To counter that, here’s what the Liberals dug up: In 2003, Mr. Harper and now International Trade Minister Stockwell Day wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal condemning Jean Chrétien for not joining the Americans and British in sending troops into Iraq.
“Today, the world is at war. A coalition of countries under the leadership of the U.K. and the U.S. is leading a military intervention to disarm Saddam Hussein,” they wrote. “Yet Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has left Canada outside this multilateral coalition of nations. This is a serious mistake. For the first time in history, the Canadian government has not stood beside its key British and American allies in their time of need.” (This turned out to be one of the most popular decisions Jean Chrétien ever made.)
Meanwhile, at that time then-deputy Prime Minister John Manley criticized Mr. Harper for damaging Canada’s interests. Mr. Harper also gave an interview to Fox News in which he criticized the government for not going to war in Iraq. Then there is the 1997 speech that Mr. Harper gave to a right-wing U.S. think tank. In that speech, he referred to Canada as a “Northern European welfare state.” Those words have haunted him since - even 12 years later.
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