On willing parties

Embassy goes into more detail about the Con foreign policy agenda which the Libs have signed onto. And while the article itself leaves any criticism until the end, there's even more not to like than was reported before:

In October, CIDA established an Office for Democratic Governance with a budget of $42 million that, according to CIDA spokeswoman Ginette Thibodeau, will work to build partnerships between Canadian experts, non-governmental organizations and government departments, as well as other countries and international organizations that are working on democratic governance.

"The Office for Democratic Governance concentrates its work in four essential areas of democratic governance: freedom and democracy, the rule of law, human rights and accountable public institutions," Ms. Thibodeau said in an email.

The committee recommended, however, that the government start working with political parties as well...

The committee also recommended the government establish through an Act of Parliament an arms-length foundation for international democratic development following consultation with all political parties, and contribute enough resources to make it a world leader in the field.

One way it will do so is with a centre that will focus on helping democracy through support and training for political parties, a move experts say differs from the existing policy of working with bureaucrats in developing countries...

However, while the idea of working with political parties has been adopted by other donor countries in the past–including the United States–the strategy has been criticized over fears it amounts to the West influencing those countries.

In dissenting reports, the Bloc Québécois and NDP said the committee, in writing its report, had taken the advice of only a handful of the dozens of witnesses members heard, especially proponents for the foundation and centre, and cautioned against the government supporting political parties abroad.

The idea of using Canada's resources to train foreign political parties is one that can only be seen as problematic at the best of times given the potential to be seen as unduly meddling in other countries' politics. But it's all the more bizarre for the Libs to be willing to support the idea when the current Canadian government is so plainly bent on making foreign-policy decisions based on ideological affinity rather than anything approaching merit or principle.

For an opposition which claims not to support the Cons' values, the Libs seem awfully eager to open the door for Deceivin' Stephen to use Canadian development funds to support their right-wing-heavy idea of development abroad. And for all the harm the Cons have already done at home, it'll be all the worse if they're able to make Harper-type government more common in the world at large.