The Foreign Affairs Minister is now using her role to pander to a tiny slice of the electorate.
Every federal minister with even a hint of political ambition always thinks about how their current role could elevate them to the top job.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, and it’s unavoidable given that politicians are some of the most personally ambitious people.
But there must be a limit.
And that limit should be when a politician’s ambitions lead them to completely abandon any sense of responsibility for their current role.
Unfortunately, that’s what Melanie Joly is now doing.
For months, Hezbollah has been firing rockets at Israel.
For months, Canada’s Foreign Affairs department has been silent.
Only when Israel started to respond by dismantling Hezbollah did the Foreign Affairs Department start talking about “escalation” and the need for a “ceasefire.”
Then, just hours after UNRWA admitted that the Hamas leader in Lebanon was one of their employees, the Foreign Affairs department issued a statement backing UNRWA, a move that UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer called “a new low”:
Joly also directly criticized Israel in a speech at the United Nations, winning praise from the ‘State of Palestine’:
Joly also continues to take every opportunity to get a photo op with Palestinian officials:
Let’s be clear about this:
Melanie Joly knows exactly what she is doing here.
She’s running for the leadership of the Liberal Party instead of serving as a responsible Foreign Affairs Minister.
With the party’s divide on Israel & Gaza, it is widely expected that the next Liberal leadership race will largely be a referendum on Canada’s policy in the Middle East. This means that whoever can position themselves as the most anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian will have a higher chance of winning.
Clearly, that is what Joly is trying to do.
What makes this so dangerous – aside from how unethical it is to abandon Israel when it is under assault – is that Melanie Joly is in a position where she is supposed to be speaking for the entire country.
She should not be articulating her foreign policy, she should be articulating Canada’s foreign policy.
She should not be using the Foreign Affairs Minister’s role as a campaign vehicle.
She should not be pandering to those who hate Israel.
She should be defending Canadian Values, values which include standing against anti-Semitism and standing up for Israel’s right to defend itself.
Instead, she is abandoning those values, all for the sake of her own personal ambitions.
Spencer Fernando
