In an alternate universe
With apologies to Pericles and Robert
Heinlein
The thick envelope on the kitchen table bore the arms of Canada. The return address was that of the Speaker of the House of Commons. I wondered if I was about to be drafted. It sat there while I cleaned up the remains of breakfast and made another pot of coffee.
The thick envelope on the kitchen table bore the arms of Canada. The return address was that of the Speaker of the House of Commons. I wondered if I was about to be drafted. It sat there while I cleaned up the remains of breakfast and made another pot of coffee.
The courier had left 20 minutes ago, after
getting my signature and thumbprint on his receipt. He’d mentioned that
today was the third attempt to deliver this particular package and that if I
hadn’t answered the door the police would have been notified. I admitted
that I’d failed to file a travel notice and had just returned from two
weeks of camping, off the net. It’s August after all!
No problem he replied. It’s guys like you that keep me in business.
By the second cup curiosity had got the better of me. I opened up the missive and with some relief saw that it was another referendum. Fate had once again spared me from serving a term in parliament.
Instead I had before me a bill authorizing a four year mission in Afghanistan by the Canadian military, assisting in reconstruction while combatting the Taliban insurrection. This was a surprise. I’d been following the hearings on the proposal and had expected they would have gone on until the fall. Apparently though, the Speaker thought the votes were there last week and put it on the agenda. It squeaked through both the foreign affairs committee and the House with just over the required sixty percent, although the Senate strongly approved with almost three quarters affirming.
Now, under the Responsibility to Protect Act, the bill requires ratification by the electorate. Unlike Canada's participation in the invasion after 9/11 this goes beyond our NATO commitment to the Americans. The government doesn’t need to ask permission to defend the country or our allies. Participating in another country’s civil war is another matter.
This will be the second time R2P has been invoked and once again we’ve been asked to intervene by the democratically elected head of an embattled nation. Karzai is following in Aristide’s footsteps in asking for our help. But the problems of Haiti, profound as they are, at least have provoked a consensus across their social classes. Canada is training Haiti’s reconstituted army, now based on universal conscription. Aristide’s surprise decision to step down and call for early elections, followed by the return to power of Rene Preval, pulled the rug out from under the coup planners.
Conditions in Afghanistan are far more complex. The Taliban still commands the loyalty of a significant minority. The production of opium dominates the economy and the Americans insist that it remain illegal, despite the obvious wisdom of out bidding the drug smugglers. And many members of Karzai’s government are themselves Islamists who disapprove of democracy and equality for women.
I’ve got a month before I cast my vote. The synopsis of the debate provided by the Speaker looks to be about 80 pages and of course there is way more discussion on the net. Also included in the package are statements by two caucuses within parliament who oppose the mission and a list of web sites of all the MPs who wished to issue individual statements.
My inclination is to support the bill, but the report by the ministry of Defence is daunting. They expect a great many Canadian soldiers will die at the hands of the insurgency. It is unlikely four years will be long enough to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. And meanwhile Islamist terror campaigns in other parts of the world will also be demanding attention.
It is odd that the responsibility to protect is not being invoked in the one crisis for which it was clearly intended, the genocide in Darfur. After all the inspiration for R2P was Kosovo, another situation where the UN was unable to act. But I guess there needs to be a “coalition of the willing” and with the Americans bogged down in Iraq that isn’t going to happen.
The Darfur debate is going on at the committee level in parliament, although more in the Senate than the House. As is the discussion on Canada’s continued membership in the UN. I don’t expect much will come of either.
Despite the initial radical expectations when we abolished political parties and began choosing members of the House by lottery, politics in Canada remain pretty much an amalgam of liberal and conservative tendencies. Even doing away with the secret ballot hasn’t made that much of a difference. In the end we still act much like all the other mid size western democracies.
It is nice not to have to endure the posturing and game playing of career politicians. On the other hand we’ve been averaging half a dozen referendums a year and sometimes I yearn for the old passing of the buck of representative government.
If my number does come up I don’t imagine I’d enjoy spending three years of my life in Ottawa, but if that is the price of exercising the franchise so be it. It could be worse.
Ignatieff, the current Speaker, has now served seven years and begun to mutter publicly that he wouldn’t mind returning to academia. It was the luck of the draw that put him into parliament in the first place, but for the last four years the House and the electorate have kept him in office by referendum, just like the Governor-General. The two of them, along with the top civil servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council, have had no problem carrying out the duties that used to be the exclusive prerogative of prime ministers under the old system. Unless one of them actually does retire it looks like their terms will keep being extended every two years for some time to come. Suckers.
