Go Sir Bob!

I don't usually comment about foreign policy on here (ok, who am I trying to fool? "Usual" doesn't exactly describe my interaction with this blog), but this morning, I caught a CBC piece on the G8 meetings in Germany, featuring anti-poverty activist Bob Geldof. Earlier this week, Geldof criticized Canada for failing to meet foreign aid targets in Africa. I can't link to his comments, but I thought he was both powerful and politically astute in his comments. In a five minute interview, he spent about 40% of it praising Canada as an amazing place. But then he announced he was confused at how "weird" the Canadians were being, by refusing to allow concrete numbers to be put into the G8's statements on aid. "What's happened over there?" he wanted to know. "The Canadians are behaving very differently than the ones I knew so well."

Of course, he's not stupid. He knows that these are mean ol' Conservatives not nice Liberals. This is why it's politically astute-- because Canadians know this is a different bunch of guys as well. And here we have this internationally known figure, criticizing their politics, and siggesting that 'it's not really us' over there. They're weird. (And as an aside, the article I linked to explains exactly why they don't want concrete numbers that show the changes in aid over the year in any document).

Well Sir Bob, I agree. They are weird. They've got troubles at home (see above) and troubles on the road. Mayhap they will be put out of their misery sooner rather than later.

Post Script

Despite several denials by Harper, Bono and Geldof specifically targeted the Conservative leader at the end of the week.

I said some years ago that the world needs more Canadas, and I meant it," Bono said. "I can't believe that this Canada has become a laggard. I think he's [Harper's] out of sync with the people."

"A man called Stephen Harper came to Heiligendamm," added Geldof. "But Canada stayed home."

Harper's trying to put a brave face on it true. As I laid out above, Geldof accussed Harper of trying to block specific numbers being inserted in draft agreements. "The allegations are false," said our fearless leader yesterday. To which Knight-errant Geldof (He is "Sir Bob" after all) Geldof called Harper a liar.

"I don't care what [Harper] says — I saw in the papers they denied this — they actively blocked other governments putting real figures on the communique," said Geldof, who didn't explain how he got that information.

I dunno who is or isn't lying, but I applaud the two for their devotion to the cause, not the mention the embarassment caused the Conservatives. I may buy a Boomtown Rats CD in celebration.