A series of related stories in the National Post this morning. The first, on the front page with a nice photo of a sub breaking through the ice, is a story about how a U.S. sub may have toured the Canadian Arctic. Without us knowing about it of course, as Canada has no ability to detect foreign incursion in our waters.

The second item, describes how the Liberal government ignored the advice of the Defence Department to plow ahead with a purchase of tactical transport planes, as opposed to the heavy lift aircraft on the Canadian Forces' wish list. Canada's lack of strategic airlift is an ongoing problem.

And finally, an article about the non-existence of discussion on the global terrorism threat in this election campaign. No party leader has brought up the topic, and none give particularly good answers in response to the question.

So lets review. The Canadian Forces have no ability to transport themselves quickly, whether it be around the world or across the country. They have no ability to even monitor, let alone defend, our northern territory. The logical conclusion to this is that they have no ability to respond to a terrorist threat, but that's okay, since no one is talking about it. That must mean it's not much of a threat, right? Boy, I wish I could believe that.

In any case, if you needed a more selfish reason to support expansion of the forces, and the purchase of heavy lift aircraft, I will give you my craven self-involved reason.

I live on an island (Vancouver Island), which is in a serious earthquake zone. All respectable geologists and seismologists agree that it's not a question of if the big one will arrive, but when. So you would think the emergency plan of the City of Victoria would acknowledge that threat, and it sort of does. Earthquakes are high on the list of possible emergencies. But the plan explicitly states that citizens are entirely and completely on their own for the first 72 hours. That's the plan, for you Katrina-watchers. After that, the expectation is that the provincial government will ask for help from the federal government (that is, the army), and the army will come and save us.

This made a teeny bit of sense when the nearest army base was just outside Vancouver. That base was closed, and now the nearest help is in Edmonton Alberta. That's 1200 km away (775 miles, if you prefer). Google maps informs me helpfully that it would take a day and a half of driving to get here, assuming you went straight through. Assuming no weather delays. Also assuming you had some way of crossing the body of water between us and the mainland. Which, in the case of a major earthquake which would probably damage or destroy all the ferry terminals, seems unlikely.

So to me, the ability of the army to transport themselves quickly is pretty important on a purely selfish level.

But yeah, the fact that we have to beg transportation from the Americans or Brits or (God help us) the Australians whenever there's a global crisis, that's fun too.

(As an aside, I discussed the situation with someone a while ago, and he didn't think it was a big deal, because the US Army would probably help us. I pointed out that a) that would be the US Army everyone loves to bash, b) wouldn’t they be a bit busy helping out in Seattle, and c) there's the way to stand up for our sovereignty - invite a foreign army to save us!)

Posted by Ginna Dowler

(Cross-posted to Gin and Tonic)