MIDDLE EAST CRISIS ‘AT THE TOP’ OF TORY CAUCUS AGENDA

CORNWALL, Ont.-While some Cabinet ministers avoided any public discussion of Canada's position on the escalating Middle East conflict in Lebanon, their colleagues in the federal Conservative caucus said the controversial topic was top-of-mind during their summer retreat in Cornwall last week.Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.), Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.) and Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda (Durham, Ont.) either deflected or referred Mideast-related questions to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.), who focused on possible humanitarian assistance to Lebanon in a scrum with reporters on Thursday last week.Early in the day, under a hot, blazing sun in the courtyard of the Ramada Inn, Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) addressed caucus members and party faithful in a campaign-style speech that made scant references to the Middle East and the war in Afghanistan, where on the same day, a series of attacks claimed the lives of four soldiers.But behind closed doors, when national caucus convened the Middle East was "right up at the top" of the agenda, according to Alberta MP Myron Thompson (Wild Rose, Alta.).The Tories met for their summer retreat at the Nav Canada Training Facility and Conference Centre in Cornwall, Ont., couched within strong Ontario Conservative territory and the home riding of Tory MP Guy Lauzon (Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry).Following a 30-minute question-and-answer session with Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), Conservative MPs and senators heard from Mr. MacKay on the Middle East and Canada's evacuation efforts in Lebanon."Everybody obviously is watching what's going on over there-they're worried sick about it," said Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Chuck Strahl (Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, B.C.)."I talked to farmers here . It's not top-of-mind with them. They want to talk to me about all issues, as they should. They also want us to make sure we continue with good government here and don't become obsessed with any one topic at a caucus meeting."Still, Alberta MP Art Hangar (Calgary Northeast, Alta.) said the Mideast conflict was occupying "a lot of our time-it's a very important issue-and certainly has its impact locally for every one of us, probably."Mr. Hangar and other Conservative MPs told The Hill Times that the federal government's pro-Israeli position in the current Mid-East conflict and the absence of any call for an immediate ceasefire has generated "mixed" reaction from constituents."It's one of those things that's a very divisive issue, no doubt about it," said Rahim Jaffer (Edmonton-Strathcona, Alta.), the only Muslim in the federal Conservative caucus, of which he serves as chair."Clearly, there are people who are very happy with the position of the government and others who are somewhat concerned as to where it's going to go."CORNWALL, Ont.-While some Cabinet ministers avoided any public discussion of Canada's position on the escalating Middle East conflict in Lebanon, their colleagues in the federal Conservative caucus said the controversial topic was top-of-mind during their summer retreat in Cornwall last week.Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Whitby-Oshawa, Ont.), Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton Hills, Ont.) and Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda (Durham, Ont.) either deflected or referred Mideast-related questions to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.), who focused on possible humanitarian assistance to Lebanon in a scrum with reporters on Thursday last week.Early in the day, under a hot, blazing sun in the courtyard of the Ramada Inn, Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) addressed caucus members and party faithful in a campaign-style speech that made scant references to the Middle East and the war in Afghanistan, where on the same day, a series of attacks claimed the lives of four soldiers.But behind closed doors, when national caucus convened the Middle East was "right up at the top" of the agenda, according to Alberta MP Myron Thompson (Wild Rose, Alta.).The Tories met for their summer retreat at the Nav Canada Training Facility and Conference Centre in Cornwall, Ont., couched within strong Ontario Conservative territory and the home riding of Tory MP Guy Lauzon (Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry).Following a 30-minute question-and-answer session with Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), Conservative MPs and senators heard from Mr. MacKay on the Middle East and Canada's evacuation efforts in Lebanon."Everybody obviously is watching what's going on over there-they're worried sick about it," said Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Chuck Strahl (Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon, B.C.)