Where Were You in 1989? I know Where Michael and Stevie Were

I came across this old video of current Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, when he hosted a segment for BBC in 1989 called 'Three Minute Culture'. It's kind of silly and dated, but fun nonetheless.

The techno age had just moved into full swing and advertisers knew that it wasn't enough to just try to sell us something. They sought to create a 'need' for something they wanted us to buy, and used the new technologies to do it.

So we know in part what Michael Ignatieff was up to in 1989, but what was Stephen Harper doing at that time?

He was engaged in writing policy for the Reform Party, most of it apparently cribbed from the National Citizens Coalition Handbook.

He was an apt follower of 'White Nationalist' Peter Brimelow. In fact he was so enthralled with his book that he went out and bought ten copies for friends.

But more importantly, he was one of the founding members of the Northern Foundation, a group described as 'Extreme Right-Wing'. A vanguard for right-wing ideology, it became an umbrella group for race scientists, anglo-supremacists and neo-nazis. Harper was certainly not a neo-nazi but definitely extreme right-wing.

His passion appeared to be immigration issues and opposition to special privileges for Quebec, and while he claimed to have been kicked out of the group in 1991, I question why he would ever want to help start up such an organization in the first place.

I also don't believe he was as innocent as he claims. When it was revealed in the media that there were neo-nazis in the Reform Party, Harper and Preston Manning feigned surprise and immediately removed them. However, all verify that both men knew exactly who they were and what they stood for; a claim Harper denied.

One of the men evicted was Wolgang Droege. Seen in the photo leading a group of young people, he was leader of the Heritage Front.

The Front was one of the organizations under the Northern Foundation umbrella. I've actually created a timeline from a variety of newspaper accounts and books, that I'm going to post separately.

However, it would certainly appear that Stephen Harper knew Wolfgang quite well. In fact according to Frank Dabbs, author of Preston Manning: The Roots of Reform, "...self-described white-supremacist Wolfgang Droege (was) the party's policy chairman in Ontario." Harper was the party's policy chief.

He had to have known.

In researching Droege I found one comment about him rather chilling. It stated that he had a knack for bringing in young people. Look at the face of the boy behind him, who appears to be marching in a goose step. If you ever wondered what hatred looked like, wonder no more.

However, since the Reform Conservatives seem to be intent on drumming up old tapes and things of Mr. Ignatieff, maybe they should have cleaned out their own closet first, because it would appear their leader may have left a few things behind.

I'd rather have silly and dated than the baggage of helping to found the Northern Foundation.