Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Foremost Responsibility of a National Government

Stephen Harper's visit to highlight our military exercises in the North is timely and necessary as other nations set their sights on Canada's rich natural resources. While it might seem like just another photo-op, our Prime Minister made a pretty bold philisophical statement on board the HMCS Toronto:

"Protecting national sovereignty, the integrity of our borders, is the first and foremost responsibility of a national government," Harper said.

"It is a responsibility that has too often been neglected in our history."

That's absolutely true. With all the debate about health care and social programs, it's easy to forget that government's first responsibility is our security. The Obama administration would do well to listen to that advice as well.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exactly.But wait im a neo-con for advocating national defence!(rollseyes).Last time i checked our area of the Arctic falls within our boundaries so nuff said.

Joshua

Ted Betts said...

If Harper's trip up north had anything to do with sovereignty and not getting re-elected, I'd agree with you.

But he went up there for some nice photos, not to defend Canadian sovereignty:

The Coast Guard’s Pierre Radisson ship and the submarine HMCS Cornerbrook lined up one one side of the frigate HMCS Toronto. On the deck of Toronto, was a gaggle of reporters, cameras at the ready.

Then, Defence Minister Peter MacKay sauntered onto the deck with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They stopped to make idle chit chat until urged by handlers to move forward a few metres in order to have them perfectly positioned with the other two vessels in the background.

But wait! There’s more! Three CF-18 jets flew past in formation. But the fly-by was a little to fast for some camera operators and photographers to catch the entire montage of sub, jets and coast guard, so the CF-18s passed over four more times.


Who was it again who said "We cannot ask Canadians to tighten their belts in tougher times without looking in the mirror" ?

Ted Betts said...

More to the point about your post though and Harper's comment, who is threatening our borders? What security concerns are there? Is some country none of have heard of questioning our sovereignty and threatening to take over part of our sovereign territory?

Patrick O'Neil said...

Ted, I quite like the part about the jets.

Umm, pretty much everyone wants to stake claim to the Arctic sea bed.

Ted Betts said...

The issue with the arctic sea bed is a geological one regarding the true north pole and who owns the sea bed under it.

There are some issues with the Alaskan border and which longitudinal axis governs territorial claims in the waters, but this is pretty minor and it is pretty absurd to think that we need this military build-up to protect ourselves against the US.

I'm quite certain there are no Canadian sovereign territorial sea bed issues. Unless you want to identify one for our benefit?

Pissedoff said...

I'll bet the US and Russia are shaking in their shoes at the sight of that frigate, non-nuclear sub and a coast guard ship. Whoops lets not forget the nearly 30 yr old CF-18s. We actually got 3 into the air at the same time.

Get real one complete aircraft carrier could blow all Canadian defences out of the water, and that doesn't include the nuclear powered subs they have.