The Guelph Mercury - September 17, 2008
The Chronicle-Herald - September 17, 2008
The Summerside Journal Pioneer - September 17, 2008
The Calgary Sun - September 17, 2008
The Montreal Gazette - September 17, 2008
By Colin Kenny
If you are one of those Canadians who believe that all human conflict is stupid and that military and police spending just drain money from far more worthy causes, this election campaign is for you.
You can be pretty sure that when you tune in to the national debates no journalist will ask questions about Canadian security and defence, even though there are plenty of questions to be asked of all parties – including the incumbent Conservatives.
Given that any national government’s primary job is the physical protection of its citizens, you would think that defence and security would be important issues. But they are largely ignored. The votes lie elsewhere.
Here are a few relevant questions that journalists and debate moderators should ask, but won’t. (If any of these questions intrigue you, you might consider keeping them handy in case a politician knocks on your door.)
Everybody knows that the Great Lakes are a haven to smugglers and porous to would-be terrorists. The U.S. Coast Guard patrols the Lakes with 2,200 officers and Canada does it with 14 Mounties. Make sense?
Everybody knows that Canada’s ports are riddled with criminal activity, but only a handful of Mounties are delegated to police them. Overall the Senate Committee on Security and Defence estimate the Mounties are short-staffed by more than 5,000 officers, (the Committee’s most recent report on Emergency Preparedness argues for 5300-6500 new RCMP officers) yet the current government’s commitment to hiring new police across Canada doesn’t mention the Mounties. Make sense?
Everybody knows that the Canadian Forces were burned out during years of Liberal cutbacks and are just as burned out now with the war in Afghanistan draining the defence budget. Nevertheless, the Conservatives have halved their initial commitment to growing the Forces. In fact, there has been no growth. Training capacity is desperately short, equipment is rusting out and the current government has laid out a long-term funding schedule that will mean reduced military budgets over the coming years once inflation is taken into account. Make sense?
Everybody knows that airline passengers have to leave their eyebrow scissors and tennis racquets behind and skimp on their liquids when they board flights, all in the name of the fight against terrorism. Meanwhile the perimeters of airports have yawning gaps, workers with access to aircraft are only occasionally searched and parcels enter the hold of aircraft unscanned. Make sense?
Everybody knows that the Taliban’s capacity to wreak havoc in Afghanistan has been growing over the past year, and that while a stronger U.S. presence may help improve the odds for Canadian troops, the Taliban is not going away and time is on their side. There is a tradition of negotiated settlements in Afghanistan – no matter how fierce fighting has been – and Afghan President Hamid Karzai has proposed the possibility of negotiating with the Taliban. Defence Minister Peter MacKay has dismissed the idea out of hand. Make sense?
The Canadian economy has been shedding high-paying jobs with alarming regularity since the value of the Canadian dollar climbed. Yet valuable Canadian institutions devoted to Canadian security, including the RCMP, the Canadian Forces and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) are demonstrably short staffed. Moreover, the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard are both going to need all kinds of replacement ships over the coming decades if Canadian interests are to be defended, yet, two major procurement deals to renew and enhance the capabilities of the Navy and Coast Guard have been terminated and further, there is no long-term deal with the Canadian shipbuilding industry in place to assure sustained employment. Make sense?
Those are just a handful of security and defence issues worth probing politicians about. Trust me, there are scores more.
Yet politicians aren’t going to get probed. Make sense? Not to me. But perhaps Canadians think this is a pretty comfy country, and neither human-made nor natural disasters are likely enough to justify spending more money on insurance.
Go away, boogie-man. If we don’t talk about you, you must not be out there.
Senator Colin Kenny has been Chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence since 2001. He can be reached via email at kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca