Look! Look!!!!! Look at me, how tough I am!!!!

Some people never really grow up.  They never reach that self-actualization zone where they know who they are, and are comfortable there.

They are the ones who buy expensive showy cars so that others will notice them.  Their sense of their own existence is determined as how they see themselves reflected in others eyes.  They constantly position themselves where they will be noticed, and their actions are meant to garner praise, admiration, and awe.

They feel real only when they believe they are affecting the lives of others.  They talk tough, like they are in control all the time, like they are a force to be reckoned with, like they are a man’s man.

Their language always gives them away.

"The entire planet has been able to witness that Canada is now a major actor when it's time to intervene in natural disasters," Harper said.

So is that why we are helping Haiti?  So the entire planet can witness our greatness?  The disaster, it seems, is but an opportunity for Stevo to flex the countries big, tough, muscles.

And tough we are, according to him.

The purchase and use of C-17 transport planes is an example of the "hard power" requirements of the type of relief work soldiers are now doing in Haiti, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said during a tour of the country.

We used to be wimps, he tells his audience (presumably the entire planet), back when those soft on everything Liberals ran the show.  Hell, even Canada’s policies were soft.

Harper said there was a "time when that kind of heavy-lift aircraft didn’t fit Canada’s soft power policies. But our government bought them for the hard power requirements of today’s world. Now we’re using them for relief work.

But fear not.  No longer will we be wimps in the eyes of the world.  Captain Everything is here to make sure of that.

"What is the moral of the story? To do soft power, you need hard power. You need a full range of capabilities."

I suspect, however, that Steve who has to be the centre of everything, all the time, is really trying to show Canadians, the world, the universe, and everything what a tough guy he is.  What a man’s man.

And they're all gonna look at him.

***more (and better stuff) here.  About Harper's lie in this matter, and an explanation of hard power and soft power.