.
• He reminded his audience of the great efforts Canada has made in fighting terrorism since 9/11.
• Concerning border issues: "'Our border must not be seen as a fence where one country's national security stops and the other's begins. It's not like that in the real world,' he said in a prepared remarks released before the speech."
• He appealed to the prominent businessmen he was addressing to help improve poorly thought out and poorly implemented border security measures. "'And you in the American business community, who know what border disruptions could mean for business and tourist travel or for closely integrated supply chains, will be crucial in ensuring that (the measures) are implemented only in a pragmatic manner and on a realistic timetable.'''
• Canada is in Afghanistan for the right reasons and will remain until the mission is accomplished.
• On Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic: "We will defend our sovereignty over all our territory — including over the islands, waterways and resources of the High Arctic — even if that conflicts with American claims."
• Canada will continue to pay down its debt and cut taxes.
  

It is refreshing to see a Canadian prime minister address differences with the US without belligerence, and without giving these differences undue weight.

Technorati tags: Stephen Harper, Economic Club

Gleanings from the blogosphere, Aug. 22

Amba at Ambivablog pays tribute to sociologist and cultural critic Phillip Rieff, who died July 1. I was really struck by some of his ideas. I'll give you just a quick peek, but do go check out her post.

Forever anxious and insecure, psychological man eschews political and religious commitments, and even economic calculation, for an obsession with self that is unprecedented in human history. He is "anti-heroic, shrewd, carefully counting his satisfactions and dissatisfactions, studying unprofitable commitments as the sins most to be avoided." Driven by the "ideal of insight" and "self-contemplative manipulation," his interest resides only in himself.

And one more:

[Rieff] believes that in America transgression has now replaced creation as a cultural ideal; that creativity in our time has more to do with the urge to destroy. [ ... ] Art gave way over the course of the twentieth century to transgression for transgression's sake.

Edward Willett at Hassenpfeffer is waxing enthusiastic about ethanol produced from cow manure. Unlike traditional ethanol, it doesn't consume large amounts of fossil fuels in its production.

Technorati tag: Ethanol