The sound of silence

The Globe and Mail is hosting its forum on Canada's role in Afghanistan today. And while all three other parties in Parliament participated in the Q&A with Globe readers, the Cons' contribution doesn't seem to have changed from many of the events during the past campaign:

The Globe invited Mr. O'Connor and External Affairs Minister Peter MacKay to join the discussion, or to nominate a representative to speak for the Conservative government. However, they declined to take questions from globeandmail.com readers. Mr. O'Connor said Sunday the government intends to provide an update to Parliament when it meets in April but will not allow a vote on the issue.

I suppose there's at least an internal consistency since the Cons took office, in that they're matching their unwillingness to deal with the issue in Parliament with a refusal to address the concerns of Canadians in the Globe's forum. But that's certainly a turnaround both from the Cons' general theme of more accountable government, and from their specific promises on defence as pointed out by Dawn Black. And it'll be tough for Canadians to conclude but that the Cons' unwillingness to defend their plans on Afghanistan and other issues must be based on reason to question whether those plans are defensible.