Author:
PETER MacKAY perjfh
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Date Posted: 14:16:53 03/06/03 Thu
Author Host/IP: d150-99-156.home.cgocable.net/24.150.99.156
“Canada’s Role In The World”
My name is Peter Mackay and I am seeking the Leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.
This Party of ours, and this country we love so much, are at a crossroads. Canadians have been subject to the rule of this arrogant, corrupt Martin/Chretien Liberal government for almost a decade now, a decade of doubt. Unless we rebuild this Progressive Conservative Party of ours, there will be no end to this Liberal Regime.
How do we turn this around?
We do it by charting a new conservative course based on the values and principles that we as conservatives have subscribed to since the beginnings of Canada and relied on whenever we have formed government in this country.
We have always recognized that the Liberal party is our political foe.
Only Conservative governments have replaced Liberal governments across the country. We are the natural national alternative. They have done this by reaching out to all those who share our view of the role of government. I commit to you; this is what I will do.
A person who seeks the leadership of this great party must stand for something. They need to display a broad overarching vision of where they want to lead this country.
Our great conservative leaders have done this from MacDonald to Mulroney. In the weeks ahead I will set out the themes upon which I will build my leadership and help restore our party to a position of strength on the Canadian political landscape. They include the economy, healthcare, justice, security, education and the environment.
Today, I want to deal with Canada’s role in the world community.
Our stature, once one of the most respected countries in the world has been diminished by our failure to live up to our responsibilities and our inability take advantage of our opportunities. In the past, we as Canadians and conservatives have been able to live comfortably on this continent with the United States. One only has to look back to the years between 1984 and 1993 to witness the historic acid-rain treaty and the Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
Canadians do not need to be anti-American to be pro-Canadian. Let us be clear. Our economics are interdependent. But our sovereignty is intact and will remain so. Canada is the world’s sixth largest exporter of goods with a 4 percent share of the world’s exports and the sixth largest importer.
Along with the world’s largest undefended border, we share with the United States the largest and most comprehensive trading relationship in the world. Approximately $2 Billion in goods and services cross the boarder every day.
We are each other largest customers and biggest suppliers. Eighty-six percent of Canada’s goods that are exported go to the United States. This is reality. This is what we must protect.
It is essential to my mind, that our two countries, which are so economically compatible, be compatible in the defence of our two societies. There is a common interest in the increased ability to defend our borders and ports of entry.
We need to demonstrate to U.S. companies who buy our goods, who either are located here or wish to locate in Canada that we are willing to protect this relationship. We are willing to work with the United States to ensure our boarders are secure and protected.
The cost of not working on this is to wreak our trade relationships with the U.S. There is a price to pay for ambivalence. If you don’t play globally, there is a price to pay locally and we have seen that as our influence in Washington declines.
At present, we have a fragmented and disorganized set of agencies and government departments managing border issues. There are communication breakdowns and little sharing of information among all of those who have this responsibility, especially agencies such as the CSIC, RCMP and Provincial Police Forces. If we are to secure our borders we must combine these agencies into one unified body.
As in law enforcement, border security demands the establishment of one overall agency, Border Security Agency, in which information can be developed, intelligence gathered and shared.
For this to happen, we must give the Coast Guard a wide mandate over coastal security. It must work together with port police, which I proposed we re-establish. Actually, there has never been a valid reason given as to why the Liberals disbanded them.
This is an essential security service dismantled by the Liberals. Right now our ports are the largest gap in the security perimeter.
Believe it or not, ships and boats wishing to enter Canadian waters and our ports must self-identify and then they are cleared. It’s like calling ahead for a hotel reservation.
The new Airport Security Agency- a new Liberal bureaucracy, must be integrated with this new agency which I propose.
Finally, I would take the Customs out of the Customs and Excise department. This would demonstrate in concrete terms our commitment to keeping out those who would enter our country in order to commit crimes or pose threats here or in the United States.
An integrated border/perimeter security agency composed of the Coast Guard, Port Police, Airport security and the Custom agency will demonstrate to all that we take our role in protecting North America seriously. We have the political will to act to protect our border and in the end all of North America is better protected.
I don’t need to explain in detail the travesty of under-funding, under-equipping and under-purposing of our defence forces. Our soldiers deserve better.
Our allies deserve better. Our Nation deserves better. This diminished state of our forces is a national disgrace.
