The Globe and Mail features an article today arguing that there are significant divisions within the Liberal Party over the Party’s response to Israel’s attacks inside Lebanon. I suspect that this is mostly a case of a reporter finding a select view individuals with views outside the mainstream and protraying them as a greater movement than they truely are.
The Jewish community tends to be amongst the most socially liberal ones in Canada. I can’t imagine that they would consider shifting their support over to the Conservative Party because of this.
Article: Is Jewish support for Liberals eroding?
It looks like the National Child Care Plan may be beyond salvaging. The Premiers are no longer interested in putting forward the issue or even engaging in dialogue with child-care advocates. Apparently trying to gain support for a national child-care plan would distract from the Premiers’ ability to get more money from the Federal government with no strings attached. This is a rather shameful display.
Article: Premiers rebuff child-care advocates
It appears that Michael Ignatieff’s views on the Israeli-Lebanon conflict are a little more complex than his column in yesterday’s Globe would indicate. Without the benefit of a campaign team to vet his remarks, a bit of the unvarnished truth came out when he spoke to Star Reporters:
Ignatieff said it would have been too early to push for a ceasefire last week because “it was very important for Israel to send Hezbollah a very clear message” that kidnapping soldiers and firing rockets on Israel will not be tolerated.
“A ceasefire on the Israeli side becomes logical for Israel when it has achieved its military objectives and when it reaches the point of diminishing returns, and that is the point we’ve reached now,” he explained.
He was asked if a turning point came when Israel bombed the Lebanese village of Qana on Sunday, with 54 civilian deaths, 37 of them children.
“It wasn’t Qana,” replied Ignatieff, formerly head of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. “Qana was, frankly, inevitable, in a situation in which you have rocket-launchers within 100 yards of a civilian population. This is the nature of the war that’s going on.
“This is the kind of dirty war you’re in when you have to do this and I’m not losing sleep about that.”
So Ignatieff was essentially entirely in line with the Conservative party’s position until yesterday morning? While Harper describes Israel’s actions as a measured response, Ignatieff provides the same cover by describing the death of 37 children as “inevitable” and something that he’s “not losing sleep about”.
I’ve been relatively open to Ignatieff despite his hawkish foreign policy (and strange disappearance) but it’s becoming harder and harder to separate his views from those of the Neo-Cons. It’s going to be interesting to see if he doesn’t start seeing supporters slowly slip away to candidates that are in line with the the Liberal Party’s position on these issues.
Article: Rae criticizes Liberal rival for delay
I’m behind the pack in responding to Ignatieff’s article in the Globe and Mail today, but really, there’s not a whole lot to say. As everyone else has already said, it’s pretty well in line with every other candidate–just two weeks later.
The bigger story, which no one seems to have picked up on (I apologize if anyone has and I missed it) is that Ignatieff appears to have a supporter highly placed within the offices of the Globe and Mail. What else could possibly this front page article by Jane Taber that entirely consists of quotes from Ignatieff’s column reported as news, with no additional significant information? If Ignatieff was staking out new territory with his positions, or at least writing something memorable, perhaps there would have been a purpose for the piece. Instead, it only serves to maximize the amount of space dedicated to him in the paper.
The article may have done him a disservice however, because it grossly mischaracterizes his position:
He [Ignatieff] suggests that if Canada lines up with the Europeans and moderate Arab states in calling for a ceasefire, “Israeli forces would withdraw, aerial bombardment would cease and Hezbollah would stop rocket attacks and incursions into Israeli territory.”
Ignatieff suggests no such thing. He states that:
It [the Canadian government] should call for an immediate ceasefire, authorized by the United Nations Security Council. It should line up with the Europeans and moderate Arab states issuing the same call. Under such a ceasefire deal, Israeli forces would withdraw, aerial bombardment would cease, and Hezbollah would stop rocket attacks and incursions into Israeli territory.
Big difference. As Taber characterizes Ignatieff’s view, if only Canada says the magic words the conflict would suddenly stop and peace could be had. Only an idiot would believe that. If I hadn’t read his actual column I would have been left with the impression that Ignatieff lives in a fool’s paradise.
With friends like these…
Article: Ignatieff criticizes Harper, suggests immediate ceasefire
Article: Canada can help stop this march to the abyss
It looks like our friends down south are getting a little less friendly to Canadian workers. From now on, Canadians who regularly cross the border into the US will be fingerprinted and photographed each time they cross. If that seems a little, well, unwelcoming, maybe we’re just misunderstanding the policy. Please, humanize this a little bit for us so we don’t feel like suspected criminals:
“Processing these Canadian citizens biometrically through US-VISIT will ensure parity with other aliens applying for admission to the United States, and increase security,” the department said in its proposed rule, published in the Federal Register.
Sorry America, I’m not feeling the love. Aliens? Aliens? I know that’s the technical lingo you guys use, but can’t you call us something that doesn’t immediately invoke an image of hostiles invading your country? Someday Americans perhaps?
