Welcome all first-time readers, and welcome back to all the returning readers, to another year of Kaveh’s Kanada for the third straight year! The top priority of Kaveh’s Kanada is to provide the Capilano community with a digestible summary and analysis of the main political activities in Canada. As voting Canadians, it's integral that we be involved in our democratic system. Each and every one of us has the right and responsibility to express our views and ensure that our political system and our public representatives act in the best interests of the people and the country. You’ll notice these themes reoccur in each of my columns as I stress the importance of individuals taking a proactive role in our political system. And now … to the chase.
Summer is vacation time and it’s no exception in Canadian politics! It’s been fairly calm throughout the summer, but over the past few weeks, politicians have been getting ready for an active fall.
Chrétien vs. Harper
No, Chrétien’s not coming out of retirement to face current Prime Minister Steven Harper (a.k.a. Stevie, as I and President George W. so affectionately like to call him) in an election—which actually wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Liberals, considering Chrétien is, after all, the man who led them to three consecutive election wins. Instead, Chrétien had some terse words for Harper over the recent Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In a speech to the Canadian Bar Association, Chrétien criticized Harper for not attending the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, suggesting that Canada doesn’t have the clout to lecture China on human rights and risk hurting Canadian business opportunities with the world’s second-largest economy. Harper, meanwhile, claimed that political leaders don’t usually attend the Olympics and that it was due to a scheduling conflict that he couldn’t attend the opening ceremonies.
Chrétien was right: Canada doesn’t have the political power to influence China on its human rights record. The reality is that China is a much bigger country, both in population and in economic size, and we can’t do anything to change that. It seems pretty self-righteous and naive of Harper to think that he can project Canada’s “true north strong and free” image across the Pacific and single-handedly bring democracy to 1.3 billion Chinese people. I do, however, disagree with Chrétien on one point—he seems to think that we should just keep trading with China regardless of the human rights violations. As Canadians, we have developed a set of collective democratic values founded on individual human rights. We believe in these values and so do the hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year who choose to make Canada their new home. If we strongly feel that China does not have respect for the fundamental rights of its citizens, we have the responsibility to express disagreement and act accordingly.
But that’s not what Stevie is really doing here. Prime Minister Stevie Harper is playing a naïve game of arrogance and self-righteousness in order to pander to his domestic political agenda of convincing Canadians that the Conservatives represent a strong and united Canada on the international scene. Harper is indeed a busy man, I’ll give him that – except that he’s occupied with a possible fall election, not China’s human rights record.
Fall Federal Election?
Harper seems set to pull the plug on the minority Conservative government in September and challenge the opposition parties to an election. Harper recently called Parliament “dysfunctional” and said he will meet with opposition leaders to discuss a possible election. Personally, I welcome an election and look forward to real policy debates that will finally clarify party positions on many issues after two years of self-interested politicking. But the likelihood remains that after the election is over, we’ll be left with another minority government and more dysfunction than when we started. Which is fine with me. Stevie Harper might call it “dysfunction”, but I like to think of it more as “democracy”, since one party doesn’t have control over all political power. I’ll have more to say about the election in my next column in two weeks, as we see first-hand the Canadian political election machine in action.
Summer is vacation time and it’s no exception in Canadian politics! It’s been fairly calm throughout the summer, but over the past few weeks, politicians have been getting ready for an active fall.
Chrétien vs. Harper
No, Chrétien’s not coming out of retirement to face current Prime Minister Steven Harper (a.k.a. Stevie, as I and President George W. so affectionately like to call him) in an election—which actually wouldn’t be a bad idea for the Liberals, considering Chrétien is, after all, the man who led them to three consecutive election wins. Instead, Chrétien had some terse words for Harper over the recent Summer Olympics in Beijing.
In a speech to the Canadian Bar Association, Chrétien criticized Harper for not attending the Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, suggesting that Canada doesn’t have the clout to lecture China on human rights and risk hurting Canadian business opportunities with the world’s second-largest economy. Harper, meanwhile, claimed that political leaders don’t usually attend the Olympics and that it was due to a scheduling conflict that he couldn’t attend the opening ceremonies.
Chrétien was right: Canada doesn’t have the political power to influence China on its human rights record. The reality is that China is a much bigger country, both in population and in economic size, and we can’t do anything to change that. It seems pretty self-righteous and naive of Harper to think that he can project Canada’s “true north strong and free” image across the Pacific and single-handedly bring democracy to 1.3 billion Chinese people. I do, however, disagree with Chrétien on one point—he seems to think that we should just keep trading with China regardless of the human rights violations. As Canadians, we have developed a set of collective democratic values founded on individual human rights. We believe in these values and so do the hundreds of thousands of immigrants each year who choose to make Canada their new home. If we strongly feel that China does not have respect for the fundamental rights of its citizens, we have the responsibility to express disagreement and act accordingly.
But that’s not what Stevie is really doing here. Prime Minister Stevie Harper is playing a naïve game of arrogance and self-righteousness in order to pander to his domestic political agenda of convincing Canadians that the Conservatives represent a strong and united Canada on the international scene. Harper is indeed a busy man, I’ll give him that – except that he’s occupied with a possible fall election, not China’s human rights record.
Fall Federal Election?
Harper seems set to pull the plug on the minority Conservative government in September and challenge the opposition parties to an election. Harper recently called Parliament “dysfunctional” and said he will meet with opposition leaders to discuss a possible election. Personally, I welcome an election and look forward to real policy debates that will finally clarify party positions on many issues after two years of self-interested politicking. But the likelihood remains that after the election is over, we’ll be left with another minority government and more dysfunction than when we started. Which is fine with me. Stevie Harper might call it “dysfunction”, but I like to think of it more as “democracy”, since one party doesn’t have control over all political power. I’ll have more to say about the election in my next column in two weeks, as we see first-hand the Canadian political election machine in action.
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Comments
Alamir
2008-09-09 21:52:06
kaveh
2008-09-11 01:04:32