02 October 2008 10:55
Apparently, former PM John Howard was never a great speaker, but that didn’t stop Canada’s Conservative leader, Stephen Harper, from ripping off a speech Mr Howard delivered five years ago. In fact, two days after Mr Howard announced that Australia’s defence forces had been authorised to go into action against Saddam Hussein, Harper repeated much of his case for intervention in the House of Commons in Ottawa - word for word.
Mr Harper, now the Prime Minister of Canada, is embroiled in plagiarism claims that have derailed his campaign just two weeks from the October 14 election. Liberal leader Stephane Dion has since called for Mr Harper to be expelled from the House of Commons over the affair. A staffer with the Canadian Conservatives' campaign headquarters, Owen Lippert, resigned on Tuesday after taking responsibility for the plagiarism.
"Pressed for time, I was overzealous in copying segments of another world leader's speech," he said in a statement.
"Neither my superiors in the Office of the Leader of the Opposition nor the Leader of the Opposition was aware that I had done so."
Source: theaustralian.news.com.au