Harper avoids AIDS conference

While we understand that the life of a prime minister is very busy, especially when there's trouble in the middle-east, a place where Canada traditional tries to exert its soft power in peace negotiations, but we wonder when Stephen Harper will realize that he has to hold his nose and do a few things to establish some common ground between himself and the disaffected Liberal voters who helped get him elected. Jean Chretien was elected by former Conservatives driven from the party by the Mulroney years and rewarded them by having Paul Martin reveal some of the most fiscally conservative budgets in years. Harper, who is fighting this image that he's a secretive pro-business arch-conservative from the West and Bush's lapdog, could have scored some easy points by appearing at this weekend's AIDS conference. Now, Chretien was also a no show at this conference during his tenure, so an appearance by Harper would have made a dramatic impression, demonstrating perhaps that Harper really does like people.