Posted on 04/21/2003 1:50:41 PM PDT by quidnunc
Liberal MPs are accusing Alliance MPs of souring Canada-U.S. relations by distributing newspaper articles and other related materials to American politicians highlighting the government's opposition to the war in Iraq as well as anti-American statements made by Grit MPs.
Liberal MP Sarkis Assadourian (Brampton Centre, Ont.) said he learned about the situation during a recent trip to Washington, D.C., as part of the Canada-U.S. Inter-Parliamentary Group when one of his American counterparts, Republican Congressman Don Manzullo, showed him the documents.
Mr. Assadourian said the incident cast a pall over the meetings, which took place during the war, and that he was stuck doing damage control.
"When I was there I was shown letters and speeches and newspaper articles that Liberal Party Members of the House of Commons had spoken up against the Americans regarding the war in Iraq," he said.
"It doesn't help the situation. It doesn't help trade. It doesn't help the border issue. The best thing is for people to show leadership and look forward."
Mr. Assadourian, while admitting that relations between Canada and the U.S. have soured considerably since the Liberal government decided not to support the U.S.-led war effort, stressed that when travelling abroad, politicians should avoid airing their dirty laundry in public.
"The point I'm making is that no Member of Parliament should travel outside our country and knock down our own country," he said, adding that he also wasn't impressed when Alliance Leader Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) and his party's foreign affairs critic, Stockwell Day (Okanagan-Coquihalla, B.C.) co-wrote an article in The Washington Post which was critical of the federal government's war stance.
"If he [Harper] wants to make a point, he should make it in the House of Commons in Canada, not to go outside and bash Canada. We used to get upset when the Bloc Québécois did that. These guys are doing the same thing," he said.
Mr. Assadourian, Parliamentary secretary to Immigration Minister Denis Coderre (Bourassa, Que.), said that Alliance MP Rob Merrifield (Yellowhead, Alta.), his party's health critic, gave the American politicians the documents and that he later confronted the Alliance MP about the matter upon his return to Ottawa.
In an interview, Mr. Merrifield confirmed that the two MPs exchanged heated words in the lobby of the Commons and that they "agreed to disagree."
Mr. Merrifield denied giving the American politicians any newspaper articles, adding he wasn't aware of them. But he admitted personally handing over copies of speeches by Alliance Leader Harper delivered in the Commons to several current and former U.S. politicians, including military officials, during a recent "leadership conference" he attended in Washington, D.C.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at thehilltimes.ca ...
The Canadian people must be very proud.
Maybe Slick Willy has been giving lessons.
Prairie
Your post reminded me of a saying from my father-in-law: "when you point a finger at somebody, three fingers are pointing back at you." I always liked that one.
Prairie
It's the Canadian Alliance's fault for letting Americans know what the liberal MPs were saying about the United States.
DU-H
Its not the pusillanimous Canadian policy that soured relations, oh no, not at all. It was those pesky Alliance MP's that shared what was in the Public Domain with otherwise blessedly benighted U.S. policy makers.
The perfidy of those Alliance MP's knows no bounds!
Liberals hate it when the shoe is on the other foot. They don't seem to care when the shoe and foot and question are in their mouths though. Maybe they just don't notice.
Maybe it's too much of an intellectual jump for the leftists in Canada to comprehend that calling our president a moron, calling all of us b@stards, claiming to hate all of us, AND abusing our little kids when they went to Montreal to play hockey soured US/Canada relations. Anything the Canadian Alliance may have said or done was just gravy.
In other words, it's now up to the political opposition in Canada to censor what Liberal MPs say. For public consumption, you know...
A few weeks ago, someone claiming to be Canadian asked me very suspiciously just how I (an American) know so much about what's going on in Canada. I said 'The web!' I can't believe it never ocurred to someone on the web that others on the web might be reading Canadian news publications on the web. DUH!
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