With that thought I packed up the Afghanistan dossier and headed for the beach, telling myself that this can’t be as complicated as last year’s budget.
No problem he replied. It’s guys like you that keep me in business.
By the second cup curiosity had got the better of me. I opened up the missive and with some relief saw that it was another referendum. Fate had once again spared me from serving a term in parliament.
Instead I had before me a bill authorizing a four year mission in Afghanistan by the Canadian military, assisting in reconstruction while combatting the Taliban insurrection. This was a surprise. I’d been following the hearings on the proposal and had expected they would have gone on until the fall. Apparently though, the Speaker thought the votes were there last week and put it on the agenda. It squeaked through both the foreign affairs committee and the House with just over the required sixty percent, although the Senate strongly approved with almost three quarters affirming.
Now, under the Responsibility to Protect Act, the bill requires ratification by the electorate. Unlike Canada's participation in the invasion after 9/11 this goes beyond our NATO commitment to the Americans. The government doesn’t need to ask permission to defend the country or our allies. Participating in another country’s civil war is another matter.
This will be the second time R2P has been invoked and once again we’ve been asked to intervene by the democratically elected head of an embattled nation. Karzai is following in Aristide’s footsteps in asking for our help. But the problems of Haiti, profound as they are, at least have provoked a consensus across their social classes. Canada is training Haiti’s reconstituted army, now based on universal conscription. Aristide’s surprise decision to step down and call for early elections, followed by the return to power of Rene Preval, pulled the rug out from under the coup planners.
Conditions in Afghanistan are far more complex. The Taliban still commands the loyalty of a significant minority. The production of opium dominates the economy and the Americans insist that it remain illegal, despite the obvious wisdom of out bidding the drug smugglers. And many members of Karzai’s government are themselves Islamists who disapprove of democracy and equality for women.
I’ve got a month before I cast my vote. The synopsis of the debate provided by the Speaker looks to be about 80 pages and of course there is way more discussion on the net. Also included in the package are statements by two caucuses within parliament who oppose the mission and a list of web sites of all the MPs who wished to issue individual statements.
My inclination is to support the bill, but the report by the ministry of Defence is daunting. They expect a great many Canadian soldiers will die at the hands of the insurgency. It is unlikely four years will be long enough to bring peace and prosperity to Afghanistan. And meanwhile Islamist terror campaigns in other parts of the world will also be demanding attention.
It is odd that the responsibility to protect is not being invoked in the one crisis for which it was clearly intended, the genocide in Darfur. After all the inspiration for R2P was Kosovo, another situation where the UN was unable to act. But I guess there needs to be a “coalition of the willing” and with the Americans bogged down in Iraq that isn’t going to happen.
The Darfur debate is going on at the committee level in parliament, although more in the Senate than the House. As is the discussion on Canada’s continued membership in the UN. I don’t expect much will come of either.
Despite the initial radical expectations when we abolished political parties and began choosing members of the House by lottery, politics in Canada remain pretty much an amalgam of liberal and conservative tendencies. Even doing away with the secret ballot hasn’t made that much of a difference. In the end we still act much like all the other mid size western democracies.
It is nice not to have to endure the posturing and game playing of career politicians. On the other hand we’ve been averaging half a dozen referendums a year and sometimes I yearn for the old passing of the buck of representative government.
If my number does come up I don’t imagine I’d enjoy spending three years of my life in Ottawa, but if that is the price of exercising the franchise so be it. It could be worse.
Ignatieff, the current Speaker, has now served seven years and begun to mutter publicly that he wouldn’t mind returning to academia. It was the luck of the draw that put him into parliament in the first place, but for the last four years the House and the electorate have kept him in office by referendum, just like the Governor-General. The two of them, along with the top civil servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council, have had no problem carrying out the duties that used to be the exclusive prerogative of prime ministers under the old system. Unless one of them actually does retire it looks like their terms will keep being extended every two years for some time to come. Suckers.
With that thought I packed up the Afghanistan dossier and headed for the beach, telling myself that this can’t be as complicated as last year’s budget.
Posted: Tue - August 22, 2006 at 11:56 AM
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Published On: Sep 12, 2007 03:13 PM
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Published On: Sep 12, 2007 03:13 PM