There was quite a remarkable piece in the National Post today [no link available, so my thanks to The Meatriarchy for typing up these quotes] about Audrey McLaughlin, the former New Democrat [NDP] leader.
The New Democrats are the fourth largest party in the Canadian Parliament, with about 15 seats.
They're mainly unreconstructed hippies who love everything and everyone except for Americans. Fortunately we have few of them out West.
So I was stunned to read this:
"I haven't met anybody who is unhappy about the war,"
"We don't get a strong anti-West sentiment at all. The Iraqis are very proud and they know that eventually they can run their own country and they want to do that."
Ms. McLaughlin, who led the NDP from 1989 to 1995, opposed the 1991 Persian Gulf War. She is in Baghdad leading a pro-democracy workshop.
"I [would be] sitting home, I'm nice and comfortable, and I'm saying, `Oh, this [U.S.-led war] is really bad. But then you talk to the people who are affected and you think, `Well, you know you have to keep an open mind.'"
While critical of certain aspects of the U.S.-led war, Ms. McLaughlin said her experience this month working for a U.S. organization in Baghdad has affected her views.
Iraqis, she said, have voiced strong support for Saddam's removal.
Ms. McLaughlin, it seems, is that rarest of persons on either the right or the left: When presented with incontrovertible evidence, she has the good grace to admit that she might have been wrong.