Voting on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has changed his mind and has agreed to allow parliament to have a debate on the extension of Canada's mission in Afghanistan for two years past the original commitment made by the former Liberal government which would have seen Canadian soldiers coming home in early 2007. How gracious of him.

That short debate will begin on Wednesday at 3pm ET and will be followed by a vote on Wednesday nite. There is no doubt that all Conservative members of parliament will vote in favour of the continuation of the mission, despite the fact that they railed against the previous Liberal government for years over the inadequate support given to the military. In its recent budget, the Conservatives increased defence spending, but the effects of that new funding will take months, if not years, to affect the status of the Canadian military as a whole in any positive way. So, while they may feel that it is politically wise to posture themselves as contributing to the NATO mission in Afghanistan for years on end, the fact remains that Canadian troops will still be in danger from a lack of proper equipment and resources.

The opposition parties, having requested the debate on this new mission, must now decide if they actually do stand for the troops. It would seem to be a simple decision: bring them home and shore up the military so it is actually well-prepared enough to handle these types of missions in the future while considering the fact that there are serious humanitarian crises around the world, such as that in Darfur, that also demand the presence of our soldiers.

Afghanistan's situation has been very slow to improve since the war began shortly after 9/11. The US has now decided to pull thousands of its troops from the country, turning over control of the NATO mission to Britain. If the US is able to pull out, why shouldn't Canada?

Just last week, Canada's Foreign Minister Peter Mckay, publicly denied the actual danger Canadian soldiers face in Afghanistan, perhaps realizing the support for the mission is dropping across the country. One is left wondering how a debate with the Conservatives will be anything more than a Harper cheerleading squad pumping up the noisy rhetoric in parliament faced by opposition members who want serious questions answered and will simply be drowned out by the shouting down that is the hallmark of Conservative MPs who don't like to hear anything that doesn't fit into their restrictive world view.

In the end, with the opposition parties playing their cards close to their vests, the outcome of the vote has yet to be determined. You can count on the NDP to oppose the extended mission while the BQ may simply cave and vote with the Conservatives, who they've been spending far too much time in bed with lately. Meanwhile, Liberal MPs need to realize that opposing a longer mission does not negate their original commitment to provide troops to the region (even though they never should have done so to begin with). They can gracefully bow out of supporting this vote if they want to show that they truly care about the troops by allowing them the opportunity to come back to Canada and regroup for future missions - specifically peacekeeping missions that most Canadians actually do support.

You can watch Wednesday's debate online at CPAC.