The federal NDP, which once called for Canada to leave NATO, is now going all-in on the imperialist alliance advocating for its aggressive expansion to include Ukraine.
Despite assurances in the wake of the breakup of the Warsaw Pact that NATO would not venture into countries bordering Russia, the western alliance has added new members in Eastern Europe and put forces and advisors in the Baltic States. This is known as the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence.
Ukraine's right wing government that came to power in a pro-western coup in 2014 wants to join NATO, an act that would be an exceptionally aggressive move towards Russia.
Using the kind of imperialist doublethink that the western mainstream media blindly parrots, however, NATO has recently denounced Russia as the aggressor for troop movements that are taking place within its own borders.
A clever trick that.
Not all that long ago Canada's social democratic party would have likely had misgivings about this. The NDP, of course, was in favour of leaving NATO in the 1980s and beyond.
Not anymore.
On April 6 "Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for Canada’s aid in clearing a path for Ukraine’s entry into NATO’s Membership Action Plan (MAP) during a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau".
When asked about the issue in an article published April 14 by the Canadian publication New Pathway Ukrainian News, Heather McPherson, Deputy Foreign Affairs Critic for the New Democrats was critical of the Trudeau government, but for not supporting Ukraine's entry enough.
On behalf of the Conservatives, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Chong and Shadow Defense Minister James Bezan sent us a joint press release in which they stated: “Conservatives call on the Trudeau government to counter Russia’s threatening moves by increasing support to Ukraine through the supply of military defensive aid and reoffering the use of RADARSAT imaging to assist in the identification of Russian troop movements and equipment.”
Heather McPherson, Deputy Foreign Affairs Critic for the New Democrats answered yes to both questions.
“The NDP will continue to strongly support Ukraine’s bid to join the MAP program and we have and will continue to push the government to advocate for this with our NATO allies. That Prime Minister Trudeau and (Foreign Affairs) Minister (Marc) Garneau have been unwilling to explicitly state their support for Ukraine’s bid and their failure to adequately support the bid via advocacy efforts and multi-lateral diplomacy is very disturbing.
Given the NDP's recent decision In November to support another bellicose, Trumpian Conservative motion on China it would seem that Canada's supposed left party is staking out its territory on the right of the Liberals when it comes to backing imperialist narratives in the west's new Cold Wars.