U.S. TV viewers tuning into Obama speech will see PM Harper in unflattering ad

WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Stephen Harper will make a cameo appearance on an international stage Tuesday night — though it’s hardly one he would have chosen.

The prime minister will be cast in the villain’s role in an anti-Keystone XL pipeline ad airing during the broadcast of President Barack Obama’s state of the union address.

The ad is designed to build pressure from elements of Obama’s political base who want him to reject the pipeline, and it will be broadcast to the mostly left-leaning audience of the MSNBC network before and after the president’s speech.

Harper’s image appears at the beginning and the end of the ad.

It shows him shaking hands with the ex-premier of China, Wen Jiabao.

The message of the spot is that the proposed pipeline would benefit Chinese companies heavily invested in the oil sands far more than it would help ordinary American consumers.

The ad calls Keystone “a sucker-punch to America’s heartland.”