Harper campaign worker quits over copycat speech

A senior campaign worker for Canada’s governing Conservative Party has resigned after admitting writing a pro-Iraq war speech for prime minister Stephen Harper that plagiarised another world leader’s address.

The opposition Liberals released transcripts and video of speeches delivered by then-Australian prime minister John Howard on March 18, 2003, and one by Mr Harper two days later in the Canadian parliament when Mr Harper was the opposition leader.

Liberal foreign affairs spokesman Bob Rae said nearly half of Mr Harper’s speech was a word-for-word recitation of Mr Howard’s comments.

“How does a political leader in Canada’s parliament, on such a crucial issue, end up giving the exact same speech as another country’s leader?” Mr Rae said during a speech in Toronto as the parties campaigned for national elections next month.

Mr Rae said it was further evidence “of how Canada’s foreign policy is now in lockstep with the right-wing foreign policy of the Bush administration”.

Canada’s Liberal government at the time turned down Washington’s request to send forces to Iraq, while Australia sent troops.

Conservative campaign worker Owen Lippert resigned later after taking responsibility for the speech. He said he worked in Mr Harper’s office in 2003 and wrote the speech calling for Canadian troops to be sent to Iraq.

“Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader’s speech,” Mr Lippert said.

He said neither Mr Harper nor anyone else in his office had any idea he copied from Mr Howard’s speech.

Tom Flanagan, a former campaign director for Mr Harper, called it an eloquent speech in his book, Harper’s Team, and wrote that they printed out the speech in pamphlet form and sent out thousands of copies.

Mr Rae said a number of lines from Mr Howard’s speech were also duplicated in a guest editorial in the Wall Street Journal under Mr Harper’s byline on March 29 2003. Mr Rae said duplicated lines also appeared under Mr Harper’s byline in guest editorials in the Toronto Star, National Post and Ottawa Citizen.

Yaroslav Baran, a spokesman for the Conservative party, said Mr Lippert’s apology was comprehensive and that he took responsibility for the speech and any editorials that derived from it.

Before Mr Lippert’s resignation, Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke had called the plagiarism allegation a desperate move and said the speech was five years old.

“It was three parliaments ago, two elections ago when he was leader of a party that no longer exists,” Mr Teneycke said of Mr Harper, who was leader of the right-of-centre Canadian Alliance party at the time. The party later merged with the Conservative Party.

But Liberal party leader Stephane Dion said the plagiarism was not incidental.

“Canadians want their country to speak with its own voice on the world stage,” Mr Dion said. “Stephen Harper should be expelled.”

Harper’s Conservatives unseated the Liberals in 2006 after nearly 13 years in power and Canada has had closer ties with Washington since. Mr Harper has called early elections hoping his party can increase its number of seats in parliament in the October 14 vote.