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Since becoming foreign minister, Dion has justified selling troop carriers to serial human-rights abuser Saudi Arabia; rejected a freeze on assets of Russian human-rights violators; stood by meekly while China’s foreign minister berated a Canadian reporter for doing her job; and now this.

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Strategically. Even saddled with a leader who had worn out his welcome, the Conservatives captured nearly 30 per cent of the popular vote last year. The party’s total vote tally, more than 5.5 million, was only slightly below what it garnered in 2011. Strong Tory voter retention, it stands to reason, was connected to is major policy planks – specifically on the economy and security.

Not surprisingly, the Conservatives under interim leader Rona Ambrose have sought to ditch their weaknesses – hostility to the media and the whiff of xenophobia that underlay the niqab debate, to name two – and play to their strengths. The Tories want this Liberal government to appear soft on ISIL. In repeatedly stepping on his own message, Dion has placed his principal opponents precisely where they want to be.

Historically. Liberals actively championed the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Here’s what it says, among other things: “If a state is manifestly failing to protect its populations, the international community must be prepared to take collective action to protect populations, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”