Doer has disagreed with the federal NDP on some issues. He defended CanWest Global's takeover of a part of Conrad Black's newspaper empire in 2000, even though the arrangement had been criticized by the federal party. He later called for Svend Robinson to be demoted as Foreign Affairs Critic in 2002, after Robinson announced his support for the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel (official NDP policy was that both sides should seek a peace agreement). Doer was quoted as saying, "Either he represents the party as a foreign affairs critic or he's removed as foreign affairs critic. And I believe he should be removed". He later expressed disappointment that Robinson was allowed to keep his critic's role, albeit with a ban against speaking on Middle East issues.