Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The dance continues

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, June 22, 2010 3:34pm - 7 Comments

The Defence Minister indicates some degree of interest in Michael Ignatieff’s proposal for a post-2011 mission in Afghanistan.

“I’m very interested. I know the Prime Minister has expressed interest in what Mr. Ignatieff said. But the parliamentary motion is very clear so that is where we are today,” he said.

As has been noted elsewhere, the parliamentary motion that extended the mission in 2008 spoke specifically of the Canadian deployment “in Kandahar.” The Liberal proposal would see Canada “pursue a post-combat role, for a fixed period, based on training of police and military personnel in a staff college setting in Kabul.”

Tags: 2011, Afghanistan, Kabul, Kandahar, Michael Ignatieff, Peter MacKay

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http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

Is our government now at the point where it would end-run around its own motion on the basis of semantics?

Seriously, guys, if staying there in a "training role" is such a reasoned idea – and the argument can be made either way – then put it to Parliament in a separate motion.
Kat

Continuity is important. Not a bad idea.
http://intensedebate.com/people/amherstvw amherstvw

The way the invoices are rolling in (G meetings, prisons), will Canadians want to afford this exercise?

The Executive can do whatever it wants, can't it? The motion is like the fixed election dates, etc.
Technically, I wonder who the next CinC of the CF will be. Peter? Lloyd? Pam?
Emily

And Ignatieff wonders why he can't get ahead in the polls!
http://intensedebate.com/people/TwoYen TwoYen

I suspect that the government hopes to let Ignatieff do the heavy lifting on this one in order to make sure that, in the event the government agrees to go along with this proposal, in the Liberals wear or share any negative electoral fallout.

In the meantime, amerhearstvw has a good point. There are probably a fair number in Cabinet who are fretting over government spending and questioning whether the government can afford anything, even if it makes foreign policy sense. Obama's own problems in Afghanistan make it difficult to even guess where the USA will be on this file come 2011.
The Real Jan

Cannon shot down the idea today on Power Play – emphatically. He said MacKay could think what he wanted but it wasn't on. This 'whole of government' approach is working so well.
mike heit

iggy wants us out, now he wants us in longer. iggy wants balanced bugetb than wants more stimulus. this guy is bad. politial runs often end with a poor leader– ie. pc's in ontario, soceds in bc and alberta.
the liberals really need to get another leader.
incidently– we do we have oil tankers docking in montreal and the maritimes when he wants them banned in bc?

former liberal