Kenney Attends Controversial Rally

[jdobbin]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/24082006/2/nati...rist-group.html

I wonder what Kenney has to say about this.

[jbg]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/24082006/2/nati...rist-group.html

I wonder what Kenney has to say about this.

Did he have reason to know at the time what was up?

[August1991]

From link above:

"Is that a double standard?" asked Liberal MP Denis Coderre of Jason Kenney's attendance at the rally. Said interim Liberal leader Bill Graham: "I think it's so hypocritical when you heard the words that came out of his mouth a couple of days ago about the observations made about one of our members and then you find he himself is standing there embracing a terrorist group."

Coderre couldn't disguise his delight Thursday at news Kenney was photographed at the April rally.

Coderre should just shut up about this. Raising the issue will just make the Liberals look bad. First, the group connected to Kenney is simply too confusing to understand (... National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political wing of the PMOI....) Second, Coderre makes the new Liberals look like the old Liberals. Down and dirty in the mud. Third, the Liberals should put this Hizballah/Liberal stuff behind them and as Michael Moore would say, move on. It does the Liberals no good to keep it in the press for another cycle.

Despite Warren Kinsella's efforts at spin, the federal Liberals have lost a lot of Jewish support in the past few days and that's sad in a way.

[jdobbin]

Despite Warren Kinsella's efforts at spin, the federal Liberals have lost a lot of Jewish support in the past few days and that's sad in a way.

They would have lost a lot of those people anyways, I think. People like David Asper and Gerald Schwartz were already moving philosophically to the right on a lot of issues.

Kenney does have to answer though why he was at a rally for this group even if it wasn't coming from the Liberals.

[jdobbin]

Did he have reason to know at the time what was up?

Kenney has been ruthless with other parties about attending rallies where they said they didn't know who was all involved.

His excuse sounds like what the other parties were saying.

[Ricki Bobbi]

It's easy to write off the lost support in the Jewish community for the Liberals as *inevitable* but not very shrewd politically. If the loss of support trickles down there could be some MTV seats that are all of a sudden in play for the Conservatives when they weren't last January.

This thing with Kenney is truly a tempest in a teapot. Here is a quick test of why. Had you heard of Hezbollah before the Liberal mini-crisis over the issue? Had you heard of the National Council of Resistance of Iran before this story came up?

They would have lost a lot of those people anyways, I think. People like David Asper and Gerald Schwartz were already moving philosophically to the right on a lot of issues.

Kenney does have to answer though why he was at a rally for this group even if it wasn't coming from the Liberals.

[geoffrey]

Excuse my ignorance... MTV seat?

[Ricki Bobbi]

MTV = MontrealTorontoVancouver.

That was the *hip* term for where the Liberal support had shrunk to after the election.

Granted, Vancouver's isn't as big as in the other two cities. But it is still influential...

Excuse my ignorance... MTV seat?

[jdobbin]

It's easy to write off the lost support in the Jewish community for the Liberals as *inevitable* but not very shrewd politically. If the loss of support trickles down there could be some MTV seats that are all of a sudden in play for the Conservatives when they weren't last January.

This thing with Kenney is truly a tempest in a teapot. Here is a quick test of why. Had you heard of Hezbollah before the Liberal mini-crisis over the issue? Had you heard of the National Council of Resistance of Iran before this story came up?

I don't think Liberals have abandoned the Jewish community. There are probably several social conservative policies on the domestic front where Jewish people are less likely to find a common stand with in regards to the Conservative party. I think for some of the super rich though like Asper and Schwartz, they have been edging towards the Tories for some time.

As far as Kenney goes, every time he opens his mouth, he'll be reminded about the rally he attended. That's just how Parliament goes. Just because people know Hezbollah more doesn't mean they would ignore Iranian or Tamil rallies by groups labelled as terrorists by our government.

Kenney isn't off the hook.

[Ricki Bobbi]

The Liberals incoherence on this issue is the problem. Depends which MP or leadership candidate you listen to. Advocating for Hezbollah will definitely be seen as abandoning the Jewish community.

Only time will tell, but it seems like wishful thinking how long this issue will dog Kenney.

*If* the opposition could focus on the issue you could be right. It would take a level of leadership, discipline and co-ordination that hasn't been seen on the part of the opposition since the election.

I don't think Liberals have abandoned the Jewish community. There are probably several social conservative policies on the domestic front where Jewish people are less likely to find a common stand with in regards to the Conservative party. I think for some of the super rich though like Asper and Schwartz, they have been edging towards the Tories for some time.

As far as Kenney goes, every time he opens his mouth, he'll be reminded about the rally he attended. That's just how Parliament goes. Just because people know Hezbollah more doesn't mean they would ignore Iranian or Tamil rallies by groups labelled as terrorists by our government.

Kenney isn't off the hook.

[August1991]

Excuse my ignorance... MTV seat?

If it's any consolation, I didn't get that one either Geoffrey. Thanks Ricki Bobbi.

[jbg]

It's easy to write off the lost support in the Jewish community for the Liberals as *inevitable* but not very shrewd politically. If the loss of support trickles down there could be some MTV seats that are all of a sudden in play for the Conservatives when they weren't last January.

The loss is a more fundamental development. Jews have been Liberals/Democrats almost reflexively since they emigrated to Canada/United States. This is the equivalent of the labor unions supporting the CPC en masse, and ditching the NDP.

[Ricki Bobbi]

That is *if* it happens. Still no guarantees on that. But it isn't unprecedented.

