October 08, 2004
Canada's shame
Rex Muprhy, in a CBC commentary (reprinted in today's National Post, not available online without a subscription), brings a devastating indictment of Ottawa's chronic under-funding of the military:
HMCS Chicoutimi is one of four submarines that Canada bought from Britain in what’s been described as a great deal. Canada got them for $750-million, which it might be pointed out is $250-million less than it cost to set up the gun registry on land in this country, such is our sense of priorities. I guess if you buy cheap, you get what you pay for.
Yesterday was an embarrassment which turned to tragedy and it follows a pattern. It is not only the navy that has to make do in these times. Look to the air. The saga of the Sea King helicopters, that ancient accident-prone and repair-wary air component of our military has become a proverb for government neglect.
But yesterday from the padded elegance of the Throne chair, her excellency Madame Clarkson doing the ritual ventriloquism of the Throne Speech went on about Canada’s proud tradition in peacekeeping in extremely difficult and dangerous situations. We are hypocrites of the worst order. Boasting of our contribution to the international stage, our legendary reputation for peacekeeping missions while consistently short changing the services that at one time built that reputation. We pay the highest respect to the military on DDay, politicians get teary-eyed at the war memorials, but the state of the military and the budget to back it up is always last in line behind every other more vote-glamorous program from health care to the wretched sponsorship mess when they dole out the dollars.
That submarine and its crew stranded in the North Atlantic are the most savage rebuttal to the pieties of yesterday’s Throne Speech and a terrible rebuke to the most consistent hypocrisy in public life, Canada the peacemaker which won’t properly support the men and women who fly, sail, drive and march in the distant corners and nasty places of this world and keep the peace.