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Monday Aug 14 2006 |
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THE
FAKE CANADIAN DEBATE ON MIDDLE EAST
by
Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
If
Canadian politicians believe that the posturing on the Middle East crisis
will help them in the next federal election, they better stop and think
again.
Foreign politics has never been a factor in a Canadian election.
The war between Israel and Lebanon is the most serious in the
region in years and it’s having a major impact on the political debate in
Canada, but whatever Canada has to say about it, it will have no impact on
the final outcome of a solution.
Posturing by political leaders is only a cheap way to score
points against a political opponent in Canada and the politicians are wrong
to do this.
Let me elaborate.
From an international political perspective, the Canadian
position, since former PM Lester Pearson’s involvement in the crisis, is
just statistical.
There will always be wars in the world and countries fighting
against each other. In order to end these wars, countries not involved in
the conflict must intervene and, eventually with the help of international
organizations, each country will sit at the same table and find a solution.
It is only at that point that Canada is called in to offer peace
keeping troops to keep a peace we did not help to reach. But even at this
point we are very selective: we want to be peace keepers until peace is
there on its own. As soon as there is a conflict, we want out. The situation
in Afghanistan is very symptomatic: we were there when we thought the
conflict was over; now that the events are becoming complicated, we want our
troops out. Basically we are like a police organization that enforces a law
that has been written by others, with a caveat: until there is a robbery at
a bank. At that point we should call in the army.
So, where we do stand on international issues? We are neutral
and only work within the U.N. position until peace is shaky and we want out
and want the big boys in.
That’s why the entire debate amongst politicians in Canada about
the Middle East crisis makes me laugh.
I suspect we preach neutrality only because we don’t have a
foreign policy. Up until the Second World War, our foreign policies were
borrowed from Great Britain; after that, we were only concerned about our
independence and, when we have it, we don’t know what to do with it.
So, what should Canada’s foreign policy be? Well, I’m glad we
are no longer piggybacking on Great Britain. I hope soon we will stop
believing that bashing the Americans is our foreign policy solution.
Canada is strong enough to agree or disagree with everybody,
including the White House.
The only thing we cannot afford is a fake neutrality because it
looks more and more like a copout.
This is true especially now that the ethnocultural diversity of
our population catapults us into every international conflict: whether it’s
terrorism, territorial dispute or even the events of a soccer World Cup. We
have ethnocultural groups defending the interests of their home country, not
necessarily those of Canada, and the Canadian politicians, always concerned
about the ethnic vote, fail to present a position that is in the best
interest of all Canadians.
So what we have at the present time in Canada is a fake debate
amongst our political leaders trying to score points internally.
One last point: if Canadian politicians believe that the
posturing on the Middle East dispute will help them in the next election,
they better stop and think again. Foreign politics has never been a factor
in a Canadian election: economy and trust are.
Former U.S. president F.D. Roosevelt once said, “put a dollar
in their pocket and the Americans are ready to swear that they have never
heard about Marx, Hitler and Mussolini and even Jesus Christ. At the most
they pray to him on Sundays. All the others do not matter at all. “ But, of
course, we are not Americans.
Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney were crushed by both the
economy and the public trust. It was the same with their predecessors as
well as with their successors.
In fact with Paul Martin and Jean Chrétien, the economy was
booming, yet they were voted out because they lost Canadians’ trust. This
happened even though the Liberals voted against the war in Iraq, in favour
of the Kyoto Protocol and developing world-friendly politics.
Not even Mr. Bono was able to save Martin from the sponsorship
scandal.
The bottom line is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not
win or lose the next election because of his stand on the Middle East. He
has to be very careful about taking care of the economy and not losing the
trust of the Canadian people.
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