The Harper government has unveiled a new motion to end the Canadian military mission in the volatile Kandahar region of Afghanistan by the end of 2011. And the Liberals appear ready to support it, apparently removing one possible election trigger.
Firstly Harper's popularity in the polls puts him in an extremely good bargaining position. The deal he's getting isn't as good as he could have gotten out of Dion.
Secondly, this is bad politics. We were taken the lead in Afghanistan - doing the work no one wanted to do. We were taking up the slack. It's something that has no material rewards and that alone makes it good politics because it's the principled position to take.
We shouldn't be passing the buck - we should be at the forefront of fighting for what's right.
That used to be something Canada wasn't afraid of doing.
The end of 2011 is nearly four years away. That's an eternity in politics. By that time, Afghanistan might be a very different place indeed, with a Tim Horton's every kilometer.
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