Well if you were expecting to see more unity and a more streamlined process of decision making from the Harper government, you can forget about it.
The new Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird announced that Canada does in fact stand with U.S. president Barrack Obama’s proposal that the Israeli-Palestine negotiations begin with the 1967 Israeli border configuration.
A complete reversal after Ottawa’s silence on the subject almost a month ago, and a week off Mr. Harper’s G8 summit where he made a fool of himself by not even mentioning the offer by Obama in his statements to the G8 members.
Some speculation also arouse that Mr. Harper made some sort of back-door agreement with Netanyahu to support the Israeli position.
This seems a bit far fetched, but one cannot put it past Harper. He is the kind of leader that would sink so low as to keep Canadians in the dark. We’ve seen him do it before.
Of course I am happy that Mr. Baird made the announcement, that we in fact support the position of our most important ally, the United States, in the Israeli-Palestine conflict. And I’m equally thrilled to see how incoherent and uncoordinated the Conservatives are on matters of foreign policy.
There’s nothing more damaging to a PM’s and his party’s image than to tell the public one thing and then tell them another. Flip flopping, regardless of which stance you support, is not a sign of integrity and is definitely not a desirable quality in any ruling party’s leader.
Yet why did Canadians vote for Stephen ‘flip-flopper’ Harper? When, despite his much touted Defending Canada initiative in his party’s platform and budget, he cannot even make a decision on one of the most important foreign policy issues of our era, and stick to it.
I for one didn’t vote for him and his ridiculous party, but I feel bad for my fellow Canadians that did vote for him, including Jewish Canadians.
The later are the ones getting shafted right about now.
