Thursday, January 31, 2008

Kudos to Keith

A huge non-partisan congrats to the Hon. Keith Martin for introducing his important private member's motion M-446.

Please show your support to this eminent Canadian politician and ask your own MP to help push this forward.

In today's National Post, John Ivison also mentions Dr. Martin's role in brokering a way for the Liberals to heal the divisiveness within their caucus regarding Afghanistan and still save face:

...This refinement in Liberal policy was discussed at yesterday's caucus meeting and emerged from a suggestion by B.C. Liberal Keith Martin that the Liberals propose hard targets, in numbers and timelines, for the development of the Afghan army, police, judiciary and correctional services. The imposition of timelines would satisfy Liberal concerns that Canada not be engaged in a "never-ending" war. But their adoption would also be in accord with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's belief that our contribution should be reviewed within two to three years...


The constituents of Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca must feel very proud of their MP.

* * * *

Update
: Out of curiosity I meandered over to Liblogs to see the reaction:

Not very favourable here - BCLSB: Liberal MP Moves To Ensure Nazi Rights! The rest likely prefer to ignore it and hope it will go away.

Via Bourque - Ready to quit Afghanistan, PM tells Bush: Reuters.

Mike Brock: Hope, thy name is Keith Martin. With a whole bunch of links, including JR's.

Catprint in the Mash - M-446

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wondering how the media will handle this. They might have to google 'Ezra Levant"
Oh wait...that would mean research...and work...and fact finding...and reporting...
guess we'll just wait for the spin.

bluetech

maryT said...

Maybe some of the common sense he had as a conservative has stayed with him as a liberal.

Anonymous said...

Maybe this is a signal that the Liberals want to actually do some work in parliment instead of making up scandals.

For all you Liberals that think that we Tories just oppose everything that you do - Kudos to Dr. Martin.

Anonymous said...

Waiting to see the look on Dion's face...
"Who eez dis Azra Leevan?"
"What eez dis hach are see?

Roy Eappen said...

I am astonished. I am actually complimenting agrit, though he was a Tory before. Kudos to Keith Martin.
I hope tmhis passes.

Anonymous said...

Roy he was a Reformer, I believe.

Still zippo on this at CTV.ca.
Anyone covering it?

bluetech

Jeff said...

The rest likely prefer to ignore it and hope it will go away.

many libloggers have spoken out in support of levant.

personally, i view levant as a shameful self-promoter and a hypocrite. anyhow......

speaking of ignoring sticky issues, i haven't read much from the blogging tories about justice gomery's condemnation of harper's top down style of government that shuts down any meaningful input from his caucus.

the information commissioner robert marleau (appointed by harper), john manley and now gomery have all accused the harper government of being too secretive and the antithesis of transparent in recent days.

Anonymous said...

I read where Dion and his Liberals are going to declare that this is a victory for the Liberals and that Harper blinked.

Are we ready for that BS?

Because it's going to spin out like Harper gave in, unless he takes charge of the language around the discussion and put the lead lemming and puffin in their place early

Anonymous said...

are you folks just dense?

You're congratulating the Liberal and then are going to boo-hoo when his party uses it to trump Harper.

lemmings maybe but blind moonbats, never.

Anonymous said...

Geez...if he really meant it he would have presented a Private Member's Bill that could have repealed the offending section, rather than a Private Member's Motion that has no legal effect.

Anonymous said...

"speaking of ignoring sticky issues, i haven't read much from the blogging tories about justice gomery's condemnation of harper's top down style of government that shuts down any meaningful input from his caucus."

Jeff I didnt realize Justice Gomery was doing another investigation, or is this still the ongoing one from ascam, or is this part of Muldoon and Schreiber, I'm so confused. Anyways what you're saying is Harpers a meanie? You mean just like Crouton was? Please explain.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Geez...if he really meant it he would have presented a Private Member's Bill that could have repealed the offending section, rather than a Private Member's Motion that has no legal effect

Well, we'll see how far this goes, but thanks for pointing out that it's just a motion. I made a slight edit to that effect.

Anonymous said...

ozPerhaps K. Martin deserves some credit but nevertheless this MP has on numerous occasions made derogatory comments about our "mission" in Afghanistan and at the same time added the weasel words "I support the troops" blah, blah, blah when in doing so was actually undermining our troops.

He left the Alliance as an opportunist looking for a cabinet position with Paul Martin. As a local, I am not a cheerleader for Keith Martin, he lost a lot of respect with local military personnel for his anti Afghanistan mission comments.

wilson said...

Just how stupid do Liberals and their msm warriors think Canadians are?
ANY short comings in the Accountability Act is a direct result of the opposition parties being the majority!
The opps controlled every line of the Act.
The only control to push thru their agenda is if PMSH calls for a vote of confidence.
And any time he did, Liberals sat on their hands.
The AA was watered down by the opposition, not the Conservatives.
During an election campaign, I'm sure this will be pointed out to Canadians!
ex: Lib and Dippers refused to hold Native band leaders to account! It was tossed out of the AA by the opps.
Just like the Lib/Dippers voted against Natives being included in the Charter of Rights.

JR said...

Joanne, Thank you for this. Keith Martin is my MP and I've always thought of him as a bit of an opportunistic weasel and whiner. He's run for the leadership of the Reform Party then the Alliance and was always quick to complain about his "unfair" opponents, grabbing the nearest microphone (usually the CBC) to whine. That he's no team player is epitomized by his shift to the Liberals - I thought they deserved him.

That said, he's VERY popular with his constituents and will be hard for anyone to beat no matter what party he runs for. Also in his favour is that he does stand up for his principles and will defend them courageously no matter how unpopular that may make him with his party. In this case, more power to him.

Anyway, I've sent him a congratulatory email thanking him for his HRA motion.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

JR, I'd be very proud to have him as my MP too.

In the issues of Afghanistan and free speech, I think it would be great if the two main parties dropped the rhetoric and attacks, and tried working together instead.

hunter said...

Well, it's progress, a tiny step towards freedom of speech. It would give the witch hunters a way out of the mess they are in right now.

JR said...

Joanne, thanks for the link. Your comment on my post twigged a second thought and update in which I worry about Keith's motion backfiring.

Anonymous said...

I believe that Martin could only forward a motion as Private Members Bills are a horse of a different colour. There is quite a proceedure involved in Private Members Bills.

Red Tory said...

Quite proud of my MP, but frankly much less so in light of the support he's receiving from some quarters...

Joanne (True Blue) said...

Mmmm...Shall I let that comment stand? Anyone care to voice any objections?

Möbius said...

Quite proud of my MP, but frankly much less so in light of the support he's receiving from some quarters...

We support him on this because he's right. Not sure why that would bother you.

Joanne (True Blue) said...

For the answer to that question, check this out.