Great things have taken place in the life of a people. Over less than three weeks, an unshakable 30 year regime was toppled. It was toppled peacefully for the most part, although not without tragic loss of 300 lives (according to Human Rights Watch.)
As leader of the Green Party of Canada, I was the first Canadian political leader to call for our government to support the movement for democracy. On January 31, I urged that our government urge President Mubarak to resign. We didn’t. The utterings from Canada’s government signalled a caution, erring on the side of dictatorship and stability over democracy. Lamentably, this reflects the Harper government’s single-minded focus on the Middle East as support for Israel. The failure to imagine other concerns in the Mid-East – such as the demand for democracy in the Arab world – left our government lacking any policy moorings to contribute sensibly to the evolving issue.
A new government in Egypt will be left with the impression, if they think of Canada at all, of the Canadian government failing to come to the aid of democracy. This impression was worsened by the Prime Minister’s more recent comments as the news of Mubarak’s resignation reached him in Newfoundland. Here is the full quote from the Prime Minister:
“We are all seeing what’s happening. Transition is taking place in Egypt. I think the old expression is: ‘They’re not going to put the toothpaste back in the tube on this one.’ [to the leadership in Egypt] ‘Get in front of it. Be part of it, and make a bright future happen for the people of Egypt.’ ”
This statement has been met with unhappiness in many quarters. The “toothpaste in the tube” analogy was poorly considered. It suggests a mess. No one commented on the fall of the Berlin Wall, that we cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. Try to imagine a national leader saying there was no way to put the toothpaste back in the tube when apartheid ended in South Africa.
No wonder we did not win the Security Council seat. We are not playing a constructive role in world affairs.
In defence of Stephen Harper, his comments were not the world’s most embarrassing. For that stellar “worst ever” comments, we go to former U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin:
“And nobody yet has, nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and no, not, not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from DC in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And, in these areas that are so volatile right now, because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And, we do not have all that information yet.”
Oh dear.
I am pleased to see that Greens around the world knew where to stand and how to express a commitment to democracy.