Viewing cable 05OTTAWA696, MICHAEL IGNATIEFF OFFERS VISION FOR LIBERAL PARTY,

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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 OTTAWA 000696 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MCAP PGOV PREL PINR CA
SUBJECT: MICHAEL IGNATIEFF OFFERS VISION FOR LIBERAL PARTY, 
CAUTION ON MISSILE DEFENSE 
 
¶1. Summary: Harvard-based Canadian Michael Ignatieff offered 
a compelling case as the Liberal Party,s keynote speaker for 
why the Liberals are the most successful party in Canada and 
can be expected to remain so well into the new century. He 
attributes the Party,s success to a national (as opposed to 
regional or class-based) program that includes protecting and 
enhancing the national unity of the country, preserving and 
defending Canada,s national sovereignty, and advancing the 
cause of social justice for all Canadians. Ignatieff offered 
caution that in the effort to distance itself from the 
militarization of space, Canada could go too far, and 
actually lose control over its sovereignty. It must deal 
with the BMD program in such a way that still allows Canada a 
seat at the table in the protection of the North American 
landmass. His comments were cited in the next day,s debate 
on missile debate, but they did not stop the overwhelming 
adoption of a resolution in the defense caucus &rejecting 
any role for Canada in the BMDS and all other systems that 
include space-based weapons.8 End Summary 
 
LIBERALISM IN THE AGE OF TERROR 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2. The keynote speaker in the Liberal Party Convention 
kickoff meeting was Toronto born Michael Ignatieff, currently 
head of the Carr Center on Human Rights at Harvard. 
Ignatieff is the grandson of Russian immigrants and son of a 
prominent Canadian diplomat and has spent much of the past 2 
decades traveling to war zones as a reporter and writer, sort 
of the Robert Kaplan of Canada. He has been identified as 
one who could be considered for a key leadership role in the 
Liberal Party in the future. Ignatieff is best known for his 
recent writings on political ethics in an age of terror, 
which lays out a middle course between the requirement for 
aggressive actions to protect liberal societies against 
sub-national mega-threats, and the need for Western 
Civilization to retain its ethical soul in the process. 
 
¶3. Ignatieff opened by paying tribute to the four RCMP 
officers killed in the line of duty earlier in the day, 
reminding the audience that this brutal killing of members of 
a force that is the very symbol of Canada ought to invoke not 
only sorrow but anger among Canadians. Ignatieff,s belief 
in the measured and prepared use of force while also 
consistently trumpeting the social roots of Canadian 
liberalism, was a common theme. 
 
THE PARTY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4. Ignatieff highlighted what he said were the three 
fundamentals that made the Liberals the governing party of 
the 20th Century in Canada and would make it the governing 
party of the 21st Century. He dismissed the other parties as 
being regional or class based, stating that only the Liberals 
represent the united nation of Canada. The party does so, he 
said, by protecting and enhancing the cause of national 
unity, preserving and defending national sovereignty, and 
advancing the cause of social justice for all Canadians. 
 
A LIGHT TO THE NATIONS 
---------------------- 
 
¶5. With regard to unity, Ignatieff spoke strongly in French 
about saying "non" to the division of the nation, and 
specifically saying "non" to the Bloc Quebecois. He urged 
caution about how the nation deals with the issue of new 
regional resource wealth, urging the provinces to work 
closely with the federal government to ensure that the issue 
does not create fissures in the country,s federal structure. 
 There is a global stake in Canada getting this right, 
Ignatieff said, since Canada is the most successful 
multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic country in the 
world. Canada should be a light to the nations by 
demonstrating that a nation of this complexity can exist with 
peace, order, and good government. Exporting this success to 
places such as Sri Lanka and the Balkans, Ignatieff said, 
should be what Canada,s foreign policy is all about. 
 
MANAGING SOVEREIGNTY 
-------------------- 
 
¶6. On the question of sovereignty Ignatieff said that 
U.S.-Canada relations will be the country,s biggest issue in 
the next generation. Anti-Americanism, Ignatieff said, is an 
electoral ghetto and the party would do well to leave it to 
the NDP. Continentalism (code for falling in line as a U.S. 
security puppet), is also a non-starter, Ignatieff said, 
which leaves the third option of being reliable neighbors, 
firm friends, but fully independent of its neighbor to the 
south. Ignatieff received a rousing applause when he 
reminded his audience that in the last two major wars 
Canadians fought for years before Americans were ever on the 
beaches. He suggested that when Canada in the second half of 
the century took an independent stand, e.g. on Cuba, China, 
and the ICC, its neighbor &respected us when we say no, 
because when we say yes we mean it.8 
 
¶7. Ignatieff then suggested that more must be done to be a 
credible international player in the world. &We can,t 
defend sovereignty with sermons,8 Ignatieff suggested, but 
need our own military, our own intelligence service, and we 
need to be real players in the global war on terror. He 
reminded the audience that Canada is next door to the main 
target of terrorism and must ensure it is not used as a 
staging ground for terrorists. He then spoke of the larger 
war on terror, suggesting that the central problem in failed 
states is security, and if Canada is going to be active 
working in the failed states that are the breeding ground for 
terrorism, its military &must be able to fire back.8 He 
received a huge ovation when he said that Canada should never 
again allow a repeat of Rwanda, where a Canadian general was 
given a mission without the means to achieve it. 
 
MISSILE DEFENSE AND NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. With regards to missile defense Ignatieff sounded a note 
of caution over the party,s rejection of the BMD program. 
He said he understood that the government had listened to the 
party and the party had listened to the country. But he 
suggested that it was necessary to balance fear of weapons in 
space, with the protection of Canada,s own sovereignty. The 
issue should be what will best defend Canada,s sovereignty, 
not whether one is pro or anti-American, and a vigorous and 
unmanaged rejection of the missile defense program could lead 
to &less control over our national sovereignty.8 Canada 
must be there at the table when key decisions are made, and 
must manage this issue so that this is a reality, Ignatieff 
stated. 
 
THE PARTY OF EQUALITY 
--------------------- 
 
¶9. Finally, on the Liberal Party being the party of equality, 
Ignatieff received the most robust reaction of the evening 
when he couched the gay marriage issue in these terms. He 
stuck closely to the party line in saying that the Liberal 
Party would not require religious groups to perform marriages 
that violated their religious principles, but would also not 
deny a basic right to people because of their sexual 
orientation. He went on to defend the Liberal Party as the 
best defender of Canada,s social justice because it is the 
party that is the most competent. He suggested however, that 
in a Canada with 1 million children in poverty, there is more 
to be done. He also received strong applause when he 
suggested that the federal government should use its power to 
make education more of a priority, to make Canadians the best 
educated and most capable citizens in the world. 
 
¶10. Comment: Ignatieff was reportedly less animated than 
usual in order not to show up the Prime Minister who will be 
the keynote speaker at the central Saturday night meeting. 
He nonetheless made a riveting speech that helped buck up the 
party faithful, and made a compelling case for why the 
Liberals are the country,s most successful party. 
Ignatieff,s call for a more robust military mirrors the case 
that is by now widely accepted by Canadians and may soon 
start to bear fruit. It will also be interesting to see how 
his views on missile defense play out in other sessions when 
the BMD issue is discussed. Ignatieff is someone to watch in 
the leadership of the Liberal Party of the future. 
 
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http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa 
 
CELLUCCI