Harper slams Bloc threat to bring down government over Afghan mission (Canada's PM standing firm)

CP via Canada.com ^ | Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | Alexander Panetta

[GMMAC]

Harper slams Bloc threat to bring down government over Afghan mission

Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press
Published: Tuesday, December 12, 2006

OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is accusing the Bloc Quebecois of using the country's soldiers as political pawns in the debate over Canada's role in Afghanistan.

Harper said the Bloc's threat to introduce a non-confidence motion sometime in the new year over his handling of the Afghan mission is careless and hypocritical.

"Our soldiers in Afghanistan . . . are participating in the economic development of the country and they are providing humanitarian assistance, but the situation is very dangerous," Harper told the House of Commons on Tuesday.

"The only problem here is the political opportunism of the leader of the Bloc Quebecois . . . He's just playing political games on the backs of our soldiers."

Duceppe retorted that he continues to support Canadian troops being in Afghanistan - but that he's challenging Harper's leadership on the file. He said the government is too obsessed with fighting terrorists and not enough on rebuilding Afghanistan.

Duceppe noted that NATO's commander in Afghanistan - British Lt.-Gen. David Richards - has warned that 70 per cent of Afghans could switch sides and support the Taliban within months unless they see tangible construction results on the ground.

"I've never said there should be no military role. We've never said that," Duceppe said.

"What we need is a rebalancing so that in three years we don't end up with a Baker report on Afghanistan, like we've got for Iraq now."

He also took a more personal jab at Harper and accused him of a simplistic, us-against-them worldview that is doomed to fail in Afghanistan.

"It is the ideological approach of the prime minister that allows him to look at the world in terms of good guys and bad guys. He sees everything in black and white."

Government officials said Duceppe's criticism hasn't included much in the way of detail about how exactly the mission might be "rebalanced."

Conservatives note that their government has more than doubled humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, to $100 million annually over 10 years.

The Canadian who recently led the NATO mission for nine months also points out that reconstruction is going on.

Brig.-Gen. David Fraser says 146 kilometres of new roads and more than 100,000 metres of irrigation canals were finished during his stint. Another 1,000 wells were dug in Kandahar province by Nov. 1, when the Dutch assumed control of the mission.

However, the mission has become increasingly controversial with mounting casualties that have seen 44 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat killed.

The other opposition parties have suggested they might support a Bloc motion on Afghanistan, which would give them enough votes to topple the minority government.

Such a move would be especially tricky for the Liberals.

Their caucus includes numerous critics of the current mission. But they sent troops to Kandahar in the first place and also have a number of mission supporters within their ranks.

And even though the mission is especially unpopular in Quebec, the Bloc's criticism also carries some political risk.

Perhaps their biggest challenge in the next election will be regaining the seats they lost to the Tories in the Quebec City region - which is home to the Valcartier military base, soldiers' families, and 2,000 troops who will be heading to Afghanistan next summer.

© The Canadian Press 2006

[twonie]

This Stand-firm Prime Minister had better be standing firm on his gun registry promises fairly soon or he ain'g gonna be standing very long. His stand on the military in Afghanistan is admirable, but I'm just sayin'....

[twonie]

You are right on all three counts - but heavy on the richer part.

[GMMAC]

In fairness, Harper has done a much better job shutting down the Gun Registry than many would have thought possible with a minority government.
As of now, it's been essentially effectively frozen by Orders in Council which, as you likely know, aren't required to be brought before Parliament.
As I alluded to above, Harper can now use a move to totally eliminate it, while deeming same to be a matter of Confidence, to bait the Opposition Parties into forcing an election at whatever time best suits him.

Plus, if at that time they happen to be afraid to force an election, their only other option would be doing nothing beyond sputtering while Harper & the CPC finalize its scrapping which, doubtless, wouldn't go down all that well with their - especially hard-core, gun-grabbing, moonbat - supporters.

To me, this present situation amounts to us having our cake while enjoying it too - LOL!

[twonie]

Dear God, I hope you are right. You seem to be. But I would feel a lot better seeing all the offices closed and all the computers and paperwork burning brightly on parliament hill. Thank you for the reply anyway.

[GMMAC]

As much as I agree with you, I suppose we all have our own priorities.

Given a choice, I'd apply your vision of total destruction to the offices of every publicly funded anti-majority special interest group ... preferably starting with those of the radical feminists and then moving on from there.