Newman: Should Canada be calling for the overthrow of the Iranian regime?
Chairman of Canada 2020, Senior Columnist with ipolitics.ca
Canada should not directly call for the overthrow of the Iranian regime.
Flawed as elections are in Iran, the regime still thinks they are necessary to provide a veneer of respectability. The current government was chosen in an election. An election will be needed to get a better replacement.
What Canada and other like-minded countries should be doing is pressing for different Iranian policies and behaviour. Sanctions are a good way of underlining the pressure.
Ultimately, different policies will be brought about by a different government. But overthrowing the current government doesn’t guarantee that will happen.
Look at Egypt.