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Stephen Harper has made much of his “principled” foreign policy and his refusal to “go along to get along.”

All of which made events at the Summit of the Americas in Panama all the more remarkable. It looks like Canada’s anemic economic growth has diluted those principles with a healthy dose of pragmatism.

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Harper had been steadfast in opposition to Cuba being allowed to attend gatherings of the Organization of American States because it is not a democracy.

In a revealing Freudian slip, the prime minister admitted he’s changed his mind — which, of course, means the government as a whole has shifted course.

“I have become convinced, our government has become convinced, that we are at a point in the hemisphere … where engagement is more likely to lead us to where we want to go than continued isolation,” he told journalists.

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From a man whose government is in the process of erecting a Victims of Communism memorial in Ottawa, this position must have been reached after some soul-searching.