Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was accused Tuesday of plagiarizing a speech from Australian Prime Minister John Howard in a 2003 address in the Parliament calling for Canadian troops to be deployed to Iraq.

At a campaign appearance in Toronto, Liberal Party foreign affairs critic Bob Rae played video showing then prime minister Howard speaking to the Australian Parliament on March 18, 2003, alongside video of an address by Harper, at the time the leader of the Canadian Alliance, two days later in Ottawa.

Conservative leader and Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper gestures during a campaign stop in Farnham, Quebec, September 19, 2008. [Xinhua/Reuters Photo]

The two speeches, which the Liberals posted to their website, appear to have lengthy duplicate passages, according to a comparison of the two parliaments' Hansard transcripts, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported Tuesday.

In one segment, both leaders are heard saying:

"It is inherently dangerous to allow a country, such as Iraq, to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behavior. If the world community fails to disarm Iraq we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them."

The clips then jump to Howard saying: "As the possession of weapons of mass destruction spreads, so the danger of such weapons coming into the hands of terrorist groups will multiply. That is the ultimate nightmare which the world must take decisive and effective steps to prevent. Possession of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by terrorists would constitute a direct, undeniable and lethal threat to Australia and its people."

According to the Hansard transcripts, Harper said:

"As the possession of weapons of mass destruction spreads, the danger of such weapons coming into the hands of terrorist groups will multiply, particularly given in this case the shameless association of Iraq with rogue non-state organizations. That is the ultimate nightmare which the world must take decisive and effective steps to prevent. Possession of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by terrorists would constitute a direct, undeniable and lethal threat to the world, including to Canada and its people."

Immediately following the speech, then-Foreign Affairs minister Bill Graham praised Harper for his "thoughtful and powerful presentation of his party's case."

Rae called the apparent duplication "shocking," saying it reveals the ideological approach of the Harper government in shaping Canada's foreign policy.

"How does a political leader in Canada's Parliament, on such a crucial issue, in fact an issue that in many ways defined our foreign policy for a generation, end up giving the exact same speech as another country's leader?" Rae said. "Let alone one who was the key leader of George W. Bush's 'coalition of the willing.'"

Harper's spokesman Kory Teneycke dismissed the issue as irrelevant, saying the release of the video was an "act of desperation" from the Liberal campaign a day ahead of the first of the leaders' debates.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called for Harper to be expelled from the House of Commons over the affair, in which he said Harper "plagiarized George W. Bush about the Iraq war" in a telling way.

"It matters a lot, tremendously," he told reporters at a campaign stop in Gatineau, Que. "Canadians want that their country speak with its own voice on the world stage. It's true for the prime minister; it's true for the Opposition leader."

The revelation came as the party leaders were preparing for two televised debates later this week ahead of the Oct. 14 election.

(Xinhua News Agency October 1, 2008)