Angry in the Great White North

a heat-seeking missile in the Conservative arsenal

Taken from an article in the Ottawa Citizen, the nine places you'll never hear uttered during a discussion of Canadian political issues:

Last week, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier briefed cabinet ministers on the military's proposal to proceed with three different aircraft procurement programs all at once, at a cost of $12 billion. That included new helicopters, a Hercules replacement, and new search and rescue planes.

But Liberal politicians balked at giving the OK for such an expensive proposal just before an election.

There was also intense resistance to the scheme from government officials worried the military had settled on specific replacement aircraft, thus cutting out companies, particularly in

• British Columbia,
• Alberta,
• Saskatchewan,
• Manitoba,
• Ontario,
• New Brunswick,
• Nova Scotia,
• Prince Edward Island,
• Newfoundland and Labrador,
• Quebec,

from receiving industrial benefits from such a large procurement.

Because as well all know, Canadian politics is Quebec politics. And there is no way our brave soldiers are going to get the planes they need until Quebec gets its cut of the pie.

Ironically, this is despite Quebec attitudes towards the Armed Forces:

The second great factor in the Canadian Forces’ decline is Quebec’s negative attitude to the military and to military spending. To say this is, most emphatically, not a statement of anti-Quebecois feelings. A history that dates back two and a half centuries through the Conquest, the 1837 rebellions, the South African War, two great conscription crises, and an “anglo” army that used to discriminate against French Canadians account for the negative attitudes of Quebec. It is all there in the textbooks, and Quebec also has a long history of anti-imperialism (first British, then American) and anti-militarism. Yes, I know the Royal 22e Regiment does well in recruiting today and has on its advisory board such corporate luminaries as Guy St Pierre, Paul Tellier, and Jean Pelletier. I know that Les Voltigeurs de Quebec consistently rank in the top three in militia recruiting and has had among its honoraries Andre Desmarais of Power Corporation.

But opinion polls demonstrate consistently that Quebec is the least supportive region when it comes to the government taking steps to fix the Canadian Forces. An Ipsos-Reid opinion poll in February 2003 found only three percent of francophones who considered military spending to be a high priority. A Compas poll in February 2005 found that Quebecois were opposed by a margin of three-to-one to Ballistic Missile Defence, vastly more oppositional than English Canadians. Moreover, one in three Quebecois also believed Canada should have no Canadian Forces at all. [emphasis added]

But if I were to say that if the attitude in Quebec is to not bother fixing the Armed Forces, or even to allow the Armed Forces to disintegrate entirely, then money spent on the Armed Forces should be spent in one of those other nine unmentionable places, I'd be labeled some sort of anti-French bigot.

A bigot is someone who discriminates in an irrational manner. A bigot discriminates against black people, for example, because they are black, despite whatever material benefit he would gain from dealing with this particular black person or that.

My frustration is rooted in reality.

Very simply, I believe that unless there is a change in public and political attitudes in Quebec, we can kiss any ideas of an effective, properly funded, robust Canadian Forces goodbye forever. With poll numbers in Quebec as they are and have been, no government attuned to its political self-interest and to the need for Quebec seats can really be blamed for not moving to spend much more on defence or to counter anti-Americanism.

My frustration is hardly irrational. Canada's ability to defend itself is held hostage to a small portion of the population of one province. Canada's ability to spend scarce defence dollars in an efficient and cost-effective way is crippled by those who frankly don't care to see Canada defend itself, or for that matter, care little for Canada's continued existence.

Still, it's not as bad as all that.

With an election around the corner, we have a unique opportunity. The Bloc Quebecois will walk away with just about the entire province of Quebec. None of the other parties has a real chance, short of a massive scandal in the Bloc itself, and if Quebec separatists are willing to elect an admitted drug abuser as leader of the provincial party, I can't see that happening. So now each party can realistically develop a platform on any issue, including defence, that ignores Quebec opinion.

De facto separation. Pretend Quebec doesn't even exist. Spend funds and allocate projects in the other nine places whose names were dare not mention. Might be fun to try it out, even if just for a week or so.