Delayed Reaction?

Yesterday, the Department of Defense released its "Canada First Defence Strategy" on its website amidst the mass publicity over the release of Stephane Dion's Green Shift Strategy. Apparently this is an issue with some people.

Today I was perusing some of the political blogs I keep track of and come across Vijay Sappani's post critiquing the quiet release of the document. According to him, there is something to be read into the way this was released, being that it was amidst other pressing news and one day before the House is set to adjourn.

Isn't this a bit of overkill?

Just over a month ago, Prime Minister Harper and Minister of Defence Peter MacKay came out and publicly announced the strategy and what it would entail. This subject was discussed at the time and now we've moved on to the issues of the moment. Why would the government need to publicize this strategy again when they have already done so?

I think Mr. Sappani is just trying to create more negativity that is unproductive and wasteful with people's time. Making comments about the stealthy publication of this document doesn't further the discussion on the subject or do anything truly constructive.

Then he complains about how Canada is moving away from its peacekeeping heritage and towards being a major combat.

"Harper is putting Canada on a dangerous military path that could suck away money from other areas like health, environment into military combat operations in other parts of the world, wars that can never be won."

Canada's participation in Afghanistan does not reflect a withdrawal from peacekeeping activities. We are fulfilling our commitments to our allies and to membership in NATO. Due to the limited size of the Canadian Forces, this commitment secures the majority of resources that Canada has, which influences the other activities (e.g. peacekeeping) we can participate in. Canada cannot risk to overextend its resources which has been detrimental to nations in the past (the British Empire, the United States). Furthermore, I would consider the Afghan mission to be one of the major conflicts requiring the peacekeeping experience that Canada possesses.

With this in mind, I believe Mr. Sappani's comments are unnecessary and counterproductive to any discussion on this subject.

- blenCOWe