I was hoping that I could find a clip of Bono and Bob Geldof knocking Stephen Harper's lack of commitment to G8 anti-poverty efforts on YouTube but no such luck.
Anti-poverty activists were disappointed that the G8 merely reconfirmed their 2005 pledge to double aid to Africa by 2010 but did not promise more aid, nor clearly define how they would reach that goal.
Accusing Harper of blocking progress, Bono commented that, “I said some years ago that the world needs more Canadas, and I meant it. I can't believe that this Canada has become a laggard. I think he's out of sync with the people.”
Bob Geldof added, “I think a man called Stephen Harper came to Heiligendamm but Canada stayed home.”
This is the lack of vision Canadians elected when they voted for Harper. Downplaying and reducing commitments to citizens and countries who are least equipped to complain about it, while simultaneously attempting to camouflage inaction, is Harper's specialty.
Harper (unlike George Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel) refused to meet with Bono at the G8, declaring that, “Meeting celebrities isn't my shtick. That was the shtick of the previous guy.”
Right. Well, it sounds like Bono is none too impressed with the current Prime Minister's shtick. More importantly, are Canadians?
You can read the story on the CBC website and see the video here.
C. K. Kelly Martin
likes to write things down and is a firm believer in the John Lennon quote, "If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal." She's written a middle grade sci-fi and multiple young adult books including I KNOW IT'S OVER, YESTERDAY, and DELICATE. Her most recent novel, released under the name Cara Martin, is a sci-fi centring around a young Canadian woman cryogenically frozen during a global pandemic and then reanimated to find herself and the rest of the world drastically changed, and Canada under threat.
