You know this has been something of a Conservative
thing since Diefenbaker, in ’58, promised,
inter alia, a highway to Tuktoyaktuk. It’s not that the Liberals didn't do anything – quite the contrary, in fact, but Diefenbaker (very self-servingly) and Joe Clark (only slightly less so) both proposed bold projects (the Polar 8 icebreaker in Clark's case) designed to enhance Canada's claim to sovereignty over the Arctic. That little came from anything – that Liberal
incrementalism worked just as well – reflects the fact, and I believe it is a fact, that the overwhelming majority of Canadians, now as 50 years ago, care nothing for our sovereignty because they
know nothing about our sovereignty. The average, university
educated Canadian appears to be an ignorant, careless, greedy sod – worried only about ‘free’ healthcare and a ‘pogey’ cheque.
Let us hope that the Russians and the Americans, the later being usually perceived to be more of a
threat than the former, can frighten enough Canadians into supporting some sensible sovereignty protection.
For a start, Jack Layton is right! We need icebreakers, real icebreakers but we need them
in addition to some
ice hardened multi-role patrol vessels. We should assign specialist ships like icebreakers to specialists like the Coat Guard (if they are to be unarmed) or, perhaps, to a reinvigorated RCMP Marine Service if they are to be armed. (This supposes that we prefer, generally, to have an unarmed civil service and confine weapons to the military and law enforcement services (which must, perforce, include the Border Service).)
We also need reinvigorated surveillance – from space, from the air and by terrestrial systems – over
all the territory we claim, including
all inland waters, and our coastal waters out to and beyond 200 miles and throughout the airspace over both. Just as engineers understand that “you cannot manage what you cannot measure” bureaucrats and soldiers must understand that “you cannot control what you cannot
see.”
We need to
see anyone/anything approaching or entering out territory (including from under the water) and then we need to be able to identify it and/or intercept it and then we need to be able to
arrest intruders or, in some other form, “see them off.” That implies that we have,
ready, ships, aircraft and highly mobile ground forces –
light (probably air assault or parachute) units – which can get to anywhere in Canada, all over that vast,
empty, hostile expanse of Arctic land, quickly.
That will not come cheaply but anything less tells the world, especially Denmark, Norway, Russia and the USA, that we will not because we cannot control the territory we claim as our own. We will, in short, surrender it to all comers.
We are not going to get there
and build and maintain larger, globally deployable, combat capable and combat ready joint forces on a budget of $20 Billion per year in 2012. But,
it has been reported that most politicians think $20 Billion is all Canadians will bear for their national defence. I wonder if something will have to give? What will it be: our sovereignty over our own territory or our ability to exercise our Responsibility to Protect (our own vital interests and the lives of others) around the world?
