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Is Stephen Harper's Guns N' Roses performance all part of a conspiracy?

Canadian music scenesters, rally your pitchforks: The prime minister has forsaken us for another.

When Prime Minister Stephen Harper took to the keyboard at a Conservative Christmas party Tuesday evening, one might think he would tinkle out a ditty from a Canadian talent.

Maybe a Tragically Hip tune, or something from Guess Who's catalogue?

Instead, he celebrated the work of ardent American band Guns N' Roses, turning his back on Canadian content.

Should we be perhaps taking his song selection as having a deeper, more sinister meaning?

Harper took to the stage at the annual Christmas party and sang for the crowd along with his band, the Van Cats.

According to the Toronto Star, Harper played keyboard and sang several songs, by Buddy Holly, the Beatles, Johnny Cash and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – none of whom come from Canada.

But it was his encore that captured the most attention: "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses.

Time to bust out the old crazy wall and make some conspirational leaps in logic!

It's right there in the band name. Not roses, but guns.

One of the Conservative government's most contentious battles has been over the country's gun laws, specifically the killing of the long gun registry – the revival of which has recently been promised by NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair.

Then there is the band's famous lead singer, Axl Rose, an outspoken former icon who has in the past celebrated his American heritage. Of the loudest fashion statements Rose made in his decades-long career, few were louder than his infamous American-flag jacket, or the stars-and-stripes undershorts he wore on stage during the band's 1991 Rock in Rio appearance.

Could Harper have been wearing similar garb under his all-black ensemble?

And need we remind you that Rose was born in Indiana – which has long been a Republican stronghold that heavily supported Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.

Is this a warning shot at President Barack Obama, who this week was critical of the Keystone XL pipeline project and its benefit to Canada?

Will Obama take Harper's performance personally? (Reuters)
Will Obama take Harper's performance personally? (Reuters)

And then there's the song itself. "Sweet Child O' Mine," which was released well before Guns N' Roses’ late-career dip into political protest music. Rose has said the tone of the 1980 hard rock anthem was inspired by Lynyrd Skynyrd – the face of southern American pride.

The clever song selection could simultaneously be criticizing America's Democratic leadership while pledging support to the country as a whole. The song is from the album "Appetite for Destruction," after all, and Canada recently followed the U.S. military into a bombing operation in Iraq.

The lyrics to "Sweet Child O' Mine" were said to be written about Rose's girlfriend at the time. Could this be a message of love that really speaks to the value of Harper's income-splitting proposal?

There are simply too many strings not to follow. Too many possibilities that could explain why Harper elected not to play a Canadian song as an encore, when he knew the country would be listening.

This all comes, notably, shortly after the Canadian Football League's Grey Cup championships. While it is an affair intended to be high on Canadiana, this year they decided to invite American band Imagine Dragons to play the half-time show.

Is the Imagine Dragons performance at the Grey Cup showing another lack of Can-Con respect? (CP)
Is the Imagine Dragons performance at the Grey Cup showing another lack of Can-Con respect? (CP)

While these band choices seem unrelated, what if they aren't? What if they are part of a subliminal message to Canada’s arts scene? Shape up or ship out?

Or maybe Harper just chose to sing a jam he knew how to play on the keyboard, and one he knew would pump up the crowd.

But how likely is that?