E-Parliament

Remembering the Canadians who came before us, who founded this country through great labours, suffering and plain hard work;

Recognizing that the definition of "Canadian" is a debate that has been ongoing since before Confederation, and will most likely continue for generations to come;

We, the people of Canada, resolve:

1. That the government open not only its pockets but also its heart to the needs of this country, and make Canada's cultural past more than just ancient artefacts for historians to study;

2. To make every effort to diffuse, communicate, disseminate and by any other means possible, share that cultural past with Canadians, with a view on helping future generations understand where they originated from, and why they should be proud, first and foremost, to be Canandian.

In the continuing saga of the Middle East, who decides which side is "right" and which is "wrong"? Recently, our political leaders have taken it upon themselves to project Canada's voice in favour of one camp, to the detriment of the surrounding region. Additionally, and quite unfortunately, this show of solidarity has had little impact on improving anyone's lives.

This video is not for sensitive viewers. It presents a rarely heard viewpoint, which is why I am presenting it in this forum. Watch it, take 9 minutes out of your life and reflect on what you see ... maybe it will validate what you already believe, or maybe, as I hope it will, this clip will make you ask yourself some questions about the difference between what you know and what you believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pERGfOvR1Ok&mode=related&search=

Be it resolved that:
- ...

In light of the continued voting to select the next Member State for a seat on the Security Council to represent the Latin American states;

And with due consideration to the fact that both Guatamala and Venezuela are 99.9% likely between the two of them to obtain the seat;

Be it resolved that the government of Canada vote in favour of ... ?

Warning / Attention / Achtung!

The regular session of the United Nations General Assembly begins in September.

Be it therefore resolved that:

1. The Government make every attempt possible not to embarrass the Canadian people, as they have in every other matter touching foreign affairs since January 2006,
2. A recruitment campaign be FINALLY called for this September so that new blood might be injected into the system,
3. MR. Harper and MR. McKay be forbidden from speaking in public about anything relating to foreign affairs, under risk of hurting Canada's reputation even further.

Doug Fisher, WWII veteran, former CCF member of Parliament and longtime columnist signed his last column at age 86. Very observant, Fisher notes the decline of Parliament and the rise of the leadership cult in Canada over the last 40 years. He places the blame for Parliament's decline squarely on Pierre Trudeau, the first Prime Minister in Canada's history to be chronically absent for major legislative debates in the House of Commons. Unfortunately, I don't think that the next generation of columnists have Fisher's depth, love of Parliament, or for that matter his understanding of Canada's history (having lived more than half as long as the country itself).

To prove my hypothesis, I offer you this example of terrible, terrible, horrible columnizing. Linda Deibel of the Toronto Star explains at length and ad nauseum why none of the current Liberal leadership candidates are as hot as Pierre Trudeau.

Here are the problems that I have with the Trudeau fetish:

1. A whole class of teenage girls fell in lust with Trudeau for lack of rock stars in Canada in the 1960s. They are now grown up, but want another one to love since the last one is now deceased.

2. The neo-Trudeaumania that Deibel's column exposes is fundamentally sexist. No woman will ever light Deibel's fire like Trudeau did. The image of Trudeau is inextricably linked to his image as a young, potential underwear model-mothers, lock up your daugters, white male millionaire intellectual bachelor. The bassin for recruiting the next Trudeau is very restricted indeed. What if the next leader of the Liberal Party was NOT a millionaire, unlike all the previous ones? Would that be so bad?

3. People spend their Sunday mornings reading why Trudeau was great 40 years ago and why 11 people who have invested enormous amounts of time to public service suck so bad now. This is a mentality of the "grass is always greener" and "back in the good old days".

4. Personality trumps policy.

5. Discussions such as Diebel's column inevitably pass a "political commentary" when they are not. They are outrageously ignorant of the true issues facing the Liberal party and Canada in general. The leadership cult is deified further, at the expense of a true dialogue of issues and divergent opinions.

Be it resolved:
The current slate of candidates for the Liberal leadership, as non-sexy as they may be, is nowhere near as bankrupt as this type of "political" commentary.

Doug Fisher, please don't retire. The Toronto Star needs you now more than ever.1

1. This motion is in no way an endorsement of the Liberal candidates, that's a topic for another day.

A few surprising (to me, and maybe to you) facts have come to light recently in the face of a crisis in Lebanon.

1% of Canadians are Lebanese. (300,000 according to the CBC)

20% of Lebanese Canadians were in Lebanon when the crisis broke out.

The majority of those people wanting evacuation in Lebanon who spoke to CBC television reporters (19 July, The National) somehow imagined that the Canadian government had an immediate and painless plan for transporting tens of thousands of people from the Middle East in case a war broke out.

The same members of Parliament (and incidentally, opposition critics) who criticized the Cabinet decision to go ahead and buy 4 strategic airlifters (along with dozens of tactical lift airplaines, and a joint sealift capability) are the same opposition critics who believe that the Canadian government should have had the Lebanese Canadians back in Canada yesterday. According to DND: "DND will procure four strategic lift aircraft to provide rapid transport of large amounts of passengers and equipment over long distances, including Canada?s disaster assistance response capability (DART)." Large amounts of passengers? Over long distances? Sounds like something we could use right about now. See, when you own it, you can use it whenever you want and your forces can react immediately to strategic priorities. When you rent it, you gotta get in line and wait for the nice guy or gal at the rental outlet to come pick you up (Most know this intuitively, and most buy a car as soon as they can possibly afford one).

The only army combat unit capable of rapid deployment, the Canadian Airborne Regiment, to a danger zone in order to secure and aid Canadian citizens was disbanded by the government in 1995. (This is not to say that such a unit would have been deployed in this case, but it was a capability).

Historically, the evacuation of Canadian soldiers from Europe following the end of WWII took over a year.

Whereas other countries are using their military assets to evacuate their citizens from Lebanon (citizen evacuation is typically a military task in times of crisis for obvious reasons, ie. the military is the only organization that is normally equipped and trained for operating in war zones), Canada is chartering pleasure craft to accomplish the task.

Be it resolved that:

If Canadians want to be assured of the governments capacity to mass-evacuate its citizens from warzones half-way around the world, we should recognize that such a capability is costly and must be maintained. We should not be surprised if, failing to maintain such a capacity, we end up failing to accomplish the evacuation in a timely and organized manner.

Whereas:

- The Israeli government is once again oversteping its authority by entering foreign countries at will and conducting in highly offensive and destructive activities;
- The United States has once again shown itself to hold the value of partisan politics higher than the protection of human rights and the promotion of international security;

... while being respectful of the 'presumed' right of all cuontries under international law to "self-defence" ...

Be it resolved that:

- The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (yes, it's one ministry again, because apparently that's really what's important right now ... updating our websites) immediately condemn the unsanctioned actions taken by the Israeli government,
- Canada immediately demand that the Security Council intervene in this ludicrous scandal, exerting any and all moral pressures to bear,
- Canada enter into discussions with the concerned parties in an attempt to mitigate this situation before it blows completely out of control.