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December 15, 2014
Knowing your duty and doing it Dear Editor, Many people don’t realize how wide a swath Stephen Harper is cutting on the world stage. “At a time when there is all too little bold and principled leadership among Western leaders… Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, stands out,” said a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. When Vladimir Putin turned up at the G20 Summit in Australia right after deploying Russian warships off Australia’s coast to sabre rattle at the world’s free nations, Harper wasn’t cowed. He said to Putin, “I’ll shake your hand but I only have one thing to say to you. You need to get out of Ukraine.” Harper has demonstrated to Canadians and to the world that he knows his duty as a national and international leader, and has the courage to do it. This month, members of Stephen Harper’s federal Conservative Party in the new riding of Lakeland will also have an opportunity that involves duty and courage. They’ll be select-
ing a candidate for the next federal election. The duty these Conservative party members have is to carefully scrutinize each candidate. This can be difficult for some people because it is not easy to put a person you might know and like under intense public scrutiny, but it is necessary. And it is their duty. Individuals who put forward their name to represent the Conservative Party, and to represent the nation, are not just asking for a job. They’re asking for more than a job. They’re asking to be the boss. Every employer scrutinizes job applicants. But if the applicant wants to run the company and be telling all the other employees what to do, and how to do it, that requires a far more
detailed and in depth level of scrutiny—experience, proven performance, education, know how, and past achievements all matter. And the process of engaging in scrutiny has nothing to do with being mean. Stephen Harper is not being mean when he points to Justin Trudeau’s lack of experience and befuddlement as a leader. Harper is instead recognizing that as a leader, he has a duty to publicly challenge Trudeau’s statements and allegations. Harper knows it is his responsibility to draw peoples’ attention to the facts. If he were to stand idly by smiling, bobbing his head up and down as Trudeau speaks nonsense about Alberta having too much influence, and saying that Quebec produces
better Prime Ministers, how would that benefit the country or demonstrate courage? It’s the same thing at the constituency level. To point out that one candidate in a riding has little or no experience as a leader is not an act of meanness or retribution. Facts are facts, and facts can be stubborn things. The duty of Conservative Party members in Lakeland and in other constituencies around the province is not to avoid sharp contrasts or challenging statements that compare candidates. Our duty is to recognize how important it is for these contrasts to be made, and subsequent to that, for each party member to have the courage to sift through that information and select the candidate who is best
News Advertiser Page 7 equipped for the job. That is the person Stephen Harper wants, and that we as a constituency need. If a candidate at the constituency level can’t stand up to justifiable questioning about inexperience or past statements without accusing others of being mean, mad, or grumpy, how will such a person ever stand up to what’s waiting in Ottawa,
or God-forbid, to the Vladimir Putins of the world. Sincerely, Danny Hozack Hozack, who is from the Streamstown area, has been a long-time member of the Conservative Party of Canada and board member of the Federal Conservative Party’s VegrevilleWainwright Constituency Association.