I'm sorry, we're too busy to create our own foreign policy, can we borrow yours?

It's amazing to me that it took five years for anyone of import in Canadian politics (and I include policy analysts and political staffers, the behind-the-scenes movers, shakers and king-makers in that category) to listen to the Australian prime minister's speech on Iraq. Australia may be a long way away geographically, but as another former British colony and part of the English-speaking world (not sure who is and who isn't a member of the Commonwealth any more), surely we should have been paying attention? We've been lapping up Australian films since the days of Breaker Morant and Gallipoli; we're busily reading Peter Carey and Tim Winton's amazing novels, but we're not sure we should pay attention to Australian policy or politics, even though they've been our allies in two world wars and are our socio-political half-siblings at the very least. In medical terms, this would be a bit like refusing to share your family medical history with your GP on the basis that it's irrelevant because you aren't your grandmother.

The word-for-word plagiarism is inexcusable. And Stephen Harper's spokesperson, Kory Teneycke, is clearly unrepentant on our prime minister's behalf:

"I'm not going to get into a debate about a five-year-old speech that was delivered three Parliaments ago, two elections ago, when the prime minister was the leader of a party that no longer exists," Teneycke said. Right. Back in the dark ages that was, 2003. Even those of closer to senility than to birth can remember that far back. Let's do some economic scare-mongering and try to deflect the attention from something that obviously doesn't matter, the personal and political integrity of the person who keeps wanting to be our political leader. I never thought I'd find myself saying this, but Stephen Harper's Conservatives are starting to make the Brian Mulroney gang look good: at least they had an agenda - an agenda so ambitious they created a whole new set of legislative committees to ram through the bills they wanted to create. Other than continuing to serve as prime minister, I'm not sure what this gang wants, what their vision of our country is, or where they hope to lead us. And to think people criticized George Bush Jr. for his lack of knowledge of countries other than his own.

No wonder the world doesn't take Canadians very seriously. Don't think for an instant Bob Rae deserves great praise for making this issue public during our current election campaign; it took him five years to catch on too and it's a blatant move on his part to assume thought leadership of the Liberal Party. Bill Graham, our former foreign affairs minister, was obviously asleep at the wheel too, praising the speech for putting forward Harper's party position so clearly. And so were all their staffers, obviously.

No one expects politicians to write their own speeches. Fear of public speaking is often ranked ahead of fear of death amongst all-time human apprehensions. Getting prepped to speak in public with the kind of gruelling schedules most politicians have is enough of a challenge. But policy analysts and political staffers are paid to stay on top of these things. We've always prided ourselves on not being solipsistic, on paying attention to what's happening in other countries, on trying to adopt best practises regardless of where they originate. What is it we've all been too busy doing instead for the last five years?