Stephen Harper uses Prince Charles's line

In fairness, I very much doubt that Harper intended to steal the Prince's thunder -- my guess is a speech writer took the Prince's (great) quote and didn't realize the Prince was going to use it himself. And nobody did a joint review of both speeches (that's sloppy). So the "boner" is accidental...

DiManno: As royals arrive, PM lacks tact, Jean is too tactile
Stephen Harper uses Prince Charles's line while Governor General gets a little familiar

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/720167

By Rosie DiManno Columnist
Published On Tue Nov 3 2009

ST. JOHN'S, NFLD. — The Royal We were not amused. That would be the Prince of Wales, in particular, scooped on his own best line by the Prime Minister of Canada.

Yes, Stephen Harper committed a boner on Monday night by, well, plagiarizing a part of the speech that Prince Charles had prepared for delivery at Mile One Stadium. Either that or it was one helluva coincidence.

See, this isn't rocket science. When touring royals deliver prepared comments on these gigs, they routinely submit the speeches in advance for vetting, lest they put their foot in it and say something controversial or actually worth quoting.

For Charles, this time around, there was a quoting-of-self reference to remarks he'd made on an earlier trip to Canada. As written in the speech distributed to reporters: "When I was here many, many years ago, I remember saying, `Every time I come to Canada ... a little more of Canada seeps into my bloodstream – and from there straight to my heart."

Except Harper, first at the microphone, had just resurrected that exact sentence, leaving Charles, a few minutes later, to ad lib scramble: "I was going to say," blah-blah-blah, "but he got there before I did." Then he turned and stared pointedly at Harper.