A few minutes after Liberal Stephane Dion presented his party’s amendments to the Conservative motion on Afghanistan, Prime Minister Harper convened a press conference in the House of Commons foyer to talk about the Liberal position. Whereas the Opposition Leader’s office allowed reporters to ask Dion at least 16 questions over the better part of 30 minutes, the Prime Minister’s staff limited reporters to just four question, two in English and two in French. Here’s what the PM said in English:
Harper: I welcome the greater clarity in the Liberal position on the mission in Afghanistan. I think the position, as I understand it today, is very clear and that is that Canada should remain with a military mission in Afghanistan through to 2011. We will obviously examine all of their proposals in detail before responding to all of them, but I think this is important progress that has been made and I remind all of you that the government established the Manley Panel last fall with the express intention of bringing a bipartisan or non-partisan consensus to this particular mission and I think we've made progress here.
We have two positions now in the House of Commons. We have our position and the position of the Liberal Party, which is to essentially support the continued presence of Canada in Afghanistan according to a range of things — our international obligations, our obligations toward the Afghan people, … and obviously our obligations to our men and women in uniform who believe in their mission. At the same time, we have the position of the NDP and the position of the Bloc, which is to pull Canadian troops out of Afghanistan as early as next year, a position that's fundamentally different.
We’re going to go through this all in great detail. There are other differences in the motion but the government's objective is to seek common ground, so we will look at these in great detail with the express intention of trying to find common ground. But I think this is a positive development and one that I think is moving the debate in the right direction.
Reporter: Sir, what do you make of the fact that the Liberal motion makes no mention that there be no combat role post-2009. Is this enough movement in your mind to fashion a compromise and to avoid an election on this issue?
Harper: Let me clear that the government believes that the Afghan mission is important enough, it's important enough in terms of Canada's international reputation and obligations in terms of the obligations we've taken on towards the people of Kandahar and in terms of the obligations we've taken on to the men and women in uniform that we've asked to pursue this mission and to sacrifice and, and for whom, and to whom it is something they believe in very strongly, I think this motion is significant enough that it has to be a confidence matter. And that's why we said that.
I don't think we could just abandon this mission and pretend nothing had happened. That said, I would agree with what the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party said last week. I don't think it is desirable for the government or for the country to fight an election over this issue. It is desirable for us to find a bipartisan consensus. And I don't think in the end it matters whether it's a Conservative motion or a Liberal motion because it can't be a Conservative mission or a Liberal mission. It must be a Canadian mission that there's some degree of consensus on.
One of the things I'm encouraged about in this motion is that it backs away from any suggestion that we would dictate operational decisions to military commanders on the ground. Afghanistan is an extremely dangerous environment and I don't think it is realistic that military commanders would be phoning 24 Sussex every other day to ask whether they could undertake certain operations or not other operations. So I think the fact that the Liberal Party has backed away from any suggestion of that I think it's a positive development.
Reporter: Prime Minister, your government has been asking NATO countries for a thousand troops as reinforcements in Kandahar. Mr. Dion says they have to take over the counter-insurgency operations in Kandahar and suggests there should be more. Is that doable? Is it feasible to ask NATO countries for that?
Harper: Well as I say, we're going to look very carefully at the wording in the Liberal motion. I think what's very clear is that to be successful we do need additional NATO commitment in Kandahar. And I think NATO needs to understand that for NATO to be successful, NATO needs to be making those additional commitments in Kandahar and elsewhere. I think NATO really has begun finally to grapple with the seriousness of the challenge in Afghanistan and the necessity of making changes in order to have success.
I think what's important as we look at specific missions is we obviously want a motion — the Liberal Party agrees with us I think — the upshot of what they're saying is that we do need those additional troops. They agree with the Manley recommendations in that regard. I think it's important that we not put other things in the motion that would cause NATO not to come forward with those additional resources. So I don't want the motion to be internally contradictory in that sense, but we're going to look carefully at what is proposed, that we need to get those troops, we want to get those troops and I think if we phrase this right, we certainly are making it very clear to allies that Canada's looking for a partnership in Afghanistan. We are not looking to, you know, impose our will on other military countries. We are looking to have a partnership in Kandahar and I think, I think that's the way to, to frame this particular request.
And then, a couple of hours later, there was this exchange during Question Period in the House of Commons:
Hon. Jack Layton (Toronto—Danforth, NDP): Mr. Speaker, former prime minister Lester Pearson said, “Of all of our dreams today, there is none more important or so hard to realize than that of peace”. It is clear that the Liberal Party has now abandoned that pathway and it is a sad day. It has chosen to follow the government in extending this war for another three years. Will the Prime Minister at least agree that there will be a vote on this matter prior to the budget vote taking place, so we can know where the House stands on the prolongation of war versus the–
The Speaker: The Right Hon. Prime Minister.
Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC): Mr. Speaker, we are working on getting a consensus on a motion that can indeed pass the House of Commons and obviously uphold Canada's obligations and international reputation and support our men and women.
It is not normally my habit to defend the Liberal Party, but the Liberal Party, for example, not only entered us into Afghanistan, but the Liberal Party directed this country through World War II, because the parties that run this country understand that in a dangerous world, we sometimes have to use force to maintain peace.