Do advanced multiculturalism and Quebec make a decent foreign policy impossible?

Jim Travesty of the Star, in a very nuanced column, suggests that they do.

In declaring that his government is guided by principle, Harper also suggested that those who oppose the attacks on Lebanon or, more tangentially, support Palestinians, are not equally principled. Intentional or simply unthinking, that implied insult tosses a rock into pond of ethnic sensibilities...

However helpful to Israel and pleasing to the U.S. president the, Harper's unequivocal we-stand-by-you foreign policy has turned the Middle East into a wedge issue at home. Woken from a long-political slumber, Canadians of Arab descent are using their numerical superiority over Jews to crowd big-city streets, reminding the federal government that Canada has more than one Middle East lobby willing to flex its muscles.

That's led to some calculations here in a capital sweating through summer. Liberals as well as Conservatives are trying to figure out if Harper's crisis management is tossing away his chance of winning a majority.

The equations are as complex as they are intriguing. While there's no doubt Conservatives have solidified an already rock-hard base, it's not yet clear if damage to the party in politically vital Quebec, where Arab support for Lebanon and Palestinians is strongest, will be counterbalanced by parts of the powerful Jewish vote breaking away from Liberals in Toronto...

...this is dangerous stuff. A polarized country is entrenching itself on opposite flanks of a conflict its government cannot meaningfully influence [he got that right - MC], let alone resolve. In the sudden absence of an inclusive, overarching foreign policy, too many Canadians are defaulting to the ethnic side of the hyphen where differences outnumber similarities.

If this is good politics, it's lousy nation building. Festering old country sores aren't limited to the Middle East, and the only prescription known to be effective is the one that strengthens new-found commonalities at the expense of ancient hostilities...

What Mr Travesty fails to mention is that it's a bit late to still be "nation building", and that perhaps it is multiculturalism itself that weakens "commonalities". Early in the column he writes of the prime minister's "..apparent disregard for the integrity of this country's ethnic quilt." What muddled thinking. As he points out himself "...too many Canadians are defaulting to the ethnic side of the hyphen where differences outnumber similarities."

So there is no "integrity of this country's ethnic quilt". And the nation is probably being weakened, not built. Remember Abraham Lincoln: "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

Canada is hardly in a similar situation; but warm and fuzzy multiculturalism of the sort Mr Travesty so enjoys appeasing is certainly not leading this country in the right direction.

Quebec alone certainly makes it difficult to conduct a decent foreign policy, given its opposition to using the military in combat and its anti-Israel attitude. A poll published today shows that there "...27 per cent said Israel was the greatest threat [to world peace], with Iran at 26 per cent."

Sacrée poutine!

Regarding Iran, one wonders what the sexually-liberated people of Quebec might think of this (note also the number of people executed legally). (via WaPo Top 30 Blogged About News Articles)

Mark C.

Posted by markc at July 29, 2006 12:33 PM