If you haven’t already checked out the flash presentation over at Winds of Change which follows the chronology of al-Qaeda attacks since 1998, please do, it’s quite interesting.

While there’s always debate of what should constitute the starting point of al-Qaeda’s reign of terror, I would put it in 1993 when the first attack on the WTC in New York occurred. That also was the year that in Canada the Liberals swept to power and that’s where they’ve been ever since. Their government has been – not dissimilar to what we’re seeing in a number of European countries – focused on the idea that benevolent multilateralism would save the day, something that most of the West did, but where some woke up to the new realities of 9/11, Canada’s Liberals took that day as a point to further its homegrown solution to world problems. That strategy was compounded by the unfortunate 2003 decision of then Prime Minister Chrétien not to go to Iraq and the misguided and often vile anti-Americanism – perpetrated by both Liberal politicians and mainstream media – lulled the northern nation back into a sense of false security: “it’s not our war, we’re safe”. Imagine the amazement when the following appeared in yesterday’s newspapers:

Canadians are "psychologically unprepared" for a terrorist attack like last week's deadly subway bombings in London, but they had better get used to the idea that they could already be the targets of terror groups, Anne McLellan, the Minister of Public Safety, said yesterday.

Now, Mrs. McLellan, why would that be? And from where all of sudden comes this call for “preparedness”? From my own experience I can testify that Canadians look at me in a perplexed manner when I put to them that their nation could equally be under attack, a point I’ve made ever since 9/11. Baffled silence is usually the response.

Note that Canada has been active in Afghanistan since 2002 the same year Bin Laden himself put Canada on the list of preferred targets. One can only guess, but the amazing fact is that the London subway attacks have most likely have left a far deeper imprint than 9/11 in Canada which some opinion makers argued away as an American thing. Canada is still constitutionally tied to Britain and there are many, many Brits that make up part of its population. But more than that McLellan feels it’s high time to start covering her position, the presence of jihadist groups is now so openly a fact that it was about time the Canadian government fessed up and told its citizens what they should have heard a long time ago.

NOTE: To be fair, Canada is stepping up its efforts in Afghanistan, its detachment is now redeployed to Kandahar.