On Ottawa's Invertebrate Proliferation

Well, apparently it's official. On the day when Canada's new ambassador to Washington declared, in response to queries about Canada's involvement in the proposed North American missile defence shield, that "[w]e are part of it now...and the question is, what more do we need?", reports indicate that Prime Minister Paul Martin has rejected Canadian support for the shield.

This is yet another case of Martin disposing of his convictions on account of perceived public pressure (he supported BMD during his Liberal leadership bid in 2002-2003), despite recent polls which clearly illustrate that missile defence does not register anywhere near the top policy concerns of Canadians.

What is even more disappointing than Martin's flip-flop on this issue is that he allowed the BMD debate to be dominated by alarmist rhetoric from the NDP and the Canadian Left, painting missile defence as the "weaponisation of space" and the start of a "new arms race".

Instead of being resolute, Martin dithered. Instead of spinning missile defence as the "next phase of NORAD", as a means "to continue being an equal partner at the table of North American defence", and as a way "to ensure that America's defence interests coincide with those of Canada", Martin decided to let petty temporal politics dictate our future foreign policy direction.

Instead of showing Canadians and Americans that possessed a spine, Paul Martin chose to relegate our continental relevance into the dustbin of history.

For shame.