Warren has his National Post article about the positions of various Liberal Leadership contenders on the current Middle East conflict up on his site.

He has quotes from seven of the candidates and it makes for an interesting read. He also has a couple old Ignatieff statements, provided by his staff. I don’t mean to dwell on Ignatieff’s silence, but even a few of his supporters are saying it’s time for Michael to weigh in on the topic.

Perhaps he was out of the country for a bit and I suppose that’s fair since even politicians can use a vacation every now and then (some more than others). However, looking at Iggy’s schedule, he was in BC yesterday and even if his European vacation is running longer than planned, (Update: I can’t read. My bad. Iggy’s still in Europe.) I presume there’s a telephone, fax machine, or carrier pigeon nearby. This is a man who has studied the Middle East for decades and is certainly well aware of the situation there; I’m sure he could have formulated a well reasoned statement in a limited amount of time.

For those who say that it’s not the role of opposition MPs to comment, the fact is that Ignatieff, along with ten other Liberals, are being veted and scrutinized for the role they would do as opposition leader and Prime Minister. Surely their opinion in the Middle East is relevant because it does seem that the Prime Minister of Canada will be dealing with Middle East conflict for the next, oh I don’t know, ten thousand years. It’s also important to judge how they can handle an immediate conflict which requires a quick response.

UPDATE: Carolyn Bennett did make a lengthy statement yesterday, which I missed. And Maurizio has a statement on his website. And Hedy has a statement on her website.

So that’s 10.

UPDATE: The rumour is that Michael is dealing with some family issues in Europe. I still think he should have released a statement but this does explain the silence a little bit more. I look forward to hearing what he has to say on this when he returns to Canada.