Supporters of deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya rally in Tegucigalpa on Thursday, December 3, 2009. Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty ImagesORLANDO SIERRA/AFP / Getty Images
Writing in yesterday's Toronto Star, Chantal Hebert claims that the new brainiacs around Michael Ignatieff "are working on a pre-election calendar that spans a year or more rather than mere weeks or months." Presumably the Grits' grand ideas conference scheduled for the end of March is all part of this longer term strategy.
Here's a thought: rather than wallowing around in non issues like the Chinese "scolding" us for failing to turn up on time for tea, howzzabout revisiting Canada's medium-term stance towards Latin America.
At the moment Peter Kent's stated position on the travesty in Honduras puts us somewhere on a continuum between objecting to Pinochet but supporting Batista. The facts are that Brazil, a coming world power, is continuing to repudiate the results of the Honduran elections while Canada wonders why everyone can't just get along so that our gold mining interests in the region can carry on willy nilly.
On this issue Canada needs a reboot. Books like Nikolas Kozloff's Revolution: South America and the Rise of the New Left and Roberto Unger's The Left Alternative should be required reading. We've got a year maybe two to get it right. If we screw it up we'll suffer something rather more severe than a mild rebuke over lunch.
(Photo: Supporters of deposed Honduran president Manuel Zelaya stage a rally today Tegucigalpa. Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images)