Tour helps Ignatieff, Tories also to face students

OTTAWA -- Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has had perhaps one of his best weeks since taking over the helm of the party.

He was for once not having to flinch at the latest poll results and his 11-stop cross-country university tour -- including a stop in Winnipeg -- got positive attention and decent turnout. The latter is likely due to ongoing dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament until March 3, but any time a politician can get an audience is a good time.

Despite the Haiti earthquake rightly taking attention away from the Canadian political scene, the anti-progroguing sentiment remains. Plans for a national day of action Saturday are in full swing. The protest group on Facebook was on the verge of hitting 200,000 members Sunday.

The Conservatives will have a good chance to make their case to university students in Manitoba this week.

The University of Manitoba Campus Conservatives organization has planned an entire week of Conservative speakers -- with five MPs, including two cabinet ministers, scheduled to give talks. All but Western Economic Diversification Minister Lynn Yelich are from Manitoba. Vic Toews, James Bezan, Rod Bruinooge and Joy Smith have all signed on for the events, which run all week at the Fort Garry campus.

While they have specific topics in mind -- including aboriginal issues, crime and human trafficking -- I expect they will end up fielding questions about Canadian democracy and I also expect they will all be ready to answer.

Toews in Mideast news

Manitoba's senior cabinet minister Vic Toews was able to escape the winter and the flurry of post-prorogation reaction last week for a trip to the Middle East.

However, stickhandling accusations his party is undemocratic has probably been easier than the delicate task of wading into Middle Eastern politics.

Toews's five-day tour included stops in Jordan, Israel and the West Bank.

Following his trip, a number of Middle Eastern news outlets, and even B'Nai Brith Canada, reported Toews used the journey to announce Canada was yanking its funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The UNRWA runs 59 Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

In 2008, Canada was the eighth-largest donor to the organization, which receives 97 per cent of its funding from foreign governments.

Critics, including B'Nai Brith, accuse UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas and terrorists.

Toews was quoted in several newspapers, including the Jerusalem Post, as saying Canada's aid for Palestine is being "redirected in accordance with Canadian values." Instead of funding the camps, Canada is going to pay for projects to train Palestinian justice officials like judges, police and prosecutors and build courthouses, something Canada began doing in 2007.

Certainly, paying for police and courthouses is in keeping with the government's anti-crime agenda at home.

The news was well-received by B'Nai Brith Canada, but when the stories were checked with Toews's office, it seems there isn't much changing at all. Christine Csversko said the stories were "inaccurate," including the suggestion that Canada's funding to UNRWA goes to the Palestinian Authority's general revenues. She said UNRWA manages its own accounts and Canada continues to give it aid money.

Murray picks up push

Former Winnipeg mayor Glen Murray's campaign for a seat in the Ontario legislature is in full swing.

He wants to replace former health minister George Smitherman in a downtown Toronto riding considered a Liberal stronghold. Many think it should be an easy win for Murray.

However, with Premier Dalton McGuinty's approval ratings in the toilet thanks to the economy and his introduction of the hated harmonized sales tax, it might not be the cakewalk Murray had hoped for. At least the Liberals appear to understand that.

The Liberals in Ontario moved their provincial council meeting from Ottawa to Toronto, in part so the troops could put on a show for Murray. Apparently, 200 Liberal local riding leaders converged on Toronto Centre for a door-knocking blitz on Murray's behalf.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 18, 2010 A6