I hate to use a clunker – and henceforth the order of the golden cliché is to be awarded to all journos who refer to “elephant in the room” scenarios – but the elephant in Canada is indeed called Afghanistan. Its army was sent in to do good works after the Taliban meltdown of 2001 and now finds itself suckered – partly courtesy of the country’s former prime minister, Paul Martin – into a major combat role against a Muslim insurgency. Fatalities are now 87 and climbing, but the Canadian military is not exactly winning the war against a massive Taliban resurrection.
Canada’s retiring chief of defence staff, General Rick Hillier – now, of course, off chasing a lucrative directorship – was in the habit of calling the Taliban “murderers” and “scumbags”. It looks good in the papers, but when a commander starts rubbishing his enemies – Montgomery, remember, kept Rommel’s picture on the wall of his caravan – you know his soldiers are in deep trouble. They are fighting Muslims in a Muslim country and they should get out. Quickly.
But Canadians seem happy people, the most polite I’ve ever met on earth. There’s an apocryphal story that before Lebanon’s civil war, an Australian economist was invited to Lebanon to explain its financial workings to the Beirut Chamber of Trade. He eventually addressed Lebanese businessmen in words which echo my own thoughts about Canada. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said. “I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re doing – but keep it up!”
It’s just possible that Canada is still a “better” place to live. But given the performance of our Prime Minister at the G8 summit [where Harper was accused of doing politics “American Republican-style], given our reluctance to challenge US foreign policy and the torture of a Canadian citizen who was but a child when detained by US forces in Afghanistan and then held illegally at Guantanamo Bay, given our continued unquestioning participation in a war in Afghanistan … and a few other things, we might not be far from a complete change of character that we seem to be just to “polite” to raise our voices about.
See Rick Salutin’s column on Stephen Harper, the Gunga Din of post 9/11. Love it.
mirabile dictu 