Stephen Colbert:

Pollsters are claiming that many Canadians disagree with Prime Minister Harper’s support for Israeli aggression against Hezbollah. According to the Strategic Counsel poll in today’s Globe and Mail, 45% of Canadians polled do not approve of his support. The poll also claims that three quarters of Canadians want their country to remain neutral in this latest Middle East conflict.

I have my reservations about popular opinion polls. In fact, I am downright cynical.

Do I think Canadians fundamentally disagree with the Prime Minister? Do they support neutrality because it makes sense? No, on both counts.

The poll questions are abstractions. They do not provide clarity. In fact, I think they muddy the waters for many Canadians, reducing our present role in the world to the lowest common denominator of our history.

For the last decade, the form and function of our nation’s role in the world has remained static. Informally, Canadians cling to the vaporous idea of Canada as a nation of peacekeepers. Formally, there has not been a foreign policy review in this country since 1994.

If, for example, peacekeeping is going to be an essential form of Canadian foreign policy, then we must define the function of that peacekeeping in modern conflicts. We have not adapted Canadian foreign policy tools like peacekeeping for contemporary conflicts. As a result, Canadian foreign policy has not advanced and the public is not able to comprehend Canada’s potential role in the current conflict in the Middle East. We do not know what peacekeeping in Lebanon means.

Anachronistic notions have become a substitute for clear action. The Strategic Counsel poll is a stunning example. It does not reflect any clear options for Canada in the current conflict. The poll is a reaffirmation of Canadian foreign policy from the early 1990s, asking questions framed on the subjects of neutrality, consistency, peacekeeping, and support for either side of the conflict.

The current conflict in Lebanon does not have clearly defined sides. It challenges the meaning of neutrality, and changes too quickly to warrant consistency.

If this poll indicates anything, it is that we have an abstract way of discussing Canada’s role in the world. It is not informative, and as a gauge of popular opinion, it is irrelevant. Worse, it pulls our attention away from the more fundamental problem: that we really don’t know what we’re going to do in Lebanon.

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This post was written by alevo

[tags]Israel, Lebanon, Canada, politics, foreign policy[/tags]