If Thomas Mulcair wins the NDP leadership, he will be the third consecutive Leader of the Opposition to have his commitment to Canada questioned.
His sin: holding dual citizenship while seeking office. Stéphane Dion was guilty of the same. Michael Ignatieff, meanwhile, had the gall to spend much of his career outside of Canada, including a brief stint as a professor — and you have to spit this out for full effect — at Harvard.
For his part, Mulcair says that he took out French citizenship two decades ago, after being separated from his wife and children — all dual citizens — at a checkpoint in Madrid.
“It sent a shiver down my spine not to have the same travel documents as my kids and my wife,” he said on Tuesday.
Then why not all travel on Canadian passports? The question did not come up this week, but rest assured that it will. Because even though his NDP opponents have largely laid off the issue so far, the matter of Mulcair’s dual loyalties — and dual loyalties are, by definition, what dual citizenship entails — is not going anywhere.
Mulcair and his flacks are doing a fine job of spinning the story. They have chosen their lines well.
“A lot of the cultural communities who have been so assiduously courted by the Conservatives over the past six years are going to be surprised to learn that the Conservative prime minister believes that you’re more Canadian if your family doesn’t have a dual background,” Mulcair said on Tuesday. For good measure, he also made mention of his efforts against sovereignty during both Québec referendum campaigns.
But we have heard all of this before. Stéphane Dion came into federal politics to fight for Canadian unity, yet his dual citizenship was used to score points against him by the Conservatives and, yes, the NDP. And when Stephen Harper launched his first round of attack ads against Michael Ignatieff, the then-Liberal leader’s reply bore striking resemblance to Mulcair’s.
“I have lived and worked outside this country, just like millions of other Canadians,” said Ignatieff in a May 2009 video. “But to Stephen Harper — to the Conservative Party — Canadians who have lived outside the country are less Canadian because of it. Tell that to new Canadians, born outside this country. Are they less Canadian because of it?”
Of course not, but that is hardly the point. Two years later, Ignatieff was toast.
None of this is to say that history is set to repeat itself. Mulcair has yet to win the NDP leadership, and even if he does, he can renounce his French connection with the stroke of a pen. Ignatieff’s career outside of Canada was a central feature of his life’s story, and Stéphane Dion did not lose because of his dual citizenship.
Yet Mulcair’s multiple allegiances could still make a difference for some voters. His supporters may sneer at what their candidate has called “profoundly parochial and insular thinking,” but that does not change the fact that many Canadians will feel a quiet queasiness about a would-be Prime Minister holding two passports. After all, when the country elected Stephen Harper, he held none.
It is a credit to Canada that Mulcair thinks he can win without giving up his second citizenship. Where else, after all, could a person in his position even think of running for the highest elected office in the land? But then again, where else could someone be a candidate for Prime Minister after spending most of his adult life abroad?
After last May’s election, a victorious Tory friend took me to lunch. “What were you thinking?” he asked, “you” being everyone who had supported Michael Ignatieff for the Liberal leadership. How did we ever think our guy could win, given his cosmopolitan past?
The truth, I said, was that we were convinced Canadians would not get suckered by the Conservative smear campaign, and that voters — especially immigrant voters — would see Ignatieff’s experience abroad as the immense asset that we all believed it was.
Sound familiar? It should. Because if Tom Mulcair wants to know what lies ahead, he should look in the rear-view mirror; the lessons of recent history may be closer than they appear.
Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: iPolitics
His sin: holding dual citizenship while seeking office. Stéphane Dion was guilty of the same. Michael Ignatieff, meanwhile, had the gall to spend much of his career outside of Canada, including a brief stint as a professor — and you have to spit this out for full effect — at Harvard.
For his part, Mulcair says that he took out French citizenship two decades ago, after being separated from his wife and children — all dual citizens — at a checkpoint in Madrid.
“It sent a shiver down my spine not to have the same travel documents as my kids and my wife,” he said on Tuesday.
Then why not all travel on Canadian passports? The question did not come up this week, but rest assured that it will. Because even though his NDP opponents have largely laid off the issue so far, the matter of Mulcair’s dual loyalties — and dual loyalties are, by definition, what dual citizenship entails — is not going anywhere.
Mulcair and his flacks are doing a fine job of spinning the story. They have chosen their lines well.
“A lot of the cultural communities who have been so assiduously courted by the Conservatives over the past six years are going to be surprised to learn that the Conservative prime minister believes that you’re more Canadian if your family doesn’t have a dual background,” Mulcair said on Tuesday. For good measure, he also made mention of his efforts against sovereignty during both Québec referendum campaigns.
But we have heard all of this before. Stéphane Dion came into federal politics to fight for Canadian unity, yet his dual citizenship was used to score points against him by the Conservatives and, yes, the NDP. And when Stephen Harper launched his first round of attack ads against Michael Ignatieff, the then-Liberal leader’s reply bore striking resemblance to Mulcair’s.
“I have lived and worked outside this country, just like millions of other Canadians,” said Ignatieff in a May 2009 video. “But to Stephen Harper — to the Conservative Party — Canadians who have lived outside the country are less Canadian because of it. Tell that to new Canadians, born outside this country. Are they less Canadian because of it?”
Of course not, but that is hardly the point. Two years later, Ignatieff was toast.
None of this is to say that history is set to repeat itself. Mulcair has yet to win the NDP leadership, and even if he does, he can renounce his French connection with the stroke of a pen. Ignatieff’s career outside of Canada was a central feature of his life’s story, and Stéphane Dion did not lose because of his dual citizenship.
Yet Mulcair’s multiple allegiances could still make a difference for some voters. His supporters may sneer at what their candidate has called “profoundly parochial and insular thinking,” but that does not change the fact that many Canadians will feel a quiet queasiness about a would-be Prime Minister holding two passports. After all, when the country elected Stephen Harper, he held none.
It is a credit to Canada that Mulcair thinks he can win without giving up his second citizenship. Where else, after all, could a person in his position even think of running for the highest elected office in the land? But then again, where else could someone be a candidate for Prime Minister after spending most of his adult life abroad?
After last May’s election, a victorious Tory friend took me to lunch. “What were you thinking?” he asked, “you” being everyone who had supported Michael Ignatieff for the Liberal leadership. How did we ever think our guy could win, given his cosmopolitan past?
The truth, I said, was that we were convinced Canadians would not get suckered by the Conservative smear campaign, and that voters — especially immigrant voters — would see Ignatieff’s experience abroad as the immense asset that we all believed it was.
Sound familiar? It should. Because if Tom Mulcair wants to know what lies ahead, he should look in the rear-view mirror; the lessons of recent history may be closer than they appear.
Original Article
Source: Globe
Author: iPolitics
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