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COMMENTARY
May 28, 2008
Maxime
Who knows why Maxime Bernier was finally dumped as Canada’s foreign minister? There were so many good reasons. And who cares?I care. But not much about the fate of this briefly-rising “star” from Quebec, perpetually dressed for some multicultural wedding, who has now definitively set. Nor really about the fate of the Conservative government, now that it has become clear that Stephen Harper lacks the courage to accomplish much. The limit of his ambition (Harper’s; we’re already forgetting Bernier) is to keep the Liberals out of power for a while, thus freezing our affairs in the morbid state in which Paul Martin left them. That in itself might seem a worthy ambition -- for the Liberals in power have been bad news for Canada, since 1963. But it is a respite that can only end with more Liberals in power, rested and eager to resume the devil’s work. And with those who counted Mr Harper as an ally, thoroughly demoralized. One might argue it is especially humiliating for Canadians to be represented in the world’s councils by some vacuous pretty boy, dating a biker chick with possible mob connexions, who distracts the cameras on occasions of state with her very low cleavage. A young lady at whose apartment the Minister has been apparently in the lazy habit of leaving important state documents. (But how important can our state documents be?) Still, my reader must consider: Maxime Bernier. Peter MacKay. Pierre Pettigrew. Bill Graham. ... Joe Clark. ... That is to say, you can’t call it a “face-grabber” when there isn’t any face left to grab. Looking back, one realizes that the procession of inept and embarrassing mediocrities in the external suite has become a symbol of national identity. By stuffing the office with persons of the “parliamentary assistant” class, or the odd overlooked Senate appointment, our prime ministers make the statement that Canada does not count for much in the world, and that in reprisal, the world will not count for much in Canada. To be fair, it should be admitted that there has been little depth of talent to draw upon, on either side of the House, through any of the last dozen or so election cycles, and that our Parliament is itself an institution in severe decline. Lester Pearson was the last Canadian prime minister with the luxury of filling a cabinet with “heavyweights,” in any sense. And verily, if I may return to Mr Bernier one last time, the idea (raised in the media) that this man was being “groomed” as a future prime minister can fill no one with despair, for we are all at greater risk that we will die laughing. Time to get serious. (Warren: get serious, right away.) The sad thing is that foreign affairs and defence -- the two most legitimate functions of our federal government -- were the very areas in which Mr Harper seemed to be trying to do something useful, albeit as much under the radar as possible. The latter is the more urgent task, because unless we carry our weight in defence capability, and therefore spending, within NATO -- something we haven’t been doing for a very long time -- it doesn’t really matter who is foreign minister. The silly idea of “the peaceable kingdom,” advanced by generations of halfwit leftist sages in our drive-in universities, has never been itself defensible, except on the theory that the United States of America has some God-given responsibility to defend our borders. By taking the previous government’s commitment to Canada’s role in Afghanistan as a “sacred trust,” and by making at least a start at rebuilding our armed forces, so that future governments may contemplate their use when “bad things happen,” Mr Harper has come closest to putting himself on the side of the angels. For the world is a dangerous place, and no decent nation can afford to be unarmed. Moreover, Mr Harper’s government has taken (necessarily slightly controversial) positions at the United Nations and through diplomats elsewhere, closer to the responsible and moral ones that would befit a nation of adults, and farther from the throwaway “politically correct” positions indulged by other recent governments A Canada pulling her weight in defence will be listened to by our allies, especially by one large and rather important ally that is always in danger of forgetting that we exist. A Canada that goes beyond this, to sometimes stake positions more courageous than our larger allies, and more bellicose towards the world’s most evil regimes, and more daring in the vindication of real, basic human rights (in sharp contrast to the trash “human rights” of our so-called “human rights” commissions), could be an impressive player on the world stage. We had, after all, a very proud tradition, earned by our soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and even by our statesmen, in more than one great planetary conflict. We owe it to their memory to retrieve something of our national dignity, and of our national grit. David Warren
© Ottawa Citizen
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