Further to Sinister Greg's post here I present Lorne Gunter's latest column.
This tepid support is not solely the fault of squishy anti-war types such as Layton, though.The previous Liberal government is somewhat to blame. While they courageously committed our troops' to their current mission, they did so without much public discussion. They hoped to get away with doing the right thing without having to take a political hit from their own party's peacenik wing.
Which leaves the task of building popular support to the new Conservative government. It should start by allowing a Parliamentary debate on the operation -- as Layton himself is now demanding.
It is reluctant to do this for fear of losing such a debate while our men and women are in danger in the field. But they needn't worry. Ordinary Canadians are more sensible than that. With the situation explained properly, in Parliament, a strong majority will rally behind our troops.
I think that Greg Bester and Lorne Gunter are right but I don't think the CPC is going to follow their advice. The NDP has taken to using the troops in Afghanistan to score cheap political points. As long as their Foreign Affairs critic Alex McDonough describes Afghanistan as part of "George Bush's foreign adventures" there can be no intelligent debate. I hope that Mr. Gunter is correct above but I doubt that the CPC will want to re-open this issue until after the 9-month lead position is completed.
Comments (2)
It’s more likely that Harper doesn’t want to schedule a debate until after Parliament opens, and after the new budget is read into the record. Public agenda priorities, you see.
Posted by PhantomObserver | March 6, 2006 11:22 AM
Posted on March 6, 2006 11:22
I think the debate should start in Sept/Oct regarding renewing our commitment. To debate the existing one serves no purpose. If the CPC “lose” the debate (whether it’s a take note or voted debate) we still have to live up to our commitment, but what does that say to the people we’ve sent there?
We are committed for the next nine months. Period.
Let’s first of all allow the ‘testing’ period (where the Taliban terrorists push to see how far they can go, & watch our media for reaction) to end & hopefully a bit of settling down (perhaps I’m just naive), and then look at it once we’ve been in command for a while.
It makes much more sense all around. Which is why Jack won’t go there.
Posted by Candace | March 7, 2006 1:44 AM
Posted on March 7, 2006 01:44