Trade unions demanded wage increases and engaged in acts of violence. Critics, including members of Thatcher’s own party, accused the PM of being obsessed with cutting public spending instead of supporting ailing industries. Her party was trailing in the polls, an election was looming, and most pundits predicted Thatcher and the Tories would be out of government before long.
Then, on April 2, after a simmering diplomatic conflict, Argentine troops invaded the British-controlled Falkland Islands. On April 5, under Thatcher’s orders — and against the advice of many experts — Her Majesty’s warships set sail to do battle. Two months of hostilities ensued, with nearly nine hundred casualties, one third of them Britons. On June 14, the Argentines formally surrendered and the islands were returned to U.K. control. And one year later, Thatcher returned to office with 397 seats to Labour’s 209.
The war didn’t just ensure the Conservatives’ election victory. It gave the government the mandate — and the confidence — to bring about deep socioeconomic change. The Guardian’s Simon Jenkins wrote: “The Falklands changed everything. The miners were confronted, left-wing local government crushed, Europe riled and universities humbled. Most crucial of all, the patrician Tory moderates were diluted and eventually driven from power. The now-familiar Thatcher came into her own and ‘the Eighties’ began.”
The question for Canadians today is: Will our conflict with Islamic State be Stephen Harper’s Falklands War? There are many parallels: an economy plunging into recession in parts of the country, a government accused of seeking to balance the books at all costs after trailing in the polls for a year. In this environment, the Tories sorely need an issue that can rally voters.
For Harper, as for Thatcher, war appears to be a winner. While Harper must respond to the terrorist threat — he is the prime minister, after all, and that’s part of the job — the fact remains that the more the Islamic State conflict remains in the news, the higher his numbers go. If an election were held today, the Tories would eke out a victory — and the Trudeau Liberals would form the opposition.
And IS hostilities likely will escalate. This weekend, an IS terrorist released a video calling on jihadis to increase their attacks on western nations, including Canada, referring directly to the October 22 attack on Parliament Hill.
In response, the office of Public Safety Minister Stephen Blaney issued this statement: “The international jihadist movement has declared war on Canada and our Allies … No Canadian government should ever stand on the sidelines while our Allies act to deny terrorists a safe haven — an international base — from which they would plot violence against us.” The remarks echo those issued by Harper after the terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo in Paris: “The international jihadist movement has declared war. They have declared war on anybody who does not think and act exactly as they wish they would think and act … They have declared war on any country like ourselves that values freedom, openness and tolerance.”
Last week, Canadians learned that our troops returned fire with IS fighters, despite the fact that they were explicitly deployed in a non-combat role. Harper asserted that “if those guys fire at us, we’re going to fire back and we’re going to kill them, just like our guys did.” Yesterday, it emerged that Canadian Special Forces engaged Islamic extremists in two more firefights.
When the Opposition raised the issue in question period, asking why the government had not told Canadians they would put troops in harm’s way, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson replied by thundering about Canada’s 200-year tradition of standing up for the oppressed.
So the Conservatives are playing the patriotism card — and it’s a move that should worry the opposition. It’s the same card Thatcher played into a winning hand in 1982, rallying Britons around the glory of their military heritage. It works brilliantly on a gut level: Stand with us, and you are a proud, true Canadian. Stand against us, and you’re not.
It’s the same rhetoric the Tories employed when asking Parliament to approve and then extend the mission in Afghanistan. It’s also, unfortunately, the kind of rhetoric that can be used to curb civil liberties in the name of security — the kind of thing everyone should be watching for when the government unveils anti-terrorism legislation Friday. If the government criminalizes the “promotion of terrorism” (whatever that means), it would be a profound blow to freedom of speech in this country. But it’s exactly the kind of gambit Ottawa thinks Canadians likely will accept now, in the current climate of anxiety.
In a rational world, Ottawa’s response to the terrorist threat would be judged by objective criteria. But war makes people irrational. War evokes emotions, passions — national pride. If the Tories succeed in embodying those volatile emotions in 2015, it will be Britain 1982 all over again.
Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca/
Author: Tasha Kheiriddin
No comments:
Post a Comment