Is Justin Trudeau immature and narcissistic, or just passionate and not afraid to show it?

"OTTAWA — Justin Trudeau betrays his political immaturity and narcissism in suggesting that his commitment to a united Canada is dependent on whether the Conservative government validates his personal values, say prominent political analysts.

"This guy is clearly self-indulgent; he really does think everything is about him and his feelings," Barry Cooper, a political theorist at the University of Calgary, said Tuesday in commenting on statements Trudeau made in a recent French-language interview. "That's a measure of his lightweight status in the firmament of deep-thinking Liberals."

On Sunday, Trudeau, a Montreal MP, told his Radio-Canada host: "I always say, if at a certain point, I believe that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper — that we were going against abortion, and we were going against gay marriage, and we were going backwards in 10,000 different ways — maybe I would think about making Quebec a country."

The remarks have generated a furor this week. The blogosphere and the twitterverse went into hyperdrive, with commentators stunned that the 40-year-old son of Pierre Trudeau could so readily offend his father's federalist vision. The politicians weren't far behind. Not surprisingly, the Bloc Quebecois interpreted Trudeau's remarks as an endorsement for their own opposition to the Conservative government.

A Tory MP, Merv Tweed, taunted Trudeau, saying "while our Conservative government is committed to keeping Canada strong, united and free, the member opposite is contemplating reasons for Quebec to separate from Canada.''

Such remarks forced to Trudeau to beat a hasty retreat on Tuesday, clearing the air with a three-minute address in front of a mob of reporters and cameras on Parliament Hill. "The question is not why does Justin Trudeau suddenly not love this country, because the question is ridiculous,'' Trudeau said. "I live this country in my bones every breath I take, and I'm not going to stand here and somehow defend that I actually do love Canada because we know I love Canada.''

Regardless of Trudeau's rhetorical retrenchment, some observers said his original remarks revealed a great deal about his character, as well as his incoherence as a politician.

"If had read the quote and not known who said it, I would have attributed it to an adolescent," said Tom Darby, a political philosopher at Carleton University in Ottawa. "It does not matter what party or even what policies one favours, the quote is factually untrue, irresponsible, and even treasonous. He (Trudeau) says that his father was an intellectual and that he is not. About this he is correct, which his childish statement proves."

Robert Asselin, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa who specializes in Canada-Quebec affairs, noted the inherent narcissism of Trudeau's attitude. "That's the first observation I would make. But also, government policy should not dictate one's preference for secession or not. Secession is a very grave action and you don't even suggest it (as a possibility) because you don't share certain beliefs or values of the government of the moment."

"Politics is not about personal feelings," said Cooper. "It's about the ethics of responsibility. He was elected as a member of Parliament from a particular constituency. He was not elected in his own right because he has these sensitive feelings about various things. Whether he likes it or not, he's supposed to be a responsible political leader, and he's clearly incapable of understanding what his job is."

Trudeau has, in fact, been stepping in it regularly of late. In December, he referred to Environment Minister Peter Kent as a "piece of sh--." He was taken to task for wrongly claiming that there would be no way to track firearms after the registry's disappearance when he tweeted his opposition to the Conservative government's plans to scrap the gun registry. And he was much criticized when he told a reporter he was "uncomfortable" with the use of the phrase "honour killings" because he thought it was "pejorative."

Political analysts such as Darby and Cooper question whether Trudeau has taken his dislike of Harper's policies to an imprudent extreme that says more about himself than about the policies he supposedly opposes.

"Young Trudeau is living out the consequences of his father's vision of what the country should look like, that the state exists to compel us to like one another, to think alike, that we all have to have the same values," said Cooper. "You've got this kind of narcissistic response that the state only exists to reflect your values. There's nothing to be patriotic about (and) so you can indulge whatever idiosyncratic policy preferences you might have. Trudeau Junior reflects this attitude, and for a lot of people his age and younger, they probably think this is a perfectly legitimate way of looking at politics."

Trudeau's statement reflected the "incredible notion" that loyalty to one's country is predicated on whether that country lived up to your personal sentiments, said Darby. It is quite legitimate to oppose the policies of a particular government, he said, but Trudeau showed no sense of what Canadians have in common, no sense of shared citizenship and the responsibilities that come with citizenship. "The problem with that is he's not thinking beyond his own self-interest. He's like a kid who says, 'I don't like what's happening in this game, so I'm going to take my stuff and go home.'"

Asselin, meanwhile, speculated that Trudeau reflected the sentiments of many Quebecers who feel they don't share the values of the Conservative government. Nevertheless, that's no excuse to indulge in imprudent hints about supporting separatism. "That's the line he crossed. That's why it's dangerous."

