We're Right About Afghanistan, We're Better Than the Conservatives, and Voters Can Shove It

That was the tough message Bob Rae was made to deliver to the House of Commons last week. Surprisingly, he did a pretty good job.

Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae delivered a speech last week, reprinted today in the National Post, that doubles as a political lesson on how to simultaneously attack and defend. The speech was a multi-pronged defence not only of the Liberals’ decision to support an extension of the Afghan mission, but also an attack against critics who say the Liberals have failed to differentiate themselves from the Conservatives on foreign policy. Speaking eloquently about Canada’s duty to ensure Afghanistan becomes a stable country, Rae was also careful to lace his speech with signals that he doesn’t agree with the details of the Conservatives’ plan. “I happen to think that what has been proposed is not perfect,” he said, suggesting he’d like to see more diplomatic and aid efforts as part of the extension. Message received: the Liberals aren’t the Conservatives’ lapdogs. He also took a shot at observers who believe the Grits made a big blunder by signing onto the Conservatives’ extension so readily. “I want to simply say to those people and to all those reporters who have made those comments … that this is not about partisan advantage,” he said. And of the fact that most Canadians want the troops home in 2011? Rae suggested they get over it. “Canadians have to come to terms with the need for this continuing engagement; they have to come to terms with the need for us to stay involved,” he said.

Rae’s was the kind of meaty policy speech you’d expect from a party led by two foreign affairs experts, but the Globe and Mail says the Liberals need to put their money where their eloquent mouths are. The Grits have shown an appetite for making Canada a global military player, but judging by the Liberals’ budget plans and their criticism of plans to buy new F-35 jets, the Globe says “[t]his greater activism is to be accomplished without any increase in the Canadian defence budget in real terms … Liberals' unwillingness to support their principles and proposals with adequate equipment and other resources leaves questions they will have to answer.”