Blaming Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals is the latest defence in the Conservative quiver of excuses to try to explain the massive $1-billion security tab for next month’s G8/G20 summits.
As the public outcry grows against the huge cost for the three-day meeting, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told CTV’s Question Period yesterday that using the military – which would have been a much cheaper option than the RCMP – would have provoked political outrage from the Liberals.
“You know, of course, what the opposition parties would say, the Liberals, they would say the army in streets with guns,” said Mr. Toews.
In part says Mr. Toews decisions around security were “political decisions.”
Noting that the military were used for part of the Olympic security last February in Vancouver, Mr. Toews said, “It’s quite another thing when you start bringing in the army in a civilian context, into a civilian setting.… Do you remember that advertisement?”
He was referring to the negative ad developed by the Liberals for the 2006 federal campaign in which the Grits asserted that the Conservatives would put armed troops on Canadian streets.
The ads never ran on television – they only appeared on the Liberal website. But they were in response to then opposition leader Stephen Harper’s proposal for more robust civil-defence contingents in urban centres.
Yesterday, Mr. Toews said: “It’s exactly the kind of fear that Liberals want to invoke in terms of Canadians.
“Canadians understand that in a democracy you have the police rather than the army in the streets. And so those are political decisions you make, but I think they’re very, from a perception point of view, very, very important.”
Question Period co-host Craig Oliver came back at Mr. Toews noting that this feared Liberal backlash may have cost Canadians “a couple of hundred million dollars?”
Mr. Toews didn’t answer the question. Instead, he replied that Canada is a democratic nation. “We don’t resort to the military in our streets unless we come to very extreme circumstances.”
The Toews comment regarding the Liberals led to a discussion later in the show between journalists.
As a result of that the Minister’s spokesman Christopher McCluskey contacted CTV’s Question Period after the program aired, inquiring about the interpretation of Mr. Toew’s remarks regarding the Liberals.
His questions and concerns point to the sensitivities around this issue.
Mr. McCluskey noted that he was “told by several sources the Minister was qualified as blaming the Liberals for the ISU’s decision to hire police over military personnel on the front lines for the G8 and G20.”
This is not the case, he argued.
“The way I understood the Minister’s comments regarding ‘soldiers in the streets’ was a passing jab at the Liberals in terms of how such a decision – if deemed necessary – might be portrayed by the Opposition as fulfilling a long foretold prophecy from their old attack ads,” said Mr. McCluskey.
A strange tribute to Canada’s soldiers
Calgary Conservative MP Rob Anders has made a name for himself for being a contrarian and sometimes outrageous. For example, he angered many of his colleagues when he refused to support the Liberal government’s initiative in 2001 to make Nelson Mandela an honorary Canadian citizen. He was the only parliamentarian to vote against the measure, characterizing the South African leader as a communist and a terrorist.
Still, he manages to remain popular in his riding, being returned in every election since 1997 with big vote returns.
Late last week, Mr. Anders again raised eyebrows among his colleagues.
There was a big card in the House of Commons lobby for MPs to sign to “Support Our Troops,” according to one MP.
Most MPs signed “best wishes” and expressed other sentiments. But not Mr. Anders, who wrote: “When in doubt pull the trigger.”
Mr. Anders did not respond to calls or e-mails about his questionable sentiment – one that certainly caught the attention of some MPs.