Trudeau's behaviour raises questions about his political intelligence, and his potential as a future Liberal leader, Asselin said. "I'm always surprised to see his name as a potential candidate (for the Liberal leadership) because I've never seen anything substantive from him that would make me believe he would be a good leader. What is his vision of Canada? I would not be able to tell you what it is. I know what his father stood for, but I don't know what Justin Trudeau's is."

And what might Pierre Trudeau have thought of his son's statement? "I don't think his father would have been happy at all to read it. He would probably spank him on his behind, and say, 'What have you said? This is not right.'" " - ROBERT SIBLEY, POSTMEDIA NEWS 

What do you think? Is Justin not mature enough as a politician? Or is he just passionate about his country?

No worries for Adele fans: She not taking a 5 year hiatus (Click here)

A message from Robert Redford: We may have won this battle against the Oil Pipeline, but the war is not over... Watch!

Radio-Canada changes timeslot for racy, "pornographic" TV show

"The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's French arm is tweaking its offering of a raunchy foreign show that has come under fire.

"In line with its policies and programs to ensure that the Hard series is not seen by children, Radio-Canada has decided to restrict the spread between midnight and 4 am (EST) today," reads a post, written in French, on Radio-Canada's Facebook page.

The state broadcaster said the racy show, produced in France, was purchased because it spoke to young adult audiences and was a hit in places like Germany and Korea.

The partial stand-down comes after a flood of criticism from the prime minister, MPs from all parties, and the heritage minister.

"This programming cannot be defended," Heritage Minister James Moore said after viewing the show, which runs Tou.tv, a web TV video on demand offered by Radio-Canada.

"Having now seen the show in question, it raises serious concerns about some programming decisions being made with taxpayers' dollars by CBC/Radio-Canada," he said.

"Today I contacted the CBC and asked them to review all of their online content to ensure offensive programming such as this is not repeated."

The Prime Minister's Office also issued a statement.

"This content is clearly adult in nature and should not be available to children," a PMO spokesman wrote in an e-mail. "While the government doesn't control CBC's content, we are confused by their decision to purchase sexually explicit content and make it available to children. The CBC's mandate is to deliver quality programming to the regions and rural areas, not this material."

The cost of obtaining Hard is not being disclosed by CBC, which cites the information as private due to competition.

Initially, CBC said Hard was not pornographic, and was rated 16-plus." - Kris Sims, Toronto Sun.

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Watch and pass it along to everyone you know!

Harper takes aim at pipeline opponents

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper says there are some Americans who want to turn Canada into a "giant national park" and he wants to ensure their opposition to the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline doesn't delay regulatory hearings into the project.

Harper made the comment in an interview with CBC broadcaster Peter Mansbridge aired Monday.

In the interview, Harper answered questions on topics such as the controversial pipeline, health care, publicsector pensions, Iran and Aboriginal Affairs.

The prime minister was asked if the proposed pipeline - which would bring Alberta bitumen from that province's oil fields to the British Columbia coast so it can be shipped to Asia - is a fait accompli.

"What I think I'd make clear is that I believe selling our energy products to Asia is in the country's national interest," said Harper.

"It is in our interests for all kinds of reasons, that we diversify our exports, particularly our energy exports."

Still, Harper stressed there is a regulatory process in place and he is not ready to endorse any specific project.

The $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project is now being reviewed by a National Energy Board panel. In recent days, Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver have complained that foreign-financed "radical" opponents of the plan have hijacked the Northern Gateway debate and threaten to slow down the hearings.

Harper was pressed by Mansbridge on whether the government was guilty of a double-standard by attacking environmental groups while not doing likewise with foreign-backed entities that support the pipeline.

"These are all valid questions," Harper said. "But just because certain people in the United States would like to see Canada be one giant national park for the northern half of North America, I don't think that's part of what our review process is all about." " - Mark Kennedy, Post Media.

What do you think? Should we deface our beautiful Canada, like Harper says we should?

The Gift Not Yet Given: "The unknown is the scariest part&" (A heart-breaking story about a 20-yr-old Ottawa native).

The Gift Not Yet Given: ‘The unknown is the scariest part’

Harper is "selling out Canadian privacy"

"Despite being very outspoken on the question of crime, Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems far from eager to discuss the legislation he’s promised to pass within 100 days of taking office — legislation that will allow online spying without a warrant.

The proposed legislation will force every phone and Internet provider to allow “authorities” to collect the private information of any Canadian, at any time, without a warrant.

This will create legislation that is:

 • Warrantless: A range of “authorities” will have the ability to invade the private lives of law-abiding Canadians and our families using wired Internet and mobile devices, without justification.

Invasive: The laws leave our personal and financial information less secure and more susceptible to cybercrime.

Costly: Internet services providers may be forced to install millions of dollars worth of spying technology and the cost will be passed down to you.

Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has repeatedly voiced her concerns about online spying, and has called for strengthened oversight and privacy safeguards in the bills.

