It’s a sign of changing times when you’re the former Prime Minister of Canada, and you’re less popular in the news than the creator of a talking sponge.
Despite his recent public criticism of the Liberal government that replaced him—because they apologized and paid compensation to a Canadian citizen taken by his father at age 11 and forced into life as a child solider, then imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay from age 16 to 26, before being detained in Canada for a further three years—people would much rather reminisce about a cartoon that jumped the shark in 2007.
I’m sympathetic. I can’t stand that kind of drivel. And I’m not talking about SpongeBob. Those early seasons are classic.
Of course, it’s understandable that Mr. Harper would take issue with the Omar Khadr settlement. It’s meant to make restitution for a wrong he doesn’t acknowledge, let alone apologize for.
But as Ian Greene observes, “it was the Harper government’s decision to, from 2008 to 2015, ignore the Charter of Rights, the Supreme Court and Canada’s obligation to rehabilitate child soldiers.”
My advice: Google News readers know best. Forget Harper. Instead, give some thought as to how many millions you would want if you’d been abducted at age 11, and spent most of your life in prison.
Then start binge-watching SpongeBob Squarepants Seasons 1 through 4.