Canadians to Stage Fake Attack in Washington
Embassy of Canada, Washington DC (cc photo by mastermaq)
Exciting news on the Canada beat, as our neighbors to the north are going to blow stuff up in Washington, DC:
The Taliban will attack an Afghan village set up in the heart of Washington courtesy of the Canadian Forces, who will send in a medic in a dramatic effort to save a civilian crippled by the explosion.
At least four times over two days this month, simulated IED blasts will bring the Afghan war — and Canada’s combat role in Kandahar home to Americans if an elaborate scheme based on modern training realism attracts widespread attention, as is hoped.
In other Canada news, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper just took the interesting step of appointing a new Ambassador to the US, Manitoba Prime Minister Gary Doer. This is noteworthy because Doer is not a Conservative. Instead, he’s head of the Provincial branch of Canada’s left-wing New Democratic Party. This is perhaps tied in with some intrigue at the federal level, where the center-left Liberals are trying to topple Harper’s minority government and force a new election. This is forcing the Conservatives into a kind of tactical cooperation with the federal NDP, but neither really wants to admit this is happening.
17 Responses to “Canadians to Stage Fake Attack in Washington”
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September 4th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Ahh Canadian politics, best known for introducing the word “prorogue” into recent political discourse.
September 4th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
September 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Aqua Regia Says:
September 4th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Ahh Canadian politics, best known for introducing the word “prorogue” into recent political discourse.
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About time, I’ve always really liked them!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierogi
September 4th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
It’s a trick! The last time Canadian soldiers entered Washington, they burned down the White House!
September 4th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
OMG, wait till Glenn Beck attaches himself to this like a lamprey. WHEEEE!
September 4th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
It’s lucky our nation has such a good sense of humor about these things.
September 4th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
calling all toasters Says:
September 4th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
It’s lucky our nation has such a good sense of humor about these things.
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Hockey season isn’t that far off
September 4th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
First off, up here our provincial leaders are called “Premiers.” Only the leader of the Federal government is called the “Prime Minister.”
Second, the more interesting tactical element has less to do with cooperation with the federal NDP and more to do with the Senate. Harper had just finished appointing nine new senators, including his former campaign chair, his long-time communications assistant, and the former president of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Appointing an NDP premier to the ambassadorship helped to turn the press’ attention off these partisan patronage appointments, and at the very least, helped to balance out the critical stories that would otherwise have been written.
September 4th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
So what is the NDP supposed to be doing for the Tories in return for this honor?
September 4th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Like Mark said, Doer was the Premier of Manitoba, similar to how Schwarzenegger and Paterson are not the “Presidents” of California and New York.
Mark is also right about the motive. It seems more like a distraction from Harper’s Senate move (which was certain to earn him calls of hypocrite, and did), especially when you consider Igantieff hadn’t actually called for toppling the government when Harper made the appointment. So it really doesn’t seem like a quid pro quo sort of thing, unless Harper somehow knew secretly that Igantieff was going to announce opposition. Also likely is he felt he could get a popular NDP Premier out of the way into a job Harper would have control over, freeing Manitoba up for a Conservative premier owing debt to Harper.
SqueakyRat, the NDP would be voting to keep the government in power, though that seems unlikely at the moment since the Conservatives are well-poised for an election and can’t really work with the NDP after condeming the Liberals for doing so earlier this year, so they’ve publicly rejected cooperation. And the NDP wouldn’t really be doing this in return for Doer’s appointment, just to keep from having to go into an election in which they think they’ll lose seats.
September 4th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
John Robarts sometimes styled himself Prime Minister of Ontario. Google gives 301 hits, many for the “Confederation of Tomorrow” meeting which he convened.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:28 am
First off, up here our provincial leaders are called “Premiers.” Only the leader of the Federal government is called the “Prime Minister.”
Except for Quebec, that is, where the head of government is le premier ministre du Quebec, or, as the Quebecois seem to prefer, the Prime Minister of Quebec in English.
Just so happens that the proincial legislature of that province is styled l’assemblee nationale, after the French example presumably.
September 5th, 2009 at 10:54 am
God, enough Canadian elections already. I’m in a staunchly liberal riding, so I think I’ll sit this one out, just like I did last year. This will be our 4th election in 5 years, and it looks like we may be doomed to minority conservative governments for awhile given our 2 left/center-left parties, and the Bloq Quebecois stealing votes from true national parties in Quebec.
And I’d love to abolish our useless Senate. Honestly, I’m not even sure I know what they do. I just know they aren’t elected, they are randomly chosen to reward donors and friends, and they are expensive. Get rid of the tired, useless system.
September 5th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Save them from being tossed out of power!
By the way Kevin, the Canadian Senate is supposed to approve the laws being voted by the House of Commons. In theory, they could block laws that they don’t like. Right now, the Senate is controlled by the Liberals, so a law being voted by the Tories could be blocked by the Senate. But they won’t do it because it would create a precedent…
In any case, Harper just lost a couple of more votes in Quebec by appointing Jacques Demers to the Senate. He’s well like here since having coached the Montreal Canadiens hockey franchise to their last Stanley Cup win but come on, the guy published his biography where he admits he can’t even read and write and now he’s in the Senate!!! How cynical can Harper be just to try to please Quebec!
September 5th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
However, Mark, the leader of Quebec is called the “Premier Ministre”: the same term used for the leader of Canada. No doubt this is just an idosyncrasy and in no way tied to sovereigntist politicing.
Gotta say, this staged battle seems like a sad ploy for attention and an unseemly bit of panic-mongering in a jittery nation prone to knee-jerk invasions of arbitrary nations. Let’s hope Yemen or Norway doesn’t have to pay the price.
September 6th, 2009 at 2:59 am
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September 8th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Matt is undoubtadly translating from the French. Doer was “Premier Ministre de Manitoba”, but he is only “Premier of Manitoba”. An odd quirk in Canada’s linguistic duality.
But in Quebec, the “Premier Minister de Quebec” is also the “Prime Minister of Quebec”, at least officialy, if not in popualr anglophone terminology.
As always, Matt knows Canada better than his ill-informed Canadian readers.