The New Internationalism

When Michael Ignatieff first asked me to be his critic for International Cooperation, I suddenly sensed a kind of purpose that was lacking in my past two years as an MP.  He has many skills for leadership and one of them is to assist his caucus to take on files that relate to their expertise.

One aspect of this particular critics post is responsibility for CIDA – the Canadian International Development Agency.  The subject of much criticism in these few years, CIDA is nevertheless Canada’s humanitarian face to the world and is required now more than ever.

I began by speaking with Bev Oda, CIDA minister, and Jim Abbott, the parliamentary secretary, and assured them I don’t see my new critic position as a license to slam the government.  To me at least, the position of opposition critic is meant to be used to help the government do better, not occupy my days with how to bring all their failures to light.

That is especially true with a file like CIDA because in many ways it is that aspect of foreign policy that deals with the most desperately situated people in the world – not something to be trifled with by using it as a merely political bashing tool.  Good opposition in Parliament assists in making a government more responsible and both ODA and Abbot were pleased I had taken on a more cooperative approach.

Two days after that discussion, the crisis in Sri Lanka came to fore once again, with hundreds of thousands of people caught between two opposing forces and the sea.  The Harper government had no response, so our Foreign Affairs critic Bob Rae stood up in the House and asked why we hadn’t asked for a ceasefire.  Two ours later he and I went to Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s office for a visit and the next day he announced to Parliament that he had called for a ceasefire.  We had also called for emergency aid for the Sri Lankans and Bev Oda announced three million dollars for just the purpose the day following.

That is how opposition is supposed to work and how government should respond to the work of opposition critics.

There is a new internationalism brewing and emerging in the Liberal Party.  Bob Rae, internationally renowned expert on human rights Irwin Cotler, Romeo Dallaire, me, and indeed Michael Ignatieff himself.  These, and eventually others, represent the new Liberalism – the kind that is big enough to take on the world and restore Canada’s image as a caring nation that punches above its weight.  The Liberals are working their way back.