We need to look long and hard at our defence capability. In the interests of peace, Canadians have always fought to protect freedom and maintain democracy.
Over one million Canadian soldiers fought in World War II along side our allies, to protect freedom and democracy.
The lack of commitment of our government to defence lies in stark contrast to the reputation that our fighting forces have had over the course of our history and still have today. While our allies consistently voice their concerns over our lack of commitment to defence, their admiration for the commitment, professionalism and courage of our men and women in uniform is always strong. It is a national tragedy that their commitment has been so shamefully undermined by the current government.
But how do we deal with our present situation. Cooperation with the United States on defence and security is not a sign of weakness.
It is not a sign that we our not protecting our sovereignty. In fact, sitting with our American friends, with our other allies is the way we have always gone to battle over the course of our history and it is the way we can secure our place in a rapidly changing world.
We must define our role in the roles played by our allies. We are not a neutral nation, standing on the northern half of this continent immune from the problems of the rest of the world.
We need to reassess our military expenditures, so that when we commit to service we can follow through.
The Defence budget is not some cash cow to be milked to satisfy Liberal spending sprees.
We should replace worn-out, obsolete equipment. We should begin a recruitment drive to bring our military strength to 75,000. We need to commit resources to the extent that these resources will revitalize our armed forces.
Realistically, we must build on our strengths. Peacekeeping, is an obvious one, but peacekeepers must still be trained war fighters. Other roles, such as Special Forces, communications, and the like should be determined by a task force of military and strategic thinkers.
The world has changed since the last defence review in 1994. Canada has changed; the threat of terrorism, which was always somebody else’s problem, is now our problem. Not, of course, if you’re a Liberal.
If you’re a Liberal you get to go to Chicago and tell the Americans not to worry about Iraq, not to worry about terrorism, the UN will handle that.
When this Liberal government started in 1994 to starve the military of financial resources, and cancelled the helicopter contract, I don’t believe the Prime Minister ever thought Canadian troops would be anything other than Peacekeepers. Even in that, we have not pulled our weight, now ranking 34th in world, in the provision of peacekeeping. This raises great concerns regarding our sovereignty. We are unable to participate in multi-lateral actions without allies and we are virtually unable to defend our own territory.
No, the Prime Minister and his series of Defence Ministers never thought we would be fighting a war against terrorism in Afghanistan.
But as I said earlier, the world has changed and in a changing world we have lost our credibility, lost our influence. Even when one advocates restraint and diplomatic solutions, one must be ready to act when there is a call to arms.
We are now faced with the situation in Iraq. At a time when we need to have influence, we have none. Our relationship with the United States has been severely handicapped by the Chretien policy of never missing an opportunity to criticize, question or belittle our closest ally and largest trading partner.
But again, the Liberals try to walk a tightrope while they see which way the wind is blowing. Eventually the government will have to decide between ridding the world of one of its most barbaric regimes or standing by, preaching the doctrine of appeasement.
It is time Mr. Chretien made a decision. Yes, we can give the UN inspectors more time, but eventually, probably sooner than later we as a country will have to stand up and be counted.
Mr. Chretien in the hope that he will not have to make this decision has committed troops to the clean up of Afghanistan. How can we be accused of not supporting the war against terrorism when we are sending troops to Afghanistan? This is the convoluted logic of the Chretien Liberals. Logic which has lost our place in the world.
As we have a commitment to the UN, we also have a commitment to our two most important and steadfast allies, Britain and the United States. And in the event that the UN cannot find its resolve, we must stand with them. Even now, war can be avoided. But only if Iraq sees unshakable conviction by the world community, in whatever form, to stand behind its demands.
Remember Canada was the country, which lead the fight against Apartheid in South Africa and joined our allies in the Gulf War.
If we are going to regain our former stature we must support our military, support our allies and reassess our position in the world. We must be prepared to cooperate in the effort to secure North America. If we do not, our allies will do it for us and then our sovereignty will be lost. We have to be inside the circle of defence.
This will also mean a real commitment to foreign aid, long neglected by the Liberals. As conservatives we did not trade with countries with oppressive human rights regimes.
We used access to trade with Canada for third world countries to demonstrate the benefits of protecting human rights.
A conservative government that I would lead would stress the necessity for Canada to once again take its place as a serious nation among the nations of the world with a secure perimeter and borders, with a well equipped military, supporting our allies and the third world, through development aid.
Thank you.
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