Harper: You're as cold as ice.

harper gets a little mean on the trail.

Blunt Harper woos respect
By Greg Weston, Sun Media


MAUGERVILLE, N.B. -- It is a dreary Saturday morning in smalltown New Brunswick, and Stephen Harper isn't exactly warming hearts among the overflow crowd of Conservative faithful packed into the old two-room school house. On this day, the Conservative leader is in an ugly mood, the Iceman's habitual cool heading towards the temperature of liquid nitrogen.

Even a reporter's friendly "good morning, Stephen" is returned with silence and a withering glare from those frigid, Malamute-blue eyes.

The cause of Harper's big chill was the Tories' big gaffe.

More precisely, Harper awoke Saturday morning to newspapers brimming with criticism of the Conservative campaign for its reckless accusation that Paul Martin "supports child pornography."

The odious attack, made in the headline on a party press release from Tory headquarters the previous afternoon, apparently caused Harper to go ballistic with his flaks in Ottawa, and a revised version was quickly dispatched.

By the time Harper arrived at his first campaign rally at the New Brunswick schoolhouse yesterday morning, reporters were fully expecting a prompt and grovelling apology to Martin.

But none was forthcoming and likely never will be. Not from the Iceman.

i personally hope and wish that harper drops this issue. he looked bad because of this on friday and just keeps talking about it. the fact that he said that he would discuss this all the way to the election if martin wanted to wasn't necessaary. politicizing the jones murder was just wrong.... he doesn't have to apologize to the liberals, but he might want to tone it down a bit.