Election 2008: Liberal platform on national defence
The Liberal Party of Canada has become the first political party to release its comprehensive policy platform in the ongoing federal election. The policy dedicates two sections to two of the prominent issues facing Canada’s military planners: the general way forward for national defence, and the question of Arctic sovereignty. Yet, despite naming specifically these two issues, the platform yields little in the way of a significant investment in the re-development of Canada’s military; this lies in stark contrast to the investments made by the present Conservative government since they entered power in 2006.
The Liberal Party makes little qualm about its intention to remove Canadian troops from Afghanistan, stating that that mission “has depleted our ability to deploy the Canadian Forces elsewhere in the world,” as well as making it more difficult to support domestic operations, such as the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The Party promises to set a firm end date on the military deployment in Afghanistan, but makes no commitment to respecting the 2011 end date endorsed by the current Parliament, nor does it spell out an intended end date. Essentially, the Liberal Party is promising that the Afghanistan mission will end in the fullness of time, at the appropriate juncture (i.e. who knows when).
Of some comfort to the military is that the Liberals do intend to honour the funding allocated to the military during the next four years by previous budgets. The Liberals make the claim in their platform that most of this funding came from the Paul Martin Liberal Government in Budget 2005 – over the next two years, funding from that budget does indeed account for $10.1 billion (note that we are in the second last year of a $13 billion four year funding commitment made in that budget). It is important to note that the Stephane Dion Liberal Party is more akin to the Jean Chrétien Liberal Party, rather than the Paul Martin Liberal Party. That is, it’s unlikely that Dion would commit new funding to the military (whereas Martin was the first and only Liberal Prime Minister in three decades to properly invest in the military). Indeed, the Liberal Party platform for this election makes no commitments to invest additional, needed money in the military, aside from a token $60 million to Veteran Affairs Canada for assisting current and former members of the Canadian Forces who have been injured or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder ($60 million is a nice gesture, but what about reforming the system to provide better care?)
The Liberal Party makes one procurement commitment in their platform, which is the acquisition of new fixed-wing search and rescue planes that were originally funded by the Paul Martin government (i.e. no new funding for procurement under Dion at this time) and later placed on hold by the Harper government to focus the procurement system on getting needed equipment for the Afghanistan mission. The Liberal Party “will ensure that some of the new fleet of SAR planes are based in the North,” according to the platform.
On the topic of procurement, the Liberals also intend to “abandon the sole-sourcing approach to defence contracts taken by the Conservatives, ensuring that Canadian industry can compete for contracts while guaranteeing the best equipment at the best price.” This commitment shows ignorance towards one of the darkest realities of Canada’s defence industry: Canadian industry has a nasty reputation for providing mediocre equipment at excessive prices. Sole-sourcing, while not in line with the spirit of public tendering, is at times necessary to ensure that the government receives the best product in the most reasonable amount of time, rather than doing the dance with Canadian industry that often sees defence procurements proceed at a snail’s pace.
On the issue of Arctic sovereignty, with respect to the military aspect, the Liberal Party makes no explicit commitment, instead focusing on strengthening Arctic sovereignty using non-military means. On a positive note, there is a commitment to complete mapping of the seabed by 2013, which is an important step in reinforcing Canadian claims to offshore Artic resources.
External Link: Liberal Party 2008 Election Platform
