Canada's newly-elected prime minister, Stephen Harper, plans to deploy military icebreakers in the Artic to "assert Canadian sovereignty" and defend disputed waters. The decision has drawn criticism from the U.S. ambassador. From the CBC:
During the election campaign, which culminated with Harper's win this week, the Conservatives promised to spend $5.3 billion over five years to defend northern waters against the Americans, Russians and Danes.
Seriously? I can understand if Canada increased spending on terrorism defense, even though it is not a likely target. But does anyone really think the Americans, Russians, or the... Danes are going to threaten Canada in any way? You should have learned from your southern neighbor. This is how conservative politics works.. it thrives on saber rattling and non-existant threats.
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Comments (2)
Is this an actual increase in spending or a maintaining of budget that existed before? I'm not sure what 'northern waters' entails, but I do know that waterways are one of the prime methods of transporting narcotics (principally narcotics) from British Columbia.
Posted by Alec | January 26, 2006 3:57 PM
On a practical level, the money may be used to guard against narcotics smugglers. But on a political level, I get the impression that it was pitched as "defending Canadian sovereignty"
Posted by Elyas Bakhtiari | January 26, 2006 4:18 PM