Canadian politics is nowhere as exciting as American politics. Occasionally something interesting happens in the news.
PM Harper has finally decided to go to Copenhagen climate change conference after the premier of China and the US president announced they were going. Even then Harper won’t arrive until near the end of the conference.
Cool story, bro.
The Harper government’s environmental policies have tarnished Canada’s reputation in the world, mainly because of the oilsands in Alberta.
On a related note, Greenpeace activists climbed up two of the buildings on Parliament Hill to display protest banners about Canada’s environmental policy failings. This was a serious security breach despite the presence of the RCMP and cameras on the Hill. (The public, including protesters, have relatively open access to Parliament Hill)
I think the Richard Colvin/detainee abuse thing has the possibility of being interesting. As the leaking accelerates, the Conservatives have been contorting their denials to fit the new facts. I think it’s very likely that Peter Mackay will be caught in a direct lie if the pace of disclosure continues; it will be interesting to see if there’s any real political fallout for the Conservatives. Some Conservative rhetoric in the House has been pretty shitty, along the lines of “you’re hurting the troops by discussing the possibility that we’ve been deliberately misleading Canadians about the nature of the mission.” I think the fact that there’s a definite end to the Afghan commitment is likely to dampen public response, however. Even if we have been consorting with a completely corrupt security apparatus, and even if we’ve been lied to over and over again by military officers and politicians over the real nature of the insurgency and the conduct of our erstwhile allies, our failure to accomplish the mission will be the Afghans’ problem past 2011, so who gives a fuck? I think this apathy is interesting. We just went through the Remembrance Day theatre of every public personality going to pains to emphasize how much they support the troops. However, when it comes down to a candid discussion of the mission that the troops are risking their lives to accomplish, people suddenly aren’t interested.
It’s also possible that this issue will have resonance as a symbol for the PMO’s comfort with shutting down debate through ad hominems. The fact that 20+ diplomats have come out of retirement to denounce the Conservatives’ framing of the Colvin testimony is a clear indication that the Conservatives don’t have the horses in the establishment to run Colvin through the mud. It’s possible that Richard Colvin is a critic of convenience per Christie Blatchford’s columns, but as one of those diplomats said, you’d have to be “hopelessly naive” not to believe that Canadians were handing detainees over to torture.
Yesterday, the Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Walter Natynczyk, did a 180 on his position that Canadian forces didn’t hand any suspected Taliban prisoners to Afghan forces while knowing they would be tortured during interrogation. This change in his stance came when an officer who was in Afghanistan turned up a document about an alleged al Qaeda suspect, which the Canadian troops had taken a “before” id photo just in case he would be beaten up by the Afghan police.
But the sergeant also wrote that the man was photographed “prior to handing him over, to ensure that if the [Afghan National Police] did assault him, as has happened in the past, we would have a visual record of his condition.”
I can’t believe the generals and the Conservative government have been saying that they were 100% that the captured suspects weren’t tortured. Afghanistan is one of the most corrupt places in the world. Their refusal to acknowledge about prisoner abuse is making Canada look naive at best.
The Globe and Mail has an editorial on how PM Harper has pretty much has the power to do anything he wants through bullying. He no longer needs a majority government.
Out of curiosity - one of the things I’m always wondering is if the politics in other nations is as fucked up as politics in the US. Does anyone know of any good political blogs for Canada, the UK, etc that would give me a decent picture of what it’s like over there?
Or is the US just uniquely awful amongst developed nations?
Blogs tend to be bias.
I find that the CBC tends to be decent and fair (even though it is a Crown corporation (owned by the government) it is not influenced by the government, much like PBS) in its political coverage.
The Globe and Mail is the oldest surviving newspapers and is moderate.
The National Post is the right leaning national newspaper of Canada.
Overall, Canadians tend to be moderates. That’s why the Liberal Party, who despite their name are moderates in the Canadian political spectrum, have been in power the longest in federal politics. The left-wing New Democrat Party (NDP) have never held power on the federal level. The Conservative Party usually only come into power when Canadians feel they need to punish the Liberals and kick them out of office (this is how the current Conservative government came and have stayed in power).
I don’t mind bias at all - I just want to get a feel for the politics. Is it as absurd and incoherent as it is here in the US, with people making blatantly ridiculous statements?
We don’t have a Sarah Palin analog, thankfully, if that’s what you mean.
Canadian politicians in general don’t make as blatant ridiculous statements like American politicians. I think the big reason why is because Canadians really don’t give a shit about superficial things like “family values” – a politician’s sex life (extra-marital affairs or sexual preference) or religious views rarely if ever comes into play during elections. We want to know their views on policies.
And our news media are different. Fox News and opinionated talking heads like O’Reilly are alien to us. We watch the news for facts not opinions. If we want opinions, we watch Don Cherry on Hockey Night in Canada.
Does Canadian media have the same deference to authority you see in US media?
For instance, Joe Lieberman has said some patently false things about the healthcare reform bill currently slogging its way through the Senate. Yet none of the major media outlets call him on this - it falls to partisan blogs to point out that the things he says are simply false.
And that’s not just the partisan media outlets like Fox News - it’s everyone, from the major networks to the cable channels.
I think the Canadian mainstream media (CBC, CTV, Global TV, etc.) do call out the government and individual politicians when they lie or not tell the truth.
Right now the Conservative government have said they did not believe that any of the alleged Taliban/al Qaeda fighters captured by Canadian troops in Afghanistan were tortured after being handed over to Afghan forces.
A high ranking Canadian diplomat had been sending memos to generals and the government for the past three years and now the government, in order to save face, have blacked out copies of his emails to the opposition party and the media, citing national security. This despite a report by a Canadian sergeant dating back three years ago saying that the Canadian forces photographed an arrested detainee before he was handed over to the Afghans, just in case he was abused (because of the reputation of the Afghans for doing so). And he was.
The prime minister has openly admitted he has no love for the media. It is a Canadian tradition of scrums where tv reporters swarm MPs as they leave meetings on Parliament Hill. Harpe has demanded they be X distance away from him and his ministers.
Well, a lot of other countries have unicameral systems, simple majority requirements and strongly enforced party discipline. I’m sure you can guess some of the consequences.
Yes, Harper is from Alberta (where a good chunk of Canada’s oil, natural gas, oilsands and beef are located) and a born-again Christian.
The current Conservative Party that he leads is the successor to the Canadian Alliance (which was the Reform Party previously, a regional Western Canadian very right-wing party, with accusations of intolerance towards immigrants and Quebec) and the Progressive Conservative Party (a right of center party that was more economic conservative than social conservative). The PC Party “died” in the mid-90s after they were nearly wiped out with just two seats in Parliament 1993. It was dissolved in 2003 when it merged with the Canadian Alliance since it was decided that two conservative-based parties would be splitting the vote.
Harper rules his party and his government with an iron fist. Whereas in previous governments, the PM allowed his ministers to run their ministries, it seems like everything has to go through the PM’s Office first. Despite having only a minority government (having less than 50% of the seats in Parliament) he more-or-less refuses to work with the opposition party and is always on the offensive, such as releasing mudslinging attack ads at the other party leaders (when there’s no election).
Harper is very pro-oil and has been resisting any attempts to reduce Canada’s carbon emissions, especially from Alberta’s oilsands. As such, he wasn’t planning to attend Copenhagen until Obama and the Chinese premier announced they were going.
I think that’s McGuinty you are thinking of.
You’re right. I stand corrected.
One of the things I admire most about Canadian politics and the media is Question Period. There’s nothing quite like it down here.
What other country has a system like the US?