I was in the House of Commons this morning for the historic address to a joint session of the Commons and the Senate by the first-ever democratically elected leader of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. [CTV has archived video of Karzai’s speech here — look for the video links on the right hand side of the page]
Among those present for Karzai’s speech were some of the family members of soldiers killed in Afghanistan. I spotted, for example, the parents of Capt. Nichola Goddard.
There were many notables in the Commons for his speech and some notable no-shows. Former Prime Minister Paul Martin, for example, was not in the House — even though both he and former Prime Minister Chretien were praised by Karzai for their commitment to Afghanistan. In fact, there were more than a dozen Liberal MPs — and perhaps as many two dozen — who were absent for the speech. This is all the more odd because it was the Liberals, of course, who first sent Canadian troops into Afghanistan. By comparison, I did not see an empty seat among the Conservative, BQ, or NDP benches.
Among the notables spotted in the Commons galleries and tucked into seats in all corners of the House:
- Mrs. Harper and Mrs. Karzai
- Liberal leadership hopeful and former NDP MP Bob Rae.
- Maj.-Gen. (ret’d) Lewis Mackenzie
- Auditor General Sheila Fraser
- Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart
- Senior officials, including the deputy minister, from the Department of Foreign Affairs. (That’s rare: Departmental bureaucrats rarely attend events in the Commons)
- Chief Electoral Officer Jean-Pierre Kingsley
One other notable no-show: RCMP Commissioner Zaccardelli. With several Mounties serving now in Afghanistan, many would have expected Zaccardelli to attend but, of course, had he shown up, he would have been besieged by us jackals in the press about his future as Commissioner.
Dear Mr Akin,
This is rapidly becoming, at least for me, a “must-visit” (horrible phrase) site.
Thank you,
Mark
Ottawa
Hi Mr. Akin,
Actually, I don't think Paul Martin works much any more, does he? For one who was supposed to be Mr. Canada…I think he is a disgrace, as are most in this party. They were in power so long and became so used to feeding at the public trough, all they can think about is how to once again belly up. Why else would they be fighting the new accountability act so hard?
Our brave men are fighting in Afghanistan for basic human rights of women, and to help keep the terrorists at bay. They are doing it for us. For so many liberals to boycott that famous heart-felt speech is just simply unforgivable!
Leasa
I should have been more clear — I never got the sense today that there was a “boycott” by the Liberals and, to be honest, I was so busy chasing other aspects of this particular story, I never got the opportunity to ask why so many Liberals appeared to be away from the House so, until we get a chance to ask them about it — it might a little unfair to suggest they were “boycotting”. After all, as I pointed out in the original post, the Liberals were the party that initially agreed to help Afghanistan.
I find it interesting you wrote “first-ever democratically elected leader”. I guess you and I have differing definitions of what constitutes “democratically elected”.
Hamas was democratically elected– Karzai was not. Hah!
Oh come on now…did you not see the line ups of people waiting, risking their lives to vote? Did you not see the purple fingers? They elected a leader who favours rights for women, who favours democracy and who favours freedom.
Hamas may have been elected…which was a grave error of judgement. Perhaps it was people who lived under the terrorist threat of Hamas that voted in favour of them, thinking it would encourage the Hamas to stop killing people?
~As for 'boycott'? Well, if more than a handful of liberals were absent, for whatever reasons, that to me spells 'boycott'. It has completely rude especially with our military families present. It was especially unforgivable for Paul Martin not to show…
Leasa