Ottawa Citizen - March 1, 2005
Edmonton Journal - March 1, 2005
The Gazette - March 2, 2005
Windsor Star - March 4, 2005
By Colin Kenny
So Canada will not join the United States in its missile defence program. That shows you how much influence I have. I have been speaking with gusto for several months, both inside and outside the Liberal Party, in favour of Canadian participation.
Darn – all that gusto wasted. Do I feel the Paul Martin let me down? No. I feel that Stephen Harper let the country down, and his party down. For very dubious reasons.
Missile defence is a complex issue. My assessment was that missile defence made far more sense to Canadian taxpayers than to American taxpayers. Let me explain.
If I were an American senator, I would have voted against missile defence. The technology of shooting down a bullet (actually a missile) with a bullet (actually a missile) remains uncertain. Even if all the bugs are shaken out, it won’t shoot down a lot of missiles. If the bugs don’t disappear, it will need a lot of luck to shoot down even one.
Moreover, the threat of rogue states like North Korea firing long-range missiles at North America seems pretty remote. In terms of risk assessment, I think the Americans would be better putting all this money into better surveillance at airports, seaports at border choke points and along North American’s vast coastlines. That’s where the real threat lies, and where North America is riddled with vulnerabililities.
But that’s for the Americans to decide. Americans gave an electoral majority to a president determined to go ahead with missile defence, which he has done.
So why, if missile defence doesn’t strike me as a sensible investment, did I want Canada to opt in? Three main reasons: the Americans would have been paying for it, not us; we would have had at least a nominal role in decision-making, which we have walked away from; and joining would have gone a long way toward improving relations with Washington.
Anybody who doesn’t think that improving relations with Washington isn’t critical to Canada’s well-being is living in a fantasy world. We have a large range of issues with the Americans that are going to cost Canada a lot of jobs if we don’t settle them. We don’t need to acquiesce to the Americans, but we do need to manage the relationship intelligently.
Paul Martin came to power determined to improve relationships with our superpower neighbour, and walking away from missile defence won’t help.
So why do I think his decision last Thursday made sense? Partially because Canadian public opinion – particularly within Quebec – wasn’t on side, and there is an election coming soon. Partially because there were elements within his own party who were opposed to missile defence, either because of what I would describe as misguided liberal sympathies, or because they genuinely feared retaliation from the Canadian electorate.
But the main reason was that Stephen Harper decided to sell out his beliefs and values for a mess of pottage in Quebec. Harper told George W. Bush on his visit to Ottawa last month that he wouldn’t support joining missile defence. Was that because his Conservative caucus wasn’t in favour? Hardly.
I’ve talked to a lot of Conservatives, both in the House and the Senate, and just about every one of them told me the same thing: there aren’t many Conservatives on Parliament Hill who don’t believe that Canadian participation would have been a good idea.
But Mr. Harper is desperate to pick up seats in Quebec in the next election – a most unlikely prospect. He knew the Block Quebeçois would vote against missile defence; so he decided that making Parliament work wasn’t his priority. Nor was reflecting his party’s values. Nor was building bridges with the United States.
No, holding on to his slim chance of picking up a couple of seats in Quebec turned out to be Stephen Harper’s priority. The man who has long denounced Liberals as being value-free opportunist showed himself to be not just the biggest opportunist around, but also to be a man willing to trade a lot for the prospect of very little. That takes him beyond opportunism, into the realm of stupidity.
Mr. Martin, having taken this issue to Parliament, had no choice. He could have avoided this parliamentary confrontation by simply making the decision when Parliament wasn’t sitting, without bothering to consult. There was no constitutional requirement to consult. But he came to power insisting that he would consult much more than his predecessors, so he was true to his word.
I’m sorry that we opted out of missile defence. But that’s democracy in these days of minority government, and minority government won’t work unless at least two major parties recognize that some issues should transcend politics. In this case, politics won the day.
Mr. Bush can get away with pretty well whatever he wants for the next four years. Mr. Martin can’t, even on issues that are critical to Canada’s best interests.
Mr. Bush should understand that. Will he? We’ll see.
Senator Colin Kenny has been supporting missile defence for the past three years –He can be reached via email at kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca