Political Cartoons

1. Political Cartoons Let us see it in another perspective

3. Harper Tells U.S. to Drop Arctic ClaimThe Washington Post • Stephen Harper, elected Monday as prime minister, warned the United States on Thursday to back off from its challenge of Canadian sovereignty in Arctic waters that are fast thawing from global warming.In the first news conference since his election, Harper upbraided the U.S. ambassador for asserting that the icy polar regions, including the legendary Northwest Passage, are international waters.Canada claims that its archipelago of some 16,000 islands makes that region Canadian territory."The United States defends its sovereignty. The Canadian government will defend our sovereignty," Harper said. "It's the Canadian people we get our mandate from, not the ambassador of the United States."The two countries -- as well as Russia -- have had conflicting claims in the Arctic for at least three decades. Harper's Conservative Party has proposed expanding Canada's military presence, building new icebreakers and creating an early warning system to detect other ships, all to enforce its claim of sovereignty. January 2006

9. Harper to spend 'next few weeks' mulling whether to call election The Canadian Press • 3 days ago HAMILTON ﾑ Prime Minister Stephen Harper continued to stoke the flames of election speculation Tuesday by saying he plans to spend the "next few weeks" contemplating whether his minority Conservatives will be able to govern effectively this fall.Harper called Liberal Leader Stephane Dion irresponsible for insisting on one hand that the minority Conservative government must fall, while on the other hand refusing to topple it for fear of the electoral consequences."Mr. Dion has indicated that the government should be defeated, but he's not sure when he'll do that because he hasn't got good enough polls - I don't think that's a particularly responsible position," he said.Recent polls make it clear the next government will likely be another minority, regardless of whether it's formed by the Tories or the Liberals, said Harper, who was in Hamilton for a health-care funding announcement as part of a three-day swing through vote-rich Ontario."Polls do indicate that the next election is in all likelihood a minority, one way or the other," he said."The fact of the matter is, what I will have to decide over the next few weeks is whether or not we can have a productive fall session of Parliament, or whether in fact the government, a government, needs a new mandate."It's clear that none of the opposition parties intend to hold out until the fixed election date of October 2009, he added."They have no intention of respecting the fixed election date," Harper said. "So I think obviously we're going to have to judge how the parliamentary agenda is unfolding."Harper said he would do a thorough evaluation of the situation over the next few weeks and ensure that "one way or the other" there would be a productive Parliament.Last week, Harper called Parliament "dysfunctional" and warned he would "have to make a judgment in the next little while" on whether it's worth continuing.Dion dismissed Harper's comments as just talk. If there are problems, Dion said, it's the fault of Harper's Tories, who have been sabotaging committee business."All the Parliament talk is only talk," Dion said from Ottawa. "It has nothing to do with the truth."He said Harper is ready to ignore his own law setting fixed election dates for political advantage."You have a man who is not respecting Parliament and he will not respect his own law."Dion said he expects to meet with Harper to discuss the autumn Parliament session, scheduled to resume Sept. 15. August 2008