A question for Stephane Dion at the upcoming leaders' debate

And we need a question on the security and prosperity partnership agreement with the US.

Yes. But I'm particularly interested in the agreement with the EU because it's not a done deal yet and because it appears to be an initiative that belongs entirely to the Conservatives. They've taken it this far and appear to have done so as quietly as possible. I'd like to see if the Liberals will take the opportunity to finally, properly distance themselves from negotiating these deals quietly and letting us find out the consequences for ourselves after the fact.

I've been trying to think of a way to word a question about overclassification and secrecy.

I know that nobody is ever going to ask such a question, but it's my question and I can't stop thinking about it.

It is at the most egregious extreme of the abuse of power that we've been watching these last years. Again and again, the expression "national security" has turned out to be cynical shorthand for CYA. Somebody made a mistake, or somebody was actually incompetent, or maybe somebody was intentionally doing wrong -- it is a question of national security that such people should be saved from embarrassment? And to spare them embarrassment, some vulnerable person should suffer horrific wrongs?

And then, of course, there's just the more general problem of how the secrecy fetish spreads out further and further if no one cares to check it.

But I don't know how to turn all that into a snappy question.

Why is this just a question for Dion? None of the parties have articulated a clear policy on how they would approach this issue.

http://www.kontrol.ca

None of the parties have articulated a clear policy on how they would approach this issue.

I think the Conservative position is quite clear. I'd be happy to hear from the other parties on the issue, but the Liberals are still (for the moment) the next most likely party to form government. The Liberals are the ones who screamed about NAFTA and then suddenly went quiet when they actually got into office. And the Liberals are the party who signed on to the Security and Prosperity Partnership with no public debate.

kontrol : The Chairman of the Canada-Europe Round Table for Business (CERT), the business group included in the Canada-EU discussions, is Roy MacLaren, formerly Chretien's trade minister. He was interviewed on the CBC As It Happens segment "Happily Ever NAFTA" and said, twice, that it is immaterial who wins the election as both the Libs and Cons support the deal, and that this is why it is not an election issue.

I'd missed that part. So much for Liberals.