It's a Bird... It's a Plane... No It's the PM?

Harper's been spotted in Afghanistan:

' "It's awesome, especially him personally coming here to see us. That is what we need to see, support more than anything else," said Master Cpl. Ardis White.

' "I think it's great. We need the morale booster," added Master Cpl. Guylaine Palmondon.

' "These are a great bunch of men and women who are doing a great job. We want to make sure they understand the government and the population is behind them," Harper said.(link)

This surprise visit finally pulls the Harper Tories out the Emerson debacle lull of the last weeks.

Now he looks positively Prime Ministerial. Here he is supporting our troops, looking all leader like, and doing the leader stuff... And here's a shot of him flying a plane...



Of course he can't fly a plane, but pictures can't lie - can they?

This is all showy propaganda. Nice smiles for the cameras. If anything all it really does is it get's the news cycle out of "Emerson" and into something else.

Though it does some real good things for the Canadian military. The first is it boosts morale of the troops there. The second is it sends a clear signal to them about who's side Harper is on.

Afterall, we are talking about the Canadian Military... The military that gave its troops forest combats for a desert terrain 'cuz they didn't have the cash... The military that couldn't afford real helicopters that didn't fall out of the sky... The military that saw cutback after cutback for 13 years...

They have the Prime Minister going to them. He's going to them to visit them.

In a war zone.

As one of the first acts of his government.

Neither Jean Chretien or Paul Martin would have ever done anything like this.