Reply #18: Yes

[dufrenne]

terrorists and their actions can be used to scare people and to push policies forward, but that does not mean that they do not exist. Unless, you're a MIHOP or a LIHOP type (which I am not), it is clear that threats do exist. Therefore, I do not give the benefit of the doubt (although they have a presumption of innocence) to those arrested. The neocon notion of foreign policy pre-supposes that you even have that miltaristic might to accomplish your goals, which Canada clearly does not. Bottom line, with respect to social values, Canada has absolutely nothing in common with much of the US, and if you don't think that our social values do not inform and effect our view of the world and our foreign policy, then you do not know Canada. Yes, the neocons have influenced other countries by forcing them to examine their role in the world and in relation to the US, but if you think for a moment, that 6 years of Bush have transformed Canada into a bunch of mindless, snivelling zombies who don't hold their polticians to account or who easily give up their values, then again, you don't know Canada. Again, please don't equate your mindless evangelical population and their values to anything that Canada will ever be. They got Bush elected and put him in power. What happened in Canada wasn't a vote for Harper...or for Bush. Rather, it was a vote for a break from 15 years of liberal rule and recent corruption. It was hardly a sea-change, but instead a vote "against" the party in power.