Australia Prime Minister John Howard speaks to Canadian Parliament

OTTAWA (CP) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard blew into Stephen Harper's Ottawa with a bracing blast of conservative geopolitics Thursday.

Howard, the first foreign leader to visit Canada since Prime Minister Harper's Conservatives took office, delivering a rousing speech to a joint session of Parliament in which he lavished praise on the United States as a global power, lauded an alternative to the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, and cautioned that nuclear non-proliferation shouldn't be used to hinder Canada and Australia's uranium industries.

"Australia, as you know, is an unapologetic friend and ally of the United States," Howard told a Commons chamber that's heard all-too-frequent criticism of Washington in recent years.

Fresh from a visit to the White House, Howard told a chamber packed with Tory MPs, staffers, lobbyists and party functionaries - but noticeably light on Liberal Opposition MPs - that the U.S. "has been a remarkable power for good in the world.

"And the decency and hope that the power and purpose that the United States represent in the world is something we should deeply appreciate," Howard said to sustained applause.

The 23-minute address, just the second in the Commons by an Australian prime minister and the first since 1944 during the Second World War, came the day after Harper forced a vote in the House that narrowly extended Canada's military deployment in Afghanistan by two years into 2009.
Harper introduced Howard by stating Canada and Australia have a shared history, "shoulder to shoulder standing up for right, when right needed to be defended" in world affairs.

Howard, picking up on the theme, told the Commons that "terrorism will not be defeated by nuancing our foreign policy.

"Terrorism will not be defeated by rolling ourselves into a small ball and going into a corner and imagining that somehow or other we will escape notice."

He also cautioned U.S.-bashers.

"For those around the world who would want to see a reduced American role in the affairs of our globe, I have some quiet advice. That is, be careful of what you wish for. Because a retreating America will leave a more vulnerable world."

Howard, whose 10 years in office and three successive election victories are seen by some as a model for Harper's Conservative movement, also touched on another issue that deeply divides Canada's political landscape.

He said Canada and Australia have "common interests" in the area of climate change. Australia never signed the Kyoto protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions - although unlike Canada, Howard said his country is on target to meet the Kyoto targets.

Like Harper's Conservatives, Howard argued climate change requires the involvement of major polluters China, India and the United States in a new framework.

As for those massive uranium reserves shared by Canada and Australia, Howard warned that a proposed Global Nuclear Energy Partnership - while "laudably" seeking to curb nuclear proliferation - must not "work against the interests of countries such as Canada and Australia."

The three-day official visit - which included a private dinner at 24 Sussex Drive on Thursday night - marks a public recognition of the political affinities between Howard's Liberal-National coalition and Harper's Conservatives.
Political analysts say Harper's recent election platform was patterned on successful Howard prescriptions.

No surprisingly, the same types of opponents who target Howard in Australia are opposed to the Harper government.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers union on Thursday called the Howard visit an insult, saying the prime minister dismantled Australia's public service.

The environmental group Greenpeace also took the opportunity to denounce both Howard and Harper for embracing the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate as an alternative to Kyoto.

Greenpeace called the Asia-Pacific Partnership a non-binding fraud designed to help coal-producing countries dodge Kyoto commitments.

Their complaints aren't likely to move either Howard or Harper, who both appear to revel in combating political orthodoxy.

The Howard address recalls the last time Conservatives were in power in Ottawa under Brian Mulroney, when U.S. president Ronald Reagan and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher each twice addressed a joint session of Parliament.

The only other Australian prime minister to address Parliament was John Curtin on June 1, 1944.

MICHAEL McCAFFERTY COMMENTS:

I admire the Prime Minister of Australia. John Howard is an outstanding and remarkable leader for Australia.
I am pleased Prime Minister Howard has come to Canada for an official visit. He is truly an excellent world leader.