Once again, Toronto Sun columnist Greg Weston is speaking my language.
Little time for dithering ally
IF AVERAGE Americans had been following Paul Martin’s stand on U.S. missile defence, they would surely be relieved by yesterday’s announcement that Canada will not be part of it. An Armageddon warhead incoming at 4 km per second is no time to be sharing command and control of North American air defence with a dithering prime minister.
But one thing worse than an ally who can’t make decisions is an ally who makes them for all the wrong reasons.
Martin’s announcement had nothing to do with missiles or defence or even the U.S. It was a pre-emptive strike to head off an embarrassing uprising with his own Liberal ranks.
Ten days from now, Liberals from across the country are gathering here in Ottawa for their first policy convention since the last election, and likely the only such Grit conflab before the next call to the polls.
The hottest item on the agenda was Canada’s participation in U.S. missile defence, an issue that was guaranteed to garner a mass thumbs-down from the Grit grassroots.
At the same time, public opinion polls in the Liberal heartland of Quebec do not favour Canada’s joining George Bush’s missile defence program.
If Martin were a stronger leader, he might have stared down his opponents within his party and elsewhere.
Instead, the PM has opted for doing what seems popular, not what is right, justifying his actions with excuses that are pure bunk.
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PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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