The Canadian Alliance refuses to be neutral

OTTAWA - Today, the world is at war. A coalition of countries under the leadership of our key allies in Britain and the United States is leading a military intervention to disarm Saddam Hussein. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien is opposed to joining this multilateral coalition of nations.

These allies weren't spoiling for a fight today any more than they were 12 years ago, when Canada joined with its allies to force Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. The world has tried other means for years but to no avail.

Disarming Iraq is necessary for the long-term security of the world, to the collective interests of our key historic allies and therefore manifestly in the national interest of Canada.

Force has been the only language that Saddam Hussein's regime has ever understood. After 12 years, he does not believe that the international community has the will to act. He clearly believes that ongoing diplomacy will be hijacked by those who simply want delay, and ultimately, inaction.

In some cases, Saddam has been right. Jacques Chirac and the Gaullists of France, for example, have been once again preoccupied more with agendas targeted on containing the United States and Britain than on restraining Saddam Hussein.

Ironically, as even our Liberal government has acknowledged, America with Britain in particular, has given strong leadership to the world on the issue of Iraq. What has been accomplished in recent months has only been accomplished solely because of the American/British coalition and its determination to act.

For the first time in history, the Liberal government has left us outside our joint British and American allies in their time of need. The Canadian Alliance supported the American and British position on this issue because we share their concerns, we share their worries about the future if Iraq is left unattended to, and we share a fundamental vision of civilization and human values.

Alliances are two-way processes and, where we are in agreement, we should not leave it to the United States to do all of the heavy lifting just because they are the world's superpower.

To do so will undermine the most important relationships we have and, in an increasingly globalized and borderless world, such relationships become even more important in the future.

The coalition is now ready to act. It will bring this long-running conflict to an end once and for all.

It will also end the reign of Saddam Hussein and the militarism, brutality, and aggression that are the foundations of his regime.

Since Saddam Hussein came to power in 1979, more than one million people have died as a consequence. They have died through killing and torture as individual opponents, real and imagined. Now his final bloody chapter is being written. As it is being written, make no mistake, the Canadian Alliance will not be neutral. We will be with our allies and our friends. And Canadians will be overwhelmingly with us.

But we will not be with our own government. For this government, in taking the position it is taking, has betrayed Canada's history and its values. It is simply reading polls and engaging in juvenile and insecure anti-Americanism.

But it has done even worse. It has left us standing for nothing -- no realistic alternative, no position of principle, no vision of the future. And it has left us standing with no one. Our government is not part of the multilateral coalition in support of the action and it has not been part of any coalition opposing it.

The Liberals have found themselves alone, playing an irrelevant and contradictory game on both sides of the fence.

This is dangerous, because as we find ourselves isolated from our allies, we find ourselves even more dependent on them -- economically, culturally, militarily. A country that does not honour its own friends and allies in a dangerous world -- but uses them and rejects them at will -- such a country will in time endanger its own existence.

To have the future of a great country, we must do more than stand with our friends in the United States, we must rediscover our own values.

This country was forged in large part by war -- not because it was easy but because it was right. In the great wars of the last century -- against authoritarianism, against fascism, against communism -- Canada did not merely stand with the Americans, we more often than not led the way.

We did so for freedom; we did so for democracy. We did so for civilization itself -- values which today continue to be embodied in our allies and their leaders, and in their polar opposites, personified by Saddam Hussein and the perpetrators of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

We will stand, and I believe most Canadians will quietly stand with us, for these higher values which shaped our past and which we will need in an uncertain future.

Stephen Harper is leader of the Canadian Alliance and leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

Just to show that not all of Canada appreciates Chretien.

Regards, Ivan

The flag of Canada...before the trouble started.

To: JenB; SJackson; TigerLikesRooster; AZLadyhawke; Southflanknorthpawsis; meema; headsonpikes; ...

2 posted on 03/21/2003 5:17:50 AM PST by MadIvan (Learn the power of the Dark Side, www.thedarkside.net)

Red Ensign bump.

Chretien has made a grave political error; I just hope Harper and the Alliance are ruthless enough to exploit it to the max.

Like most Canucks, Harper's too d*mned polite.

This is the beginning of the end for the Liberal party. It might not come now, but in the coming months, Chretien's error will be apparent, and plain to see for all Canadians. I just sent in my party membership to the Canadian Alliance. They're gaining support in the East because of this betrayal. Harper's biding his time. He will come out guns blazing, and he plans to concentrate campaigning in the East, Ontario especially.

I just sent in my party membership

Good for you. Got my renewal last month. Last count my riding had 5x the membership of the PC. Growing every day. And that is in Ontario.

North Toronto is shifting as well - Lots of Brit expats who traditionally vote Tory anyway, and the Jewish community beside us in Forest Hill - they aren't too thrilled with Chretien's footdraggin in banning Hezbollah, and inaction on banning other groups like Al Aqsa. Thornhill (that talking sphincter Elinor Caplan's riding) should be onside soon too. As for the Italian community, who traditionally vote Liberal - let's hope they come to their senses.

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