Plagiarism is ok: not in academia, but in politics!

So, the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper, is the latest in a long line of politicians who have used other people's ideas without acknowledging that they borrowed those ideas. We academics call that plagiarism, but apparently the practice is par for the pols.
A Canadian columnist writes in the Toronto Star:

Academics and journalists are particularly conscious of this sin. When Rae says that Harper might have been expelled from university for stealing someone else's words, he's right.
But politicians – unlike students – regularly borrow without attribution. Indeed, given that few practising politicians write their own speeches, most are guilty of intellectual theft.

Oh well!