The media coverage of the HMCS Vancouver setting sail to Libyan waters to relieve HMCS Charlottetown, which has been in action off the Libyan coast since March, underscores Mr Harper and his Conservatives lack of an ethical base.

Mr Harper justified the involvement of the Canadian military in Libya by stating that the Canadian military was there to ‘protect the Libyan people from Mr Gaddafi.

According to Mr Harper Mr Gaddafi killing citizens of Libya is such a grievous offence that military intervention by countries from around the world is required to put an end to this killing.

Conversely Mr Harper is perfectly fine with Canadian business (with the approval and support of the Canadian government) to kill Libyans and citizens of any other country by exporting asbestos – a substance whose use is banned in Canada because it causes death, cancer and asbestosis – profiting from the export of death.

Obviously Mr Gaddafi’s mistake was that he should have used Canadian asbestos to kill his victims; Mr Gaddafi’s sin lay in his failure to contribute to the profitability of the Quebec asbestos exports and thus to the electability of Mr Harper’s Conservatives in the province of Quebec.