I'm betting Spock; maybe McCoy.
April 26, 2006 8:16 PM   Subscribe

Trekkergate escalates! Canadian blogger J. Kelly Nestruck puts out the call for pics of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, closet trekkie. (I wonder if Harper has has an autographed photo of William Shatner?)
posted by docgonzo (28 comments total)
 
Well, Shatner is Canadian.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:20 PM on April 26, 2006


If he's a fan of the original series, shouldn't it be Trekkiegate?
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:31 PM on April 26, 2006


Ban flags at half mast
deny dead solider pictures
But, a trekie head?
posted by edgeways at 8:43 PM on April 26, 2006


Here's an overwrought sentence dripping with poisonous wrath of which those of the snarling leftie persuasion may cut and paste: His people have most likely found and hung, half-staff on flagposts in remote environs of our Northerly Territories, anyone who was at that convention.
posted by sleslie at 9:15 PM on April 26, 2006


J. Kelly Nestruck. He used to write for the university newspaper when I was a student at McGill. Funny to see his name on the blue.
posted by painquale at 11:05 PM on April 26, 2006


canadian politics is sooo boring.

Just out of curiosity, what makes this guy "conservative"?
posted by delmoi at 12:24 AM on April 27, 2006


I semi-know Optimus Crime, who's hosting the picture of Harper as Data. Weird.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 12:27 AM on April 27, 2006


delmoi: Well, there's the fact he's a libertarian, or that he called Canada "a Northern European welfare state in the worst sense of the term". He wants to roll back gay marriage law, raise the age of consent, and lower the age at which youths can be tried as adults.

He has terrible hair also.
posted by Jairus at 3:52 AM on April 27, 2006


Ignore criminologists and put in place (more) mandatory minimums, ignore economists and reduce the GST (goods and services tax), ignore environmentalists and ditch Kyoto, ignore the abject failure of Bush-style politics and embrace them...

He is our mini-Bush. Day by day, you watch.
posted by dreamsign at 4:25 AM on April 27, 2006


He's not Spock or McCoy. He's obviously Data from the Next Generation. (What probably hurts him worse than someone posting these pictures is that no one recognizes the character he was playing.) Data
posted by notmtwain at 5:01 AM on April 27, 2006


I don't know, after all the stuff I've seen on Rick Mercer's Blog (Canadian politician photoshop contests, that is) I have a hard time believing this is legit.
posted by tiamat at 6:59 AM on April 27, 2006


Just out of curiosity, what makes this guy "conservative"?

Liberal ads and a Canadian desire to measure ourselves and our politics to the US. He's to the left of any Democrat you care to mention. He's probably to the left of those namby-pamby starfleet folks too.
posted by loquax at 7:10 AM on April 27, 2006


He's to the left of any Democrat you care to mention. He's probably to the left of those namby-pamby starfleet folks too.

loquax, that's just plain wrong.

Starfleet is clearly communist.
posted by Jairus at 7:18 AM on April 27, 2006


Starfleet is clearly communist.

See I was going to say that, but they're really some sort of post-communists, aren't they? No money, no "working class" even. A sort-of realization of the Marxist dialectic, but in a world where material wealth is irrelevant, not equitable, yet the state is somehow stronger and more prevalent than today. And surrounded by all kinds of feudal societies that have yet to experience the revolution. Maybe expansionist, imperialistic, post-materialistic social democratic technocratic libertarians with an occasional authoritarian streak?
posted by loquax at 7:48 AM on April 27, 2006


Canadian and a Trekkie? Talk about your two-time losers.
posted by trondant at 8:04 AM on April 27, 2006


Maybe expansionist, imperialistic, post-materialistic social democratic technocratic libertarians with an occasional authoritarian streak?

Perhaps so. 'Communist' is easier to say, however.
posted by Jairus at 8:05 AM on April 27, 2006


Yeah, I think J Kelly pretty well declares it is a photoshop. He's looking for the real deal, which he is sure is out there somewhere.
posted by docgonzo at 9:31 AM on April 27, 2006


He's to the left of any Democrat you care to mention.

