I can’t believe the Liberal Party wants a Department of Peace, but here we are.

Proof for the old adage that all Liberal policy is just NDP policy from years gone by, the Liberal Party is pledging to create some kind of peacenik office for hippy dipply global affairs.

From the Liberal platform:

We will establish the Canadian Centre for Peace, Order, and Good Government, which will lend expertise and help to people seeking to build peace, advance justice, promote human rights and democracy, and deliver good governance;

It’s not quite, the Department of Peace that has been pitched for some time, but it’s pretty close. And that idea has been around for some time.

The Canadian Peace Initiative has long pushed for a cabinet-level job to promote peace. They summarize the pitch: “The Department of Peace would work towards building a new architecture of peace by establishing and supporting a culture of peace and assertive non-violence in Canada and the world.”

American politicians have tried, in vain, to get some momentum behind the idea for most of the 20th century. Erstwhile candidate for the Democratic nomination, Dennis Kucinich, was a big booster of the plan. Marianne Williamson has since revived the idea in his moonbeam longshot bid for the White House.

It came up in Canada in 2009, when NDP MP Bill Siksay introduced a bill to created such a department, with one Liberal MP backing the legislation. They had another go in 2011, this time with the support of Elizabeth May.

But now the idea, at least in some form, is in the big leagues.

Give peace a chance!