National Defence Main Estimates 2006-2007, Part 1

Yesterday evening in the Canadian Parliament, the House in Committee of the Whole devoted about four hours to the discussion of Defence spending and the policies and procedures attendant to that topic. I've just spent a couple of hours going over the Hansard transcript of that discussion, and will be putting up a number of posts in the next day or so highlighting some of the more noteworthy points from seventy-three pages of printed transcript.

Let me first say that, contrary to what the CBC radio reporter stated on the six o'clock news tonight, the MND was not "grilled" for four hours about defence issues. In fact, even the most cursory reading of the proceedings would show that much of the time was taken up by long-winded pontification and softball questions from the government ranks, and cheap sensationalist politicking from the opposition members. Quite honestly (and to me, surprisingly), the only MP that distinguished him- or herself with relatively unpretentious questions and genuine attention to the answers was NDP Defence Critic Dawn Black. I say 'relatively', because given the quality of the debate overall, that merely crowns her Cream of the Crap.

Ujjal Dosanjh, Black's Liberal counterpart, was quite frankly an embarrassment, as was the PQ critic Claude Bachand. I expected much better from both Keith Martin, who has some familiarity with defence issues, and Bill Graham, who could have been much more incisive with his questions if his heart was in it - I suspect he personally agrees with the Conservatives on this file more than he can let on. Marlene Jennings and Carolyn Bennett were almost self-parodying. Minister O'Connor's performance was a mixed bag - concise and forthright in some instances, but ill-informed and evasive in others. I'll deal with the specifics of some of these assessments in subsequent posts.

One wonders if, with such an ill-informed opposition and such a fawning and self-congratulatory government, we can accomplish anything at all debating in the House of Commons such grave issues as the defence of our nation and the security of the greater world in which we must live.

Update: As each of the contributors to this blog know, our mandate at The Torch is to focus on the Canadian Forces - past, present, and future - in as non-political a manner as possible. Most of us have our own blogs where we can be as partisan as we please, but the intent of this blog is to discuss and inform on Canadian military issues irregardless of political affiliation. Having said that, politicians have final control over the military in this country - as they should - so it is impossible to keep politics out of the discussion entirely. Especially when one is discussing a debate in the House of Commons, an inherently political forum. So please indulge me as I temporarily cross over into this side of the decision-making process a little more than normal at this site.