."I talked to farmers here . It's not top-of-mind with them. They want to talk to me about all issues, as they should. They also want us to make sure we continue with good government here and don't become obsessed with any one topic at a caucus meeting."Still, Alberta MP Art Hangar (Calgary Northeast, Alta.) said the Mideast conflict was occupying "a lot of our time-it's a very important issue-and certainly has its impact locally for every one of us, probably."Mr. Hangar and other Conservative MPs told The Hill Times that the federal government's pro-Israeli position in the current Mid-East conflict and the absence of any call for an immediate ceasefire has generated "mixed" reaction from constituents."It's one of those things that's a very divisive issue, no doubt about it," said Rahim Jaffer (Edmonton-Strathcona, Alta.), the only Muslim in the federal Conservative caucus, of which he serves as chair."Clearly, there are people who are very happy with the position of the government and others who are somewhat concerned as to where it's going to go."Mr. Jaffer said that the caucus meeting was meant to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper the chance to "clarify" the government's position and obtain feedback from MPs who previously had little opportunity "to have a say" on the issue.Mr. Thompson told The Hill Times that he trusts the Prime Minister's judgment on Canada's response to the Mid-East crisis "to the fullest extent," but admitted that he didn't "know what circumstances" led Mr. Harper to characterize Israel's bombing campaign in Lebanon as a "measured" response to Hezbollah guerrilla attacks."But I do know, as a Canadian, if terrorists attacked my country, like Hezbollah attacked Israel, I would expect a response of some sort and that it would be a message that we're not prepared to give up our democracy and our way of life to terrorism," said Mr. Thompson, who added that he wasn't concerned about the Tories' slipping fortunes over the government's response to the Mid-East crisis.Recent polls for Sun Media and The Globe and Mail have shown significant opposition to the PM's support for Israel and decline support overall for the Conservatives nationally.Ontario MP Garth Turner (Halton, Ont.) said the Prime Minister's remarks backing Israel early in the conflict could either "make him look visionary or make him look myopic" over time."It's very difficult in the fog of war to know this, but he did take a strong position and history will judge him," Mr. Turner said."He said it in an unequivocal way, at a risky point in time, when was just launching into the unknown," Mr. Turner said in an interview."But he took a strong and decisive position and that's the kind of guy he is. I haven't seen him back down on anything. When he gets something firmly decided in his mind, he sticks with it."Mr. Turner is also not backing down from his controversial comments criticizing the recent mass evacuation from Lebanon, in which he questioned whether those rescued and holding dual citizenships were "legitimate Canadians."Mr. Turner, former Progressive Conservative revenue minister under prime minister Brian Mulroney, told The Hill Times that some of his Canadian citizen constituents who were trying to evacuate were bumped in the order of precedence by Lebanese residents."I had constituents caught as tourists who were bumped by full-time Lebanese residents. That pissed me off and that pissed off," Mr. Turner said."It was an absolutely wrong thing to happen, though it's going to happen during a mass evacuation which took us all by surprise."Mr. Turner explained that his criticism wasn't directed at "Canadian officials, who did as good a job as could be expected" in removing more than 13,000 Canadians from Lebanon.In a recent entry on his garth.ca blog, Mr. Turner wrote about visiting Home Hardware and Home Depot where the "Canadians-of-convenience issue was on the lips of...a whole mess of voters...unprompted. And the opinion was unanimous. We was had."But the executive director of the Torontobased Canadian Arab Federation criticized both Mr. Turner and Mr. Harper for the way they responded to the Middle East crisis.In particular, Mohamed Boudjenane said the Prime Minister "didn't have the dignity and decency to condemn the killing" of the members of a Montreal family who died in an Israeli air strike in Lebanon last month, or to contact their relatives in Canada and send his condolences.Mr. Boudjenane said that while the Canadian Arab Federation is a non-partisan organization and won't organize a campaign to defeat the Harper government in the next federal election, other groups-especially Lebanese organizations in Quebec and Ontario-plan to do so and will be "very aggressive" about it."And that won't be unique to the Arab or Muslim communities," he said. "You will see a lot of Canadians campaigning against the Tories because their position towards this war is un-Canadian and is against the basic fundamental principles of our foreign policy."The CAF has prepared a tool that could assist those with the goal of unseating the