Canada's Harper to Putin: 'I guess I'll shake your hand, but you need to get out of Ukraine'

Quite the contrast from when Obama ran into him in China last week, Canada's Stephen Harper apparently has no hesitation about letting it be known what he and his country think of Vladimir Putin's aggression toward Ukraine:

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Harper spokesman Jason MacDonald told Canadian reporters Harper had been chatting with a handful of other leaders when Putin entered the room. Putin approached Harper and stuck out his hand to shake the Canadian prime minister’s, said MacDonald. After months of public condemnation of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its military support for separatist rebels in Ukraine, Harper accepted the handshake with a blunt message. The prime minister said: “Well, I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I only have one thing to say to you: you need to get out of Ukraine,” recounted MacDonald.

Two things here: First, unlike the United States under Obama, Canada is trying to be aggressive about diminishing Russia's economic power by putting as much fossil fuel as it can on the market. Obama is making it as difficult as possible for Canada to do that by dragging his feet on the Keystone XL pipeline, but at least the Canadians understand that there's no sense helping the Russians by leaving such a large portion of the energy market to them. That allows them to not only make bank but also, as Rob pointed out the other day on the Cain Gang Unchained, to dominate European politics. The U.S. has extensive natural gas resources and could be doing the same to counter the economic power of Gazprom, but Obama would rather put up roadblocks to please his left-wing green activist base. Second, and more pertinent here, there's a lot to be said for simply being blunt. Why stand there with a fake smile on your face and pretend everything is hunky dory whe you know perfectly well that it's not. Obama prefers to avoid any and all confrontations with international bad actors because he is not prepared to take any action to back up his words. He found out what happens when he announced his infamous "red line" in Syria and got put on the spot to actually do something about it. Obama learned his lesson, such that it is. Rather than find some resolve to take real action, he simply started practicing complete avoidance. So there's Putin, right there in the room with you. Don't go over and tell him how it is. He might call your bluff, and if you're Obama, bluffing you are! Stephen Harper has no such compunction. At least it gives Putin something to think about. America used to elect leaders like that. In fact, it really wasn't that long ago . . . until we lost our collective nerve and thought it would be better to pretend there is really nothing we need to do in the world, and elected a guy who is likewise determined to wallow in that delusion. Maybe, going forward, we can get ready for Team Canada: World Police. Gary Johnston, the Mounties would like to speak with you.