Harper's principles versus CTV polls

Our embattled Prime Minister is still catching flak for his principled stand.

It's been a few weeks since Stephen Harper came out to bat for the democratic state of Israel versus the Hezbollah terrorist organization that provoked the current Middle-East dust-up in the first place. It wasn't a popular decision then, and it still isn't - and Harper knew it.

About 1,000 of Vancouver's Jewish community gathered, myself included, at the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue last night (with a visible RCMP presence after a Muslim American lunatic massacred people at a Jewish community centre in Seattle) applauded Harper's actions. No doubt, most Jews across Canada are sending their goodwill to the PM for his stand.

But Jewish voters are outnumbered these days by a great number of Muslim voters, boosted by immigration trends in recent decades. The numbers are still not that significant for either ethnic group relative to Canada's population (measured in the hundreds of thousands out of a population of over thirty million). Still, in the tight election race that will inevitably occur, every vote will count.

It may be that most Muslim voters are not necessarily swayed by Canada's foreign policy overseas and that other issues like health care, crime, social services ultimately sway their allegiance. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next election.

More disturbing is a poll taken by the Globe and Mail/CTV. Only 32 per cent of Canadians support Harper's stance, with 45 per cent in opposition. This squares with the statistic tht 77 per cent of Canadians believe Canada should be taking a neutral position.

Actually, the numbers seem to reflect the vote spread that put Harper in the PM's office in the first place. Political partisanship may be the cause of these numbers rather than any actual opinion on the conflict.

Of course, different results are possible when one frames the question differently. If Canadians had been asked whether national governments have a duty to protect their citizens from terrorism, nearly all would undoubtedly agree with that statement (except for terrorists, presumably). Even in our much more pacifistic modern-day society, most would likely approve of a war beyond our borders if some pint-sized European nation kept lobbing rockets at Newfoundland and kidnapped members of our coast guard.

But if these numbers indicate that Canadians are more concerned about their ability to travel abroad safely with a maple leaf glued to their backpack than with supporting a democracy in a life-and-death struggle with terrorists, then we're all in trouble.

tags: Stephen Harper, neocon agenda, Hezbollah terrorist, govern by poll, Israel Lebanon war