Please see the linked article from the Globe and Mail:
Why is Harper's team invoking Hitler to debate New Democrats?
If we dust off the history books, we find that indeed, J.S. Woodsworth was opposed to the war, but the CCF caucus was if not at least divided, opposed to Woodsworth on this issue.
It seems that the left was informed by two things. The carnage of WWI which lead to a pacifist point of view-- not by any means an unpopular vision in those days, and those who perceived a threat from Fascism that others were not as alarmed about.
Canadian leftists, of course, were the first to fight fascism in Spain. The Mackenzie Papineau Battalion.
In 1937, in the same year Mackenzie King visited Adolf Hitler, his government passed the "Foriegn Enlistment Act" specifically designed to stop Canadians from fighting fascism.
I cannot find where the Conservative government under then leader Robert Manion stood on that issue. I can't imagine they opposed it, although the might have just for the sake of opposition.
But if someone else can search this tid bit out, I'd like to know.
Be interesting if Conservatives also helped prevent precient Canadians from fighting Fascism, I mean, if we are going to play the game of what our political daddies did during the war.
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My responses are two-fold.
1) What are the chances of seeing "reality-based" politics reapper on the national stage?
2) Perhaps Tom Leher, political satire is obsolete. I know he was referring to H. Kissinger being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, but I think this sort of qualifies too.
Bugger, I forgot the closing quotation mark on the thread title. Are there any moderators kindly enough disposed towards me to correct this little oversight?
If you don't close a quote, you have to spend the rest of your life inside that quote. Sorry, that's the rule.
The reform party wasn't around long enough to compare it to anything, but the fanaticism that followed it around is more nazi like than anything Canada has seen for a while ..just look at what it spawned...Yes let Canada get into the Klanservative debate if they will..There is more to compare about the present day conservative and what they attract, to a hitler/nazi regime than anything else on the planet today save republicans...
As a matter of fact the Harper conservatives are so far right ..I call them 'Full circle Neocons " cause they have gone so far right they are entering where lefty's would never dare go...think about ..A big circle and you travel right ..eventually you end up going to far ....Canadians better wake up because if you knew the hate these cons feel about socialists or anythingt left and you don't have to venture to far to hear it or see it in print...you would know that they are quite capable of criminal if not outright terrorist behaviour to get there way...Remember Jack and Tommy and think about that for a while...as soon as they were wielding to much power they both suffered the same fate. If I was to follow my gut feeling I would be implementing the terror act where evidence and rights violations are based on gut feelings not real evidence on the cons...throw in the election scam and a citzens arrest and presto..justice. Cons might want to review there tea pot theory.
History According to Stephen Harper
I think the newspaper article's title is brilliant. A rhetorical question that under almost all interpretations makes the Conservatives look bad.
ETA: Since when has a sitting Prime Minister ever invoked Hitler to attack the Leader of the Official Opposition? What gravitas.
Catchfire, professional quote-closer.
#HarperHistory
And so on.
The internet does what it does best when faced with absurdity: it LOL's
Thanks Catchfire, I appreciate your bending Unionist's rule for me
I can't believe Baird repeated the accusation again today. Absolutely unbelievable.
Harper history repeats itself.
Well clearly what happened yesterday was no gaffe.
Or it was, and they've just decided to say fuck it and run with it. Maybe this is Baird's way of pretending that his boss actually is wearing clothes.
I guess we're going to see how far they can push the stupid envelope this time.
Not all Germans believed Hitler, either. It didn't matter. They can stand up in Parliaments and lie and give squawking open air oratories and fool just enough of us to get by.
To suggest that the ndp didn't stand against Hitler, as has been pointed out, is ludicrous.
To suggest that the ndp doesn't stand against fascist power today, is less so..
That's part of the reason these days for my growing sense of optimism despite everything, because history furnishes us with plenty of examples of possibilities when people realize they've been swallowing placebos all along to treat their condition.
..or tranquilizers..
On the Germans, that is absolutely true. I have an article by a fellow about the night the Reichstag burned. No one he encountered in Berlin that morning actually believed it was terrorism. They all knew Hitler had done it himself.
As for indiscriminate use of the word "fascist", I suppose fighting fire with fire might seem appropriate when we are dealing with someone who is stretching history and meaning all out of shape. The downside is that those kind of charges share the same credibility gap as those made by Harper and Baird.
Unrelated, but I was wondering last night why they decided to go feral just now. I wonder if they're just a bit ticked that their griling of Vikileaks didn't go quite as planned. Not sure why they didn't see that one was going to blow up in their faces.
I had a bad meal do that to me once.
But seriously folks, if this is all the Harper-thugs can think of, this is good news! They're out of ideas! They're scraping the bottom, not unlike the Jack-masseuse non-story.
@Catchfire, cute tweets. lol indeed. What a laughable group of brainless fuckwads.
The NDP won't close Guantanamo #HarperHistory.
Why would they? They built it to house all those terrorists they "stand with", as Harper put it.
LOL! Good one, Smith!
Too bad it isn't true.
Sure, sometimes they get exposed by ver-playing their hand.
But that is the one time out of 20. On the aggrgate, stirring the muck works. And even the time out of 20 they look stupid for a while, it doesnt last and the only strong impression made is among people who were their opponents anyway.
Which is not to say that even while this shit works... there is not also an even longer term cycle that ends in Karma Bites.
It's not so much the direct reference to Nazi Germany, IMO, as a tacit equating of Mulcair with foreign leaders who were identified with Hitler in recent years (Noriega, Saddam, Ahmadenijad, Assad, Milosevic). A first step before declaring them to be valid targets of "humanitarian" aggression.
Also, would it be out of line to remind Harper et al that the only parties to oppose the Enabling Act were the social democrats and the communists?
Excellent point. The NDP could now point to comparisons between Hitler and Harper's dictatorial manner of running things, from excessive proroguing of parliament to overspending on military against the wishes of the 60% democratic majority. A significant amount of Harper's time in government has been dedicated to circumventing Canada's democracy.
Well, he mentioned Hitler first:
Stephen Harper and the Neo-Nazis (from 2009)
@ Fidel
There are a lot of things they could do if they wanted to respond in kind. All of it would amount to wallowing with pigs.
I should think they have better and more parliamentary matters to take care of - like pressing Harper on the point that he avoided with this outburst in the first place.
...of course, before anyone thinks I've gone soft on the social democrats, I am obliged to point out that they also called in the proto-fascist far-right paramilitaries to kill Rosa Luxemburg and the German revolutionaries of 1918-1919. So, their record is really a wash at best.
As for indiscriminate use of the word "fascist", I suppose fighting fire with fire might seem appropriate when we are dealing with someone who is stretching history and meaning all out of shape. The downside is that those kind of charges share the same credibility gap as those made by Harper and Baird.
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism, as it is a merger of State and Corporate power." Mussolini
Stephen Harper Fascist?
http://canadiandimension.com/articles/4486/
What can be said is that Harper is certainly closer to fascist than the ndp to socialist - or even social-democrat..