The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #114078   Message #2435510
Posted By: Ed T
09-Sep-08 - 03:28 PM
Thread Name: BS: Canadian Federal Election
Subject: RE: BS: Canadian Federal Election
Sorry, it does not seem to link

Here it is:

The more you know: Harper would rather be a fruit than a vegetable
Posted: September 09, 2008, 12:20 PM by Chris Boutet
Canadian Election, Conservatives

Would anyone other than Stephen Harper himself describe himself as "sweet and colourful"? We doubt it, but it makes for great election copy during the afternoon slowdown. From Canwest's Andrew Mayeda:

WINNIPEG — For the record, Stephen Harper would rather be a fruit than a vegetable.

At the end of a news conference Tuesday at the warehouse of a Winnipeg vegetable supplier, the Conservative leader faced his oddest question yet on the campaign tour.

"If you were a vegetable, what type of vegetable would you be and why?" asked a local reporter for CITY-TV, inciting laughter from the crowd of party supporters and journalists.

Harper, standing in front of boxes of potatoes, carrots, cabbages and cauliflower, initially seemed stumped.

He paused and looked at the boxes of vegetables stacked behind him. For a moment, it appeared that he might fumble the response.

"I, um . . . You know, I really don't know how to answer that one," Harper said, scratching his head. "I've never been asked that question before and I have a feeling that I can't win by answering that question."

But then the prime minister offered this response.

"Let me say this, I would choose, if I had to instead, to be a fruit: just what I am, sweet and colourful."

The Conservatives have sought to soften Harper's image at the outset of the campaign, launching a series of ads portraying him as an average guy and family man.

In past public appearances, the prime minister has sometimes appeared stiff and robotic, but senior officials say that, privately, Harper has a sharp, dry sense of humour.