Australia, Canada, and Iraq by Ramesh Thakur & Jack Cunningham

Author:Ramesh Thakur & Jack Cunningham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2015-09-10T00:00:00+00:00

In the decision on Iraq in 2003, St. Laurent’s basic principle continued to be observed. Chrétien’s closest aide, Eddie Goldenberg, recounts receiving a phone call from the prime minister right after the announcement that Canada would not be taking part in military action. After Chrétien told him that Bush would be vindictive and that things might be rough, Goldenberg told the prime minister of a conversation he and I had recently had: “John [English] says the decision to stay out of the war has averted a potential major national unity crisis. English,” he continued, “reminded me of how national unity is never far from the surface in Canada. Canadian participation in the war, he said, would have been extremely unpopular in Quebec,” and could have affected the course of the heated provincial election campaign by allowing Bernard Landry of the Parti Québécois to claim it proved the existence of a profound gap between the values of Quebec and those of English Canada. According to Goldenberg, until I raised the subject, “there had never been any reference to Quebec in all the discussions on Iraq in Cabinet or in any of my own talks with the prime minister.” None was needed. It was bred in their Liberal bones.[28]

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