Dion Launches Foreign Policy Attack

None of the three main parties have been blameless on Afghanistan. As the TOries point out it was the Liberals who got the Canadian involved in Kandahar. I expect that there were no objections by the Conservatives at the time. The NDP helped defeat a Liberal motion that would have forced the Conservatives to end the mission in 2009. The reason given was that the NDP wanted an immediate pullout. While it is true that is the NDP position the effect is to get the Conservatives off the hook.
The idea that the Conservatives blackmailed the opposition is hardly a proper description. It is simply that being elected rather than being principled is the aim of any mainstream party and that includes all of the four main Federal parties. Since none of the opposition parties wanted an election they simply would not do anything that would create an election call.
Dion is right that Harper and Bush are closer to being soul mates than Martin and Bush. Harper would have had Canadians dying in Iraq as well as Afghanistan. It is not just Harper though. Many on his team are just as bad.

Dion launches foreign-policy attack
Liberal Leader blasts Harper's 'ideological kinship' with Bush administration
CAMPBELL CLARK

From Friday's Globe and Mail

September 21, 2007 at 4:14 AM EDT

MONTREAL — Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion yesterday fired a series of sharp blasts at what he called the Conservative government's "mediocre," "simplistic," and "incompetent" handling of foreign affairs, as he outlined his own call for a staunchly made-in-Canada foreign policy less aligned with the U.S. course.

In an interview later, he insisted that it is up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to propose a post-2009 role for Canada in Afghanistan if he wants opposition support for some kind of mission there - and that he is open to discussions of a non-combat peacekeeping role.

Mr. Dion's broad indictment of Conservative foreign policy came one day after he personally took up the cause of accused terrorist Omar Khadr - and he again attacked the Tories as the only Western government that has failed to fight for the rights of its citizens imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.

This time, in a speech to a foreign-policy group in Montreal, Mr. Dion delivered a broader accusation that the Conservatives have drifted from the independent-minded, multilateral policies of previous governments to divisive U.S.-inspired actions that are not broadly supported by Canadians.

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"How can the Harper government's foreign policy have achieved such depths of mediocrity? Incompetence cannot be the only reason," he said.

"A deeper explanation seems to be an ideological kinship between the Harper government and the Bush administration. Mr. Harper has given Canada a foreign policy that draws its inspiration from the American right, a foreign policy that does little to advance Canada's interests."

Among his examples: that the Conservative government "insults China and absolves Colombia" of human-rights abuses "without doing anything whatsoever to advance the cause of human rights;" that it committed $30-billion for military-equipment spending that was often ordered without competitive bids and "was in many cases neither necessary nor wanted by the army;" and that it's a "government that plays no mediation role whatsoever, anywhere in the world."

Mr. Dion said that the government's decision to ignore the country's Kyoto Protocol obligations undermines Canada's credibility and will diminish its future influence in striking such a deal.

However, he said the Conservatives' worst blunder was its handling of the Afghanistan mission. The Tories "blackmailed" Parliament into extending the mission to 2009 under threat of an election before they obtained commitments from allies to play a greater role, and now the Tories are refusing to come clear on whether they want to extend the mission, he said.

"It's always worrisome when a politician constantly flip-flops, but when people's lives are at stake, it's inexcusable," Mr. Dion said.

The Conservatives responded that Mr. Dion was trying to distract from his own weak leadership, and charged that he did a flip-flop of his own because the Liberal cabinet he served in sent Canadian troops to Kandahar in the first place. "He helped put our troops in heavy combat," said Ottawa Tory MP Pierre Poilievre.

Mr. Dion said that if Mr. Harper notifies NATO allies that Canada will not extend its mission, then he can negotiate some other role and propose it to the other parties in the Commons.

"And it's for the government to come with leadership, and to say, this is what we have negotiated, with the premise that it's not a combat mission, and say this is what we are ready to do," Mr. Dion said in an interview.

All three opposition parties have threatened to vote against the Throne Speech that Mr. Harper's government is set to deliver Oct. 16 - which would defeat his government and trigger an election - over Canada's role in Afghanistan.

But Mr. Dion said that an appeal this week from Afghan President Hamid Karzai for Canadian troops to stay in the country shows that Mr. Harper has not been clear enough.

"The Prime Minister has not been clear, so we have President Karzai panicking, if I understand well," he said. "Replacement after three years in a military mission is normal practice in a multilateral body. And we need to know if NATO works."

With a report from The Canadian Press