Any proposals to expand telecommunications surveillance must be based on a clear need for new powers, which must be demonstrated by verifiable evidence. And these new powers must include comprehensive internal controls, clear oversight, meaningful deterrents, and a system of enforcement.

Harper is planning on sharing that information with the U.S. selling out Canadian sovereignty." - James Taylor, The Star (Opinion Letters).

Do you think he's right?

A little Apple humour for you...

"Lost dog comes home for the holidays — eight years later"!

"When Frankie Pruitt came home from school for the holidays, he stopped on the way up the driveway to hug his pit bull, who had run to him with her tail wagging. “Petunia!” he said, and rubbed the fur around her ears, and looked into her brown eyes.

“Same eyes,” he said. “Same old Petunia!”

He hadn’t seen the dog since 2003, when she ran out of the house one morning just like she always did, headed toward the family alpaca barn, and didn’t come back.

For anyone who ever lost something beloved, here is a Christmas homecoming story.

Tell us your lost-and-found pet story in the comments below. 

Perhaps a million pets get lost every year, and some 3.7 million are killed at shelters. Petunia beat the odds. She was found, in a wilderness area 2,700 miles from her Virginia farm, and sent home.

Eight years ago, Kristen and John Pruitt and their children worried that their friendly, affectionate American Staffordshire terrier had been hit by a car. Or, maybe even worse, pulled into a brutal dogfighting ring.

Instead, their dog seemed to have embarked on a cross-country trip that took her — who knows where? All they know for sure is that she was found wandering in the foothills of a wildlife preserve in Northern California, got picked up by a wildlife biologist, then jetted home for an improbably glamorous return via Times Square mixing with celebrities, political candidates and Rockettes, all just in time for the holidays.

* * *

Frankie Pruitt was 7 when his dad passed a sign for puppies and decided, on a whim, to take one home. He told Frankie not to tell his mom. They had plenty of room for another dog on their 100-acre alpaca and horse farm near Fredericksburg. But Kristen Pruitt said she didn’t want a pit bull in the house with her children; it seemed too dangerous.

“Then I saw her, and she was so small, and so ugly, and so cute,” she said.

And sweet: That’s why they named her Petunia.

The sandy-and-white dog slept with Frankie, wiggling up to his pillow during the night, snoring her head off. She ran free, following him around the place, an old family farm that played a key role in the Civil War battle of Chancellorsville, with a pond, tall magnolias and horse fences crisscrossing the fields.

Then one morning around Thanksgiving 2003 he was drinking hot chocolate in their big stone house while Petunia, Booboo and Bear ran out before breakfast, and only two dogs came back.

Frankie didn’t worry at first; in rural Spotsylvania County, they figured someone would see their missing-dog signs. But as the winter wore on, they gave up hope.

* * *

A few days after Thanksgiving this year, Meg Eden, a wildlife biologist from Oregon, was camping in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in California. It’s a remote spot miles from any houses, mostly grasslands and oak trees with mountain lions, foxes and coyotes Eden heard howling at night. One morning, a dog appeared over a hill and came toward Eden with her tail wagging.

Eden, who rescues dogs, had just a moment’s hesitation because it was a pit bull. But the dog seemed so delighted to see her.

The dog snuggled with her and her dogs that night. “Her personality is 100 percent sugar,” Eden said.

Eden called an animal shelter, which began searching for an owner. In this rare case, it was easy: The Pruitts implant microchips in all their animals. Only a small minority of pet owners do that, but the number is growing, said Adam Goldfarb at the Humane Society.

The Pruitts’ vet called them. Frankie didn't believe it until he saw a photo. Petunia!

Then Petunia went big time, appearing in local papers and on national TV when Fox paid to fly her back east. She was friendly in the New York studio when she saw the Pruitts, but they weren’t certain she remembered them.

But as soon as they got back to the farm and let her out of the car, Petunia seemed to know she was home. Her tail was wagging so fast it’s invisible in the photos they took. She touched noses with Booboo, their tiny fluffy Maltese-toy poodle, then raced into the house right to the spot where her water bowl had always been.

“She seemed ecstatic,” he said.

* * *

The Pruitts can’t help but wonder where she’s been all this time.

When Frankie saw her, he immediately noticed the eight or 10 jagged scars, and traced them with his hand in the short fur on her head. They think it’s from a barbed-wire fence, not from dogfighting or abuse. Because she seems to be the same old Petunia: sweet, gentle.

With maybe just a tiny wild streak underneath it all.

She does seem to be the kind of dog who loves to wander, Kristen Pruitt said; sometimes now Petunia will stop outside, and just stare off into the woods.

The other day, they opened the door and Petunia trotted out, headed toward the alpaca barn. “Frankie!” Kristen Pruitt called, leaping forward to grab her collar. Petunia looked back at her, tail wagging. “Get her leash!” " - Susan Svrluga, The Washington Post.

