Canada opposition party accuses PM of plagiarism

[October 01, 2008]  TORONTO (AP) -- A senior campaign staffer for the governing Conservative Party resigned Tuesday after admitting he wrote a speech for Prime Minister Stephen Harper that plagiarized another leader's address urging support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

The opposition Liberals released transcripts and video of speeches delivered by then-Australian Prime Minister John Howard on March 18, 2003, and one by Harper two days later in the Canadian Parliament when Harper was the opposition leader.

Liberal foreign affairs spokesman Bob Rae said nearly half of Harper's speech was a word-for-word recitation of Howard's comments.

"How does a political leader in Canada's Parliament, on such a crucial issue, end up giving the exact same speech as another country's leader?" Rae said during a speech in Toronto as the parties campaign for national elections next month.

Rae said it was further evidence "of how Canada's foreign policy is now in lockstep with the right-wing foreign policy of the Bush administration."

Conservative campaign worker Owen Lippert resigned later in the day after taking responsibility for the speech. He said he worked in Harper's office in 2003 and wrote the speech calling for Canadian troops to be sent to Iraq.

"Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader's speech," Lippert said in a statement.

He said neither Harper nor anyone else in Harper's office had any idea he copied from Howard's speech.

Rae said a number of lines from Howard's speech were also duplicated in a guest column in The Wall Street Journal under Harper's byline on March 29, 2003. He said duplicated lines also appeared under Harper's byline in columns in the Toronto Star, National Post and Ottawa Citizen.

Conservative spokesman Yaroslav Baran said Lippert's apology is comprehensive and that he takes responsibility for the speech and the columns.

Howard had no comment on the issue, a spokesman said.

Australian economist John Kunkel, who served as Howard's speechwriter from 2004-2007, said plagiarism in speechwriting is not uncommon in any political system and said he doubts Howard was offended by the incident.

"I think he'd probably find it mildly amusing," Kunkel said. "He'd probably have a good degree of sympathy for his good friend, Mr. Harper."

The former prime minister often spoke off-the-cuff and Kunkel said Howard did not have a designated speechwriter before he took on the position in 2004. To help craft his speeches, Howard often tapped the knowledge of whichever adviser was specialized on the topic he was speaking to, such as foreign policy, Kunkel said.

Kunkel said any rumor that a Bush administration official wrote the speech -- or part of it -- and distributed it to conservative allies "sounds incredibly far-fetched and somewhat fanciful."

Canada's Liberal government at the time turned down Washington's request to send troops to Iraq, while Australia sent troops.

Before Lippert's resignation, Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke had called the plagiarism allegation a desperate move and said the speech was five years old.

"It was three Parliaments ago, two elections ago when he was leader of a party that no longer exists," Teneycke said of Harper, who was leader of the right-of-center Canadian Alliance party at the time. The party later merged with the Conservative Party.

"It's a desperate `hail Mary' and it's exactly why the Liberals are in the trouble they are in this election. They are focusing on five-year-old speeches," he said.

Liberal party leader Stephane Dion said Harper's speech mattered.

"Canadians want their country to speak with its own voice on the world stage," Dion said. "Stephen Harper plagiarized the coalition of the willing of George W. Bush about the war in Iraq. Stephen Harper should be expelled."

Harper's Conservatives unseated the Liberals in 2006 after nearly 13 years in power and Canada has had closer ties with Washington since. Harper called early elections in hopes his party can increase its number of seats in Parliament in the Oct. 14 vote.

Recent polls say the Conservatives could win a majority of seats. As a minority government in the previous Parliament, the party had to rely on the opposition to pass budgets and legislation.

[Associated Press; By ROB GILLIES]

Associated Press reporter Kristen Gelineau contributed to this report from Sydney, Australia.

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