Dallaire endorses Allan Thompson's campaign to be next Huron-Bruce MP

Get out and vote, and vote for Allan Thompson as your next MP for Huron-Bruce.

That's the word from retired general and former senator Roméo Dallaire who drew a sold-out crowd for "An Evening With Roméo Dallaire" at the Kincardine Legion, Friday night, and brought a ringing endorsement for Thompson, the federal Liberal candidate in Huron-Bruce.
 

The former United Nations (UN) commander in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, spent Friday campaigning in Huron-Bruce with Thompson, a personal friend. During his time as a reporter for the Toronto Star, Thompson travelled with Dallaire to such places as Rwanda, Congo and Sierra Leone.

 

During a full day on the hustings, Dallaire and Thompson made stops at Legion halls in Walkerton and Goderich. Dallaire also addressed nearly 800 students at a non-partisan midday event that brought together students from all over the riding at St. Anne’s Catholic High School in Clinton.

To listen to that speech, click here.

During a one-hour address in Kincardine, Dallaire spoke about his experiences in Rwanda, the plight of child soldiers, and his desire for Canada to play a more effective role as a middle power.

As he introduced Dallaire, Thompson said that after his wife, Dallaire was the first person he told that he was running for election. "The first thing he said was, 'Are you crazy?' and then, 'Are you serious?' and finally, 'How can I help you?'"

Dallaire said today's world is much smaller than during the First and Second World Wars when Europe and Africa seemed so far away. Today's young people are the generation without borders, moving at a fast pace, and travelling 12 hours away for a business meeting.

However, the world continues to be an unfair place, he said, with 20 per cent of the countries as the "have's" and 80 per cent, the "have not's".

"When the Cold War ended in 1989, we stumbled into a new era, a new world disorder," said Dallaire. "That 80 per cent of the world began imploding. But these conflicts were just noise compared to the Great Wars."

He said that's what happened in Rwanda where an artificial colonial rule in the 1960s, with a dictator in place, fell apart after 1989.

"Our UN peacekeeping troops went in to keep the peace," he said, "but the problem was, this was a local war within the nation, not nation fighting against nation. These were local people fighting local people for power - which ended in a lot of killing and destruction. They didn't want peace, they wanted power."

In 1994, the conflict exploded and 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered, said Dallaire. "And what did we do? We watched it. We did nothing to prevent it. This was not sophisticated warfare, these were kids with machetes killing people. And nobody else cared because there was no risk to their people or their money."

As he spoke about the genocide in Rwanda, there was complete silence in the audience. 

"Why did we abandon Rwanda but help Yugoslavia?" asked Dallaire. "Because Yugoslavia was in Europe - they were our Allies in the Second World War. The Rwandans were not as human, they didn't count as much."

How is Canada to respond to these conflicts? By getting ahead of the bad guys, said Dallaire. By helping to stabilize these countries and preventing the conflicts from happening in the first place.

"We need a whole new set of rules," he said. "We need to understand the problem, solve it and then prevent it. Our aim must be to prevent these catastrophic events."

To do that, we need inspired leaders in Canada who realize what an incredible country this is, said Dallaire. "We've not seen our potential maximized since the Second World War. We provided one-million people for that war, but not one Canadian general was at the strategic meetings."

He also stressed that young people, between the ages of 18 and 30, must get out and vote. "That age group makes up 30 per cent of the electorate. That's 2.9-million voters who have never voted. They could change the face of this country and they don't even realize it."

Following a rousing standing ovation, and a brief question-and-answer session, Dallaire took time to greet people and autograph copies of his books.

He also spoke with local media, stressing that in the upcoming federal election, he would back Thompson "without an iota of doubt".
 

“I think the biggest issue in Canada is us trying to figure out what we want this country to be,’’ Dallaire said. “Who are we and what do we want to be in this great nation? And that has been turned upside down significantly … as people try to wonder what happened to Canada.”

 

When asked what his message would be to the people of Huron-Bruce, Dallaire said it's quite simple. "First of all, get out and vote. Everybody over 18 should vote. Be the county in the whole country that has the highest percentage of eligible voters to vote. And secondly, vote for Allan Thompson. It’s very simple. Change that government. It’s dragging us into an era that is not us.”



Roméo Dallaire talks to the local media at the Kincardine Legion, Friday night