Article: U.S. planning to fingerprint Canadian workers
I came across this post about the conflict in Lebanon today that is an absolute must read. I hadn’t heard of Michael Totten before, and he appears to lean towards the conservative side of the spectrum, but the piece itself is non-ideological and deeply sympathetic to the Lebanese people. A sample:
I spent a total of seven months in Lebanon recently, and I never could quite figure out what prevented the country from flying apart into pieces. It barely held together like unstable chemicals in a nitro glycerin vat. The slightest ripple sent Lebanese scattering from the streets and into their homes. They were far more twitchy than I, in part (I think) because they understood better than I just how precarious their civilized anarchy was. Their country needed several more years of careful nurturing during peace time to fully recover from its status as a carved up failed state.
By bombing all of Lebanon rather than merely the concentrated Hezbollah strongholds, Israel is putting extraordinary pressure on Lebanese society at points of extreme vulnerability. The delicate post-war democratic culture has been brutally replaced, overnight, with a culture of rage and terror and war.
…
Disarming Hezbollah through persuasion and consensus was not possible in the first year of Lebanon’s independence. Disarming Hezbollah by force wasn’t possible either. The Lebanese people have been called irresponsible and cowardly by some of their friends in America for refusing to resume the civil war. Unlike Hezbollah, though, most Lebanese know better than to start unwinnable wars. This is wisdom, not cowardice, and it’s sadly rare in the Arab world now. They are being punished entirely too much for what they have done and for what they can’t do.
The comments section contains one of the more informed debates I’ve seen run through comments in a while, although it’s of course punctuated by the ubiquitous right-wing boobs who see everything except Israel’s and America’s military actions as the problem. Buried in the comments section was
Blog Post: Lebanon’s Premature Liberalism
Article: God’s army has plans to run the whole Middle East
I’ve only posted a little bit about Israel’s military action in Lebanon because I’d like to focus on domestic politics, but it’s hard to avoid the conflict when Canadians keep dying there.
This morning’s papers featured Harper’s unconcerned reaction to the killing of a Canadian soldier after Israel bombed a UN outpost just inside the Lebanese border. I found it completely bizarre that his first instinct was to question why International Observers were present at the post rather than why in the hell Israel bombed them. He might as well have questioned why Canadian families would vacation somewhere that Israel might want to bomb in response to the earlier attack.
I thought Harper was less crazy after reading this story in the Ottawa Citizen describing how the UN post had been used by Hezbollah as cover for rocket attacks into Israel. But regardless, Israel knew that UN observers were working there, and if they wanted to attack that location they should have ordered them to evacuate before launching air strikes in the area. Canada deserves an apology for this tragedy, and our Prime Minister should demand it.
Article: Harper demands answers on UN death
Article: Hezbollah was using UN post as ’shield’
This is an issue that should concern all bloggers regardless of political affiliation. Unfortunately, corporations are all too willing to take advantage of laws intended to protect individuals to engage in legal assaults against those whose freedoms they’d like to suppress. Canada needs to update its laws to ensure that freedom of speech isn’t litigated away.
I wish I was in Toronto to help support this cause. Hopefully Jeff Jedras will keep us up to date with how this goes.
Blog Post: Libel chill in the Canadian blogsphere?
Thanks Jimmy K, but I think you’ve already done enough to reduce the Leadership race into farce. If you become a candidate, I fear that people won’t be able to distinguish the race from a feature in The Onion.
Article : Karygiannis looks at Liberal leadership run
I’m really impressed by this article by Dion in today’s Toronto Star. He takes a strong stand against the separatists and tears apart their arguments by highlighting their hypocrisy. Too few politicians are willing to engage directly with the separatists and instead give vague pronouncements about why Canada is wonderful. I think Canada is wonderful, but by ducking the substance of the separatists’ arguments it barely serves to help the cause of Canadian nationalism.
I think Dion deserves some significant praise for this piece.
Article: Frank talk needed on national unity
I’m half-and-half on Linda McQuaig. I agree with her on occaision, but often I find her far too over the top to take seriously. However, I think she’s right on the money with this article in the Toronto Star on Harper’s response to Israel’s attack on Lebanon. I can’t believe that our government has tripped over itself to jump to the defense of Israel given the amount of destruction it has caused in that country. She makes clear that obtaining a cease-fire should be our government’s priority in order to minimize the risk to the 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon and to allow us to safely transport home those who need to be evacuated.
PM did not do enough to protect Canadians, says Linda McQuaig
There’s a really good profile of Kennedy in today’s Toronto Star. I’m not sure that he’s going to win the party leadership, but I think he’s more likely to take it than anyone else. Everyone seems to like him no matter what camp they’re in, and I think he’s more likely to pick up new delagates after the first ballot than any other candidate except perhaps for Dion. Along with the the strength he’s shown in signing up new Liberals (which is quite good, although somewhat overstated) he might very well pull it off.
Article: Gerard Kennedy suddenly on everyone’s radar screen
Hopefully this is the last nail in the coffin for Volpe’s campaign. He’s been a thorn in our side the entire Liberal Leadership race, and I’d love to see him out of it. Even if he stays in (which seems far too likely) this should strike quite a blow to his ability to play kingmaker, since the word is that Karygiannis has control over a lot of the people that were signed up in Volpe’s name.
Article: Volpe campaign chief resigns