Christian Bale 'Flowers' overseas in his new Chinese movie.

"LOS ANGELES - Christian Bale has never been afraid to speak his mind. But the Oscar-winning actor took his outspokenness to new levels during a visit to Beijing last week for the premiere of his film The Flowers of War.

Days after appearing at the official unveiling of director Zhang Yimou's epic (opening in select U.S. cities starting Wednesday), the 37-year-old actor drove eight hours to visit the home of Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. The blind lawyer has been under house arrest since September 2010 after speaking out against the government's alleged human rights abuses.

The resulting footage, from a CNN crew traveling with Bale, shows the actor being roughed up by government-backed guards. "What I really wanted to do was shake the man's hand and say 'thank you,' tell him what an inspiration he is," Bale told CNN.

Perhaps compounding the public-relations fallout for the government, Bale is starring in what's touted as the most expensive Chinese film in history (at an estimated $94 million). The film also is the country's official submission to the Oscars.

As director Yimou notes in a joint interview with Bale prior to the China visit, Bale looks to play a significant role in Chinese popular culture with the release of the film.

"Everyone in China is really familiar with his work," says Yimou, speaking through a translator. "But after this movie, Christian is going to be a really big star. Everyone is going to fall in love with him."

The film, which received a Golden Globe nomination last week, features Bale as a selfish Westerner who turns sacrificing protector to a motley crew of schoolgirls and courtesans during the brutal Japanese occupation of Nanking during World War II.

It is not new historical territory for Bale. He broke into Hollywood as a child actor, earning rave reviews in Steven Spielberg's 1987 Empire of the Sun, set in an internment camp during the Japanese occupation. Yimou says he was inspired to cast Bale for his film after visiting Spielberg's home in 2010.

Christian Bale in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987).

"Steven read the script and said it was like the Schindler's List of China," says Yimou. "He said, 'You have to cast Christian for this!' He even wrote a personal note to Christian. It was destiny.''

Bale jokes that the casting conversation went a different way. "(Spielberg) probably said, 'Do not do it,' " says Bale, laughing. "But it was probably just translated incorrectly."

The actor found time before the production of the Batman saga Dark Knight Rises (due next summer) to shoot Flowers in Nanking and immediately was blown away. Yimou had overseen the production of an elaborate set, including a nearly full-size re-creation of a cathedral.

"I am accustomed to the types of (set) buildings where you can't lean too heavily or the whole thing is going to fall down," says Bale. "This thing was a concrete, heavy-duty cathedral, which will probably be standing in 100 years' time. The commitment to the work was amazing. I have not seen anything like that before."

Whole portions of 1937 Nanking were re-created for the movie. While the production required more than five months of non-stop shooting for the rest of the cast and crew, Bale shot his role in two intense months.

"In China, there is no union. So everyone works. There are no days off whatsoever," says Yimou. "Christian actually sacrificed his weekends and resting time to keep on working."

The actor had to get used to many cultural differences on the set. He was asked to mentor the actors ("It would have been rude not to," he says), which he found difficult to get used to. Away from the set, Bale was constantly pleading for restraint from his well-meaning but highly intimidating bodyguard, whose presence was mandated by the filmmakers.

"He would pick people up and move them out of the way on the street," says Bale. "I was like, 'Don't do that. I am just walking down the street.' (The bodyguard) was like, 'Respectfully, this is what I must do.' "

Bale certainly set a great example on the set as the rare Hollywood actor in a Chinese domestic film. He had no entourage during his time in China (normally, even minor Chinese stars have multiple assistants) and went beyond expectations to aid the film's completion.

Says Yimou: "He set an example for Chinese people to understand Western people and actors. …We're a little bit spoiled now.'' " - Bryan Alexander, USA Today.'

Kent v. Kent: Which is the wiser, I wonder?

Environment Minister Peter Kent has recently announced what Canadians had already suspected for a while - Canada is officially giving up its spot in Kyoto. Looking at our 'white christmas' going on right now (for future reference and those not in Canada, everything right now is pretty green), I can't help but agree with him.

However, Kent was not always so... harper-esque. Watch George Stroumboulopoulos' Debrief:

I wonder if current Kent has ever met past Kent, much like story of two Mitt Romneys... Which will you listen to, Canada? It's our move.

"December 14, 2011

With Canada pulling out of Kyoto, who do you turn to for information about the possible effects of climate change on the Earth? How about Peter Kent, the current Environment Minister... Circa 1984.

It turns out the '80s version of Peter takes the Greenhouse effect very seriously.

Meanwhile, the present-day Peter Kent is facing some rude language in the House of Commons today - Justin Trudeau got into a heated argument with Mr. Kent over the Kyoto Protocol, and apparently yelled "you are a piece of shit" at the Environment Minister. This is not the first time the two men have traded words in the House." - CBC.ca.