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In an aircraft hangar in Kuwait on Sunday, Stephen Harper spoke from the prime ministerial lectern, the one emblazoned with the Canadian coat of arms.

In front of him, dressed in combat fatigues, stood the pilots and support crews deployed there for the Canadian mission against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. Behind him were two CF-18s parked at diagonal angles, and between them was a large Canadian flag.

In a sense — per the infamous Justin Trudeau quote — Harper was whipping out our CF-18s and showing how big they are.

His staff then posted the image to Harper’s Twitter feed with the message: “I’m here to show our unconditional support for the troops and the mission they’ve accepted on behalf of our country.”

Earlier, Harper had breakfast with the troops, and dropped a puck at a game of floor hockey. “Honoured to have had breakfast with Canadian troops at Camp Canada in Kuwait,” Harper tweeted. “Canada is proud and thankful for their service.”

Harper then paid a courtesy call on the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. There’s an image of that on his Twitter account as well, for the information of his 783K followers.

How’s your day so far, Prime Minister?

On Friday Harper had flown out of Ottawa, supposedly en route to the Netherlands, to join in ceremonies and celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of V-Day and the end of the Second World War in Europe.

But his Airbus diverted instead to Baghdad for an unannounced visit to Iraq.

In Baghdad’s Green Zone, Harper was greeted with military honours and met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi, before meeting semi-autonomous Kurdish leaders in Erbil in northern Iraq, where nearly 70 members of the Canadian special forces are training Kurdish peshmerga troops. He also toured a Canadian concrete pre-fab plant, where the host gave him a Habs jersey. Then Harper went out to within a few kilometres of the Kurdish front against ISIS, with the PM’s photographer and video unit recording it all.

These images and announcements were all very awkward for the opposition parties, both of which voted against extending the mission against ISIS in Iraq and expanding it to Syria. These images and announcements were all very awkward for the opposition parties, both of which voted against extending the mission against ISIS in Iraq and expanding it to Syria.

Welcome to Campaign 2015.

Harper was also understandably reminded by reporters travelling with him of the death two months ago of Sgt. Andrew Doiron in a friendly fire incident with Kurds near the front. Harper stated the obvious, that it was “a terrible tragedy,” but refused to play the blame game with the Kurds who, he said, had done a remarkable job of liberating a large part of northern Iraq in a short period of time.

While he was in Iraq, Harper announced $139 million in Canadian aid to Iraq, Syria and Jordan, in addition to $67 million previously committed. For opposition critics asking that Canada do more on the aid front and less on the military mission, this was Harper’s way of saying shut up.

These images and announcements were all very awkward for the opposition parties, both of which voted against extending the mission against ISIS in Iraq and expanding it to Syria.

The NDP, with its pacifist base, wasn’t going to vote for it anyway. But Tom Mulcair had rational cover in saying the mission was neither sanctioned by the UN, as Operation Desert Storm was in liberating Kuwait in 1991, nor was it a NATO operation as was Libya in 2011. Never mind that the Americans, the British and the French, historically Canada’s three strongest allies, are all involved in the mission. At least Mulcair’s position is logically sustainable.

The Liberal position is that they oppose the mission but support the troops, which has proved difficult for Justin Trudeau to explain, and left his party somewhat divided.

The visuals and messaging from Harper’s tour of Iraq, and visit with Canadian troops in Kuwait, obviously reinforced his ownership of the pro-mission side of the debate. He’s for it, and the other two guys are splitting the vote against it.

Harper’s excellent adventure will continue in the Netherlands. He’ll be joining Canadian veterans in their 80s and 90s, who will be cheered to the echo. Some of them have already flown in with Laureen Harper, who served them snacks on the plane. On Sunday they joined her and Veterans’ Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole in a ceremony at the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, where more than 2,300 Canadians are buried. Some 7,600 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the liberation of the Netherlands.

This is why, 70 years after war’s end, Canadians still can’t pay for their own drinks in the Netherlands.

Events and incumbency can converge in ways that confer comparative advantage, as they have for Harper in recent days. Last Thursday, for example, he and former prime minister Brian Mulroney spoke graciously and with obvious affection for Pierre-Claude Nolin at the Senate speaker’s funeral in Montreal. It was a state funeral in all but name, and the nave of Notre-Dame Cathedral is a uniquely splendid venue.

Sometimes, words and occasions work for the incumbent alone.

L. Ian MacDonald is editor of Policy, the bi-monthly magazine of Canadian politics and public policy. He is the author of five books. He served as chief speechwriter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1985-88, and later as head of the public affairs division of the Canadian Embassy in Washington from 1992-94. The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.