Angry in the Great White North
Appropriate channels and appropriate timing
Wednesday, April 19, 2006 at 09:28 AM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

When one of my kids wants something, they've been taught to ask us directly. What they learn quickly is that if they want to annoy us, they should tell other people what they expect to get without coming to us first.

I bring this up in the context of the relationship between Chief of Defence Staff General Rick Hillier, and the Prime Minister's Office:

Canada's Chief of Defence Staff Rick Hillier has been asked to submit advance copies of his public remarks to the Minister of Defence before delivering them, The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday.

Liberal critics are jumping on this:

"That is highly inappropriate," Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said. "(General Hillier) is not a member of the cabinet. His role is to be a strong voice for our military and in that sense he's independent, so he can speak about the needs of the military."

Dosanjh pointed out that Hillier has recently said that tactical, short-haul aircraft to replace the military's ancient C-130 Hercules transports are his priority.

Fair enough. But Gen. Hillier should not, and would not, announce the priorities via a speech, blindsiding the government -- this government or any other. If anything is inappropriate, it is Dosanjh's suggestion otherwise.

Weirder still is the suggestion that this is the way it should be.

Should the General's comments be vetted through the PMO? Just because this hasn't been the custom in the past doesn't mean it's not a good idea. Consider it instead a recognition of the importance of the CDS as a means of delivering signals. Frankly, that the Liberals have always ignored the CDS and his speeches is the real insult. Instead, the CDS is recognized now as a a person whose comments on national and international issues carry real weight. As such, those comments need to reflect government policy, and to have people skilled in understanding how words can be represented and misrepresented by the media look over a speech doesn't sound like a bad thing.

Funny, isn't it? Gen. Hillier calls terrorists "murderers and scumbags", and all we hear about is the loose cannon we have for CDS. On the other hand, a minority government tries hard to make sure there is unity of purpose and of message in order to avoid the scandal-ridden rudderless nightmare of the previous minority government, and the Liberals, who managed that nightmare, are first in line to complain.

Aren't these the same Liberals who claimed during the election that the Conservatives were planning to unleash the goose-stepping ranks of our military into our major cities to crush our freedoms? You'd think the Liberals would be eager to keep the dangerous anti-democratic forces of the military under tight control. I'm confused.

This government is trying to make this minority situation work, and to do that, some things are going to have to change compared to Paul Martin's management style:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has slapped a muzzle on the Canadian military, forbidding brass from speaking for fear of detracting attention from his government's top priorities.

A top military officer said the Prime Minister's Office recently reeled in Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier to tell him that all of his speaking engagements had to be approved and his speeches would be vetted by Harper's staff.

Harper has kept his government focused strictly on his top five priorities, starting with the tabling last Tuesday of his accountability act meant to clean up the way Ottawa does business.

If Stephen Harper and his people allow other people to start driving the agenda every which way, it is the surest means of making sure nothing gets accomplished. General Hillier is no fool -- I'm sure he gets it, even if the media seems eager to spin this in a bad way ("reeled in"?). He might want to talk about some issues important to the military, but now is not the time. Give Stephen Harper the time he needs to accomplish the goals he has laid out, to prove to Canadians that the Conservative Party can be trusted. The General and the Canadian Forces have not been forgotten. Quite the opposite. The Conservatives understand just what an important part of the team the military is, and with that understanding comes the realization that the military has to work with the rest of the team to get things done.

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