Tories from power.A post-2006 election analysis posted on the caf.ca web site identifies 66 ridings in which the Arab and Muslim population had some impact in close-contest ridings.Among the ridings is Mr. Turner's, where there was a vote difference of 1,897 between him and the runner-up incumbent, Liberal Gary Carr. According to the CAF, the 2001 census identified the Arab-Muslim population in Halton as 1,950.But Mr. Turner said that if the "Arab community" is trying to get him to reconsider his remarks over the evacuation in Lebanon, "it ain't gonna work..."If they want to kick my ass out, go ahead. The point is people vote the way they're going to vote," Mr. Turner said."Am I going to change the way I feel? Of course not - that's not why I'm in politics. I didn't say what I said to get votes. I said it because in my view it was the proper response to a situation that had not been properly thought out."Mr. Turner said he heard from and met with Arab Canadians and Lebanese Canadians in his riding, and is "well aware there's a very strong sentiment on the part of that group who'd rather the Prime Minister not said what he said about Israel."Mr. Turner added: "And I'm sure there's a number of people who misinterpreted my comments about dual citizenship."Treasury Board President John Baird (Ottawa West-Nepean, Ont.) told The Hill Times that feedback received from his constituents on the Mideast crisis-and specifically on the evacuation from Lebanon-has been "for" or "against," and has ranged, in terms of comments, from "too long" to "too quick.""The bottom line is that when the bullets are flying and the bombs are going off, we have a responsibility to assist Canadians," said Mr. Baird, whose riding is home to an estimated 11,365 Muslim and Arab Canadians according to the CAF's "riding watch" list.Mr. Baird told The Hill Times that he's heard from more constituents in the past, over such issues as the federal budget, justice reform and the proposed Federal Accountability Act, than he has about the current Middle East situation.As for his caucus colleagues, they're "proud the Prime Minister is exercising leadership," Mr. Baird said. "I think we're all solidly behind the Prime Minister."Alberta MP Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, Alta.) echoed that sentiment. "Our caucus is overwhelmingly supportive of the government's position and direction," he said.And, Ontario MP Royal Galipeau (Ottawa-Orléans, Ont.) praised Mr. Harper for his "clarity of thought" on Canada's position regarding Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah."The last prime minister, who spoke so clearly and was despised by a lot of people-but appreciatedt the clarity of his thought-was Trudeau, during the October Crisis in 1970."Representing a riding with a sizable Arab-Muslim population of more than 5,000 (more than four times the vote margin between himself and his Liberal challenger, Marc Godbout), Mr. Galipeau doesn't fear any fallout from Mr. Harper's position."I don't think a country runs its foreign affairs for electoral reasons. There was a prime minister who tried that and hit his nose on the wall."Mr. Galipeau said that Mr. Trudeau's onetime prime ministerial successor, former federal PC leader Joe Clark, tried to curry favour with what was believed to be a sizable Jewish community in the Toronto riding of St. Paul's during the spring 1979 federal election campaign by promising to move the Canadian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.The Tory candidate in the riding of St. Paul's, Ronald Atkey, was re-elected and appointed to Mr. Clark's Cabinet as minister of employment and immigration. Mr. Clark, meanwhile, ended up causing a diplomatic controversy by saying he would move the Canadian embassy from Tel Aviv the Holy City, upon which the Palestinians also had a claim.But Mr. Galipeau said that foreign affairs should be left for the minister responsible for that portfolio to discuss, and not him."A backbench member like myself doesn't go freelancing on things like that," Mr. Galipeau said. "My provincial counterpart did that and missed a beautiful opportunity to be quiet."Mr. Galipeau referred to comments by Phil McNeely, the Liberal MPP for Ottawa-Orléans, who last month called Israel a "rogue state" and called on the Harper government to apologize to Canadians for its support of Israel's "collective punishment" of the people in Gaza and Lebanon.Following a rebuke from his leader, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, Mr. McNeely ended up apologizing for his remarks, which generated a letter to the Ottawa Citizen. It is an anecdote to which all MPs should pay heed, Mr. Galipeau said."Mr. McNeely should stick to his regional responsibilities," wrote David Scott of Ottawa in a letter to the Citizen, "or he may find himself the recipient of unwelcome news at the polls the next time around."

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MIDDLE EAST CRISIS ‘AT THE TOP’ OF TORY CAUCUS AGENDA

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