So former Pakistani Air Force Officer, self-proclaimed "knower of people", "expert" on Middle Eastern and South Asian affairs, and PM Shrub's latest blatant attempt to buy minority votes, didn't accompany External Affairs neophyte - Peter MacKay - to (of all places) South Asia. Mr. Khan indicated his "expertise" in the region would help the Shrub government deal with a situation involving the arrests of suspected terrorists in the GTA.
Why would Canada's "expert" on South Asian affairs - someone who claims to have "special" insight into the region's problems - not join a tour of Canadian officials to the region? Can anyone guess why this might be? Anyone? Bueller? Maybe - just maybe (and this is just a wild guess based on "wild speculation") - PM Shrub thought he would be able to "buy" South Asian votes in the GTA with this move. What easier way to do this than to pick someone who has some conservative leanings (re: Wajid's stand on same-sex marriage), conveniently located in a city where the Cons got shut out last election? Now PM Shrub and his neo-Con brethren can claim a couple of things: 1) they're "engaged" in the Middle East; and 2) they can't be a party harboring any "closet racists" when they have (insert appropriate race/ethnicity/demographic here) in their party. Does he really hope/think that modern urban Canadians will easily forget the hate-filled remarks made by former Reform/Alliance candidates - most of whom are still keenly active within the party?
Where's Khan's report? Last Spring he promised (according to CBC News): ..."Khan promised at the time that his report would be available to all political parties, promising it would be "unbiased and freestanding."" Khan lied to Canadians - with PM Shrub's help. Where's ANY accountability in that? What area of Middle East relations does Khan hold expertise in? Not sure how being a car dealer helped with that. The American-backed Pakistani Air Force did little if any work with any Middle Eastern nations - especially the one's he visited. Yet, Khan still claims: "some expertise, I have contacts and I have intel." Wouldn't Foreign Affairs benefit from his being along on the junket?
Here's reality:
1) Petey has no power to do anything in the region anyways, and his trip to South Asia is just another "Bush-esque" flag-waving, tax-payer-sponsored PR junket aimed at rallying Canadians to "support the troops" in the most politically partisan manner one can dream (I mean seriously, we all know that conservatives are the only ones anywhere who "love troops" - they're just usually too "chicken-hawk" to serve alongside them)
2) Newsflash - Khan isn't an expert on anything besides selling used cars and flying scrapped ex-American warbirds, and he landed himself a cushy position where he has to do basically nothing - just because of the riding he happened to cross the floor in.
Accountable government?
No comments:
Post a Comment