Okay, I'll bite. How about George Soros?

He has to move to the left to even dream of being elected in Canada, but that doesn't mean he's liberal. It means he's leading a fragile minority government with one eye on the next election. Given time, you'll witness a slow inexorable slide to the right. Speaking of the parliamentary system, if Stephen Harper had his way ROC would stand for Republic of Canada. Who needs pesky question periods and minority gov'ts when you can have four years of carte blanche?
posted by crowman at 9:33 AM on April 27, 2006


photo experts: you could just scroll down on my entry to the comments, where someone asks "pshop?", and i respond "yes, pshop."
posted by optimuscrime at 10:13 AM on April 27, 2006


Harper is so incredibly lame that, if such a photo were found, it could only be good for his image. And if such a photo is found, I'm thinking it's "found" by a Conservative staffer.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:56 AM on April 27, 2006


crowman: I was thinking more elected Democrat as opposed to self-identified Democrat, as in a governor, member of congress or senator. I'm sure there are a few that lean more to the left (I was engaging in a little hyperbole), but in general, the CPC up here is to the left of the Democratic party's policies in the US.
posted by loquax at 10:59 AM on April 27, 2006


Also, Wilfrid Laurier is Spock.
posted by stinkycheese at 10:59 AM on April 27, 2006


Loquax, I mostly agree but official policy is one thing, and strongly held ideological attitudes by party members are another. I was referring more toward the latter.

I think an in-depth survey of the ideological bent of the membership of the CPC and the Democratic Party would yield the opposite result, ie., the CPC is more to the right than the Dems. Electoral politics mucks it up because both parties try to grab a big slice of the centre.

So I'm saying Harper is really to the right of guys like John Kerry and John Edwards etc. because the latter would more likely admit to supporting gov't regulation of the economy than Harper would (especially if he were truly free to express it, which he is not). I didn't know Harper when he was a university student, but I'll bet he was a pretty rabid anti-socialist.

Then of course, there are a whole host of issues outside of economics, which again I think would put Harper even further right... again, if he could articulate it and not have the gov't fall during the next confidence vote.

So maybe we're talking about different things. I fear Harper does have a semi-hidden agenda, but I think he's taking a long term view. So if you read official policy, you're going to get a real watered down, moderate version of Harper's vision of what Canada should look like 10 years from now.

Does Harper's current playbook seem to the left of the average midwestern pro-NRA Dem congressman? You're right it sure does.

I guess I also really think the Canadian body politic is more like the European polities, more politically fluid and ideologically more dynamic.

It should be an interesting few years in Canadian politics. I expect Harper to be VERY careful about what he says and does until he feels less vulnerable. I expect then we'll see how "moderate" he really is. Who knows, maybe there really is a Red Tory under that sheepskin.
posted by crowman at 12:07 PM on April 27, 2006


Well, this photo definitely isn't 'shopped.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 12:19 PM on April 27, 2006


I expect Harper to be VERY careful about what he says and does until he feels less vulnerable. I expect then we'll see how "moderate" he really is.

He's said as much when he was a private citizen. He spoke at length about how any entering conservatives need to take care to slowly effect change, as to not shock, or prompt any reactionary responses.
posted by Jairus at 1:33 PM on April 27, 2006


Geeze, purplePorpoise, that one looks 'shopped to me, too.

Perhaps it's just that Harper always looks 'shopped. There's something about the shiny, slightly pudgey look to him... as if he's been recently waxed and buffed.
posted by jrochest at 4:35 PM on April 27, 2006


Well, we can't all be as photogenic as Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.
posted by raider at 5:01 PM on April 27, 2006


I was in a Star Trek convention costume contest once. James Doohan signed my certificate. It was so cool.

But really, costume standard at Trek conventions are quite high - very few adults would enter with just a uniform, unless they had designed a clever adaptation (like the Starfleet swimsuit I saw once). Most contestants do more complicated costumes, including many out of their own imagination.
posted by jb at 10:58 AM on April 28, 2006


« Older You want something because someone else does   |   CSS Love Song Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments