Roundup: The hole that the Forces find themselves in

Posted on by

While I noted that this was certainly used as an attempt to change the channel during QP yesterday, I wanted to spend a couple of more minutes talking about the big defence policy teaser that Harjit Sajjan gave yesterday, which basically made the perennial statement that the previous government didn’t do a very good job, which is why we’re in such a terrible mess. All governments say this, and future governments will too. And while Conservatives in my reply column get indignant, and while Rona Ambrose emailed her own fact-check, it too contains a lot of rose-coloured history.

Ambrose mentions things like the Leopard 2 tanks (the decision to purchase which were questioned considering it’s obsolete Cold War era technology bought for a counter-insurgency war), the Cyclone helicopters (which were problem-plagued and didn’t even have shielded electronics, which were easily knocked out by the radar on our frigates), the new Arctic Offshore patrol ships (known affectionately as “slushbreakers” because they can’t even cut through the ice in a gin and tonic and yet they’re supposed to be used for Arctic operations), and then there are the supply ships which they cancelled, leaving us with no supply capacity in our navy. So yeah, they did so much with their investment in the military.

Much of the reaction to Sajjan’s speech was that yes, we’re in a hole, but the government hasn’t committed to reinvesting either. Partly they have, with the earmarked dollars that will follow once there is a plan in place. That plan will be part of the actual rollout of the Defence Policy, and the prime minister acknowledged in QP yesterday that investment in the military would follow the policy, and yes, the policy is important to have in place first because it’s hard to plan to spend if you don’t know why you’re spending or what the plan is for our Forces to be doing. So it makes sense to wait for a plan before there are dollars to follow it. It should also be noted that this government is not following the more recent trend of putting all of its plans in the budget, so we may yet so more dollars flowing (but it remains to see how many dollars, considering the fiscal situation).

All of this being said, we will still need to acknowledge that funding likely won’t be enough to completely get things back on the right track, and that complaints about underfunding will continue into future. This new funding likely won’t even get us close to our 2 percent of GDP NATO target (not that such a target counts for a lot). Suffice to say, I’m not sure that any party should be patting themselves on the back.

For some more reaction here’s Dave Perry on Power Play, and Stephen Saideman offers his thoughts on the teaser here.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau said that journalists should be able to protect their sources, which could mean support for Bill S-231.
  • The PBO is pushing back at some of the proposed reforms to his office (but I maintain that there is great danger in making him too independent).
  • Census data shows that for the first time, seniors now outnumber youth in Canada.
  • Liberal MP and former fighter pilot Stephen Fuhr is getting pissy at Erin O’Toole (who was a helicopter navigator) photoshopping his head on a Top Gun body.
  • The government’s missing persons DNA database is now a year behind schedule.
  • There is a labour dispute between the Parliamentary Protective Service and the RCMP, and they want Parliamentarians to re-assert their control over them.
  • Here’s a regional breakdown of Conservative leadership hopefuls’ fundraising.
  • Scott Gilmore’s “new conservative” dinner stopped in Calgary, which was met by a group of disillusioned Red Tories in a province with a split right wing.
  • Professor Craig Forcese offers his comments on the two recent Commons committee reports on national security legislation.
  • Andrew Coyne muses about why we need the Notwithstanding Clause.
  • I wrote a column about the importance of expelling Senator Don Meredith as an expression of parliamentary privilege.

Odds and ends:

Thomas Mulcair says he plans to vote in the French election, seeing as he has dual citizenship.