A big part of the Reagan landslides in 80 and 84 was the support he got from the labour movement.

I still don't think the Conservatives can claim large-scale Jewish support yet. But they are doing the right things to get there.

The loss is a more fundamental development. Jews have been Liberals/Democrats almost reflexively since they emigrated to Canada/United States. This is the equivalent of the labor unions supporting the CPC en masse, and ditching the NDP.

[jdobbin]

I don't see any big changes from the election.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/25082006/6/n-ca...level-poll.html

[Ricki Bobbi]

Fair enough.

It seems like the public is withholding judgment till the Conservatives have a little more time in office and/or the Liberals pick a new leader.

The spring 2007 election might just be another Conservative minority at this rate... Although election fatigue has gotta set in at some point.

[scribblet]

There's talk of an election this fall, candidate selection and nomination meetings are being set up now.

Harper has made the softwood vote a confidence vote, which puts the liberals between a rock and a hard place. I can't see the liberals wanting to force an election before they are better organized and have a leader. Not to mention they are a tad cash strapped right now.

[geoffrey]

There's talk of an election this fall, candidate selection and nomination meetings are being set up now.

Harper has made the softwood vote a confidence vote, which puts the liberals between a rock and a hard place. I can't see the liberals wanting to force an election before they are better organized and have a leader. Not to mention they are a tad cash strapped right now.

The CPC isn't polling that well though right now either though. Especially not in Quebec. I think we'll be back where we started if we go to an election now.

[scribblet]

There's talk of an election this fall, candidate selection and nomination meetings are being set up now.

Harper has made the softwood vote a confidence vote, which puts the liberals between a rock and a hard place. I can't see the liberals wanting to force an election before they are better organized and have a leader. Not to mention they are a tad cash strapped right now.

The CPC isn't polling that well though right now either though. Especially not in Quebec. I think we'll be back where we started if we go to an election now.

I'm inclined to agree, I think we would end up with another minority conservative gov't. Harper seems to be playing his cards fairly well though, methinks he's playing poker with the softwood vote. Will the liberals blink and fold or chance another election.

[kimmy]

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/24082006/2/nati...rist-group.html

I wonder what Kenney has to say about this.

CTV

A photograph of Kenney at an April rally, organized by the Committee in Defense of Human Rights in Iran, appears on the website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the Toronto Star reported Thursday.

The council is the political wing of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), which is one of the names used by the Mujaheedin-e-Khalq.

The Mujaheedin-e-Khalq is an armed Iranian rebel group formally designated as a terror group by the governments of Canada, the United States and the European Union.

The Canadian government put the group on its official terror list in May 2005.

"Dozens of Iranians and supporters of the Iranian Resistance joined in a rally in front of the Canadian Parliament to condemn (the) clerical regime's plan is to execute political prisoners in Iran, specially those affiliated to the PMOI," the national council says on its website.

To me it sounds like a lack of due diligence, not support for terror. It sounds like Kenney or somebody in his staff was dumb to not do adequate research before attending. I'm sure that even Denis Coderre would concede that "dumb mistake" is a much more credible explanation than "Harper government endorses obscure Iranian terrorist group."

Not sure the same excuse would fly for the Liberals at the Hezbollah rally.

Anyway... is this really something Liberals want to make an issue of?

Warren Kinsella wrote recently (under the heading "Super-Secret Liberal Insider Type Stuff", I believe) that when they were successful, they managed the debate. The example he used: don't fight a battle on the Gun Registry. Why? Because although the gun registry is a defensible idea, discussing it invites discussing law and order issues, which is one area where Liberals lose ground to Conservatives.

Borrowing Kinsella's logic... while it might be amusing that Kenney stepped in it by attending a rally linked to Iranian terrorists... is that an issue that Liberals want to discuss? Because if they do, it invites discussion of Liberals attending the Hezbollah rally, and the controversy of the Liberals who endorsed negotiating with Hezbollah, and the Young Liberal leader who made the controversial statements regarding Israel and "zionists" within the party. It's very serious issue for the party.

Jason Kenney stepped in a cow-pie... the Liberals have stepped on land-mines.

-k

[Hicksey]

Someone here wondered why I am so cynical about everything. When you see things like this, you realize that no matter who is in power we get continually disappointed. When you see that no matter who is in office, nobody ever does what they say they will unless it makes them look good in the media how can you not look at things with an attitude that you'll believe it when you see it and until then everyone's lying?

They say one thing and then through their actions something completely different. It doesn't seem to escape any part of life.

The reason I used my profession before to explain it, and the reason I knew that the person that rebuked it didn't know what they are talking about, is that in the industry in which I work there is such a shortage of personnel that people float all kinds of promises in front of us and tell us all kinds of things to get us to change jobs. These promises are almost never kept. As a result, every time people promise us something we are naturally on guard and skeptical and unbelieving until we see what is promised materialize. Because we as a vocation have been so scarred we tend to look at things with a level of cynicism.

The promises made to us by government are no different. I've watched politics for about 10 years now and seen at best 10% of the promises made to us kept just the same as all the things I have been promised in my job. So I look at government though the same lens and have no doubt that most people that work in the industry I do view just it the same.

I'm not singling out any one party, one is as bad as the next as far as I am concerned.

[kimmy]

On a somewhat related note, I saw a headline on the National Post recently, indicating that there was a rally for the Tamil Tigers at the University of Waterloo. Anybody catch that?

-k

edit:

National Post story...

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/st...8c95&k=5856

Related story...

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/200...l-waterloo.html