Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Perspective please

Two issues seem to have some Liberals a little miffed at the Liberal Party. The first is the Afghan detainee documents deal and the other is the foreign policy positions outlined by Mr. Ignatieff.

To the first point if this whole exercise was about Parliamentary supremacy then the Opposition has succeeded in making it so. The government actually argued that they were not required to release these documents to Parliament. They have been forced to reverse that position completely as a result of Parliament, in the persons of Opposition MPs, asserting that Parliament is supreme.

If this whole exercise was just a political gambit then I could see why some people would be a little upset with the agreement. After all, we will probably not see the quick release of these documents as a result of this agreement. Then again that was never going to happen anyway as the wheels of our Parliamentary system have never been known to turn quickly.

The principle of Parliamentary supremacy has been defended with this deal. If that is your main concern in this issue you should find this agreement satisfactory. If your main concern is using this issue as a weapon against the Conservatives then I guess you have reason to be upset.

As to the second issue I have to agree that I am not completely happy with all of the foreign policy positions outlined by Mr. Ignatieff but as a whole it is a damn sight better than the foreign policy being pursued by the current government. Since this is just a proposal it is not written in stone and it can be changed as circumstances dictate going forward, particularly when the Liberals become the governing party.

No comments: