Vote Shopping In Canuckistan, part 5

This is basically an update on some previous posts regarding the Canadian election:

1. The Green Party is ridiculous. Need a reason to avoid this party like the Plague? Search no further than their proposed budget here. That's right, they want to cut defense spending by 2.5B/year, and eliminate capital gains exceptions for personal and corporate returns. This party is not a serious contender.

2. The Liberal's do have some foreign policy documents on their site, finally. Unfortunately, it is about as well thought out as a Sarah Palin ad lib:

Canada’s ongoing commitment to the military mission in Afghanistan has depleted
our ability to deploy the Canadian Forces elsewhere in the world. When
combined with the commitments that will be necessary in order to provide the
needed security requirements when Canada welcomes the world to the Vancouver
Winter Olympics in 2010, we are severely limited in our ability to offer assistance
to other international efforts as they arise.

That's right - we're going to be deploying the CF for the 2010 Olympics. Right.

The Libs spend a good chunk of their discussion of Defense talking about soldiers care and a focus on "value for contracts" with the CF. These are great, but do not address what our focus in defense will be. What is the direction of our defense strategy? How are we going to meet the strategic goals of the military in the broader context of an overall foreign policy?

In the diplomacy section, the Libs make an excellent point:

We will place protection of the rights of Canadians abroad at the centre of our
foreign policy. Under the Conservatives, consular rights that Canadians are entitled
to have not been extended in all cases. A Liberal government will not pick
and choose which Canadian deserves to be treated with justice and fairness. All
Canadians deserve that respect regardless of which country it is that seeks to
deny a Canadian citizen their rights.

This has been a horrible error of the Conservatives, as they are picking and choosing which citizens abroad will be advocated for. However, the Liberals do not have much credibility in this area, as I believe they let several Canucks in the mid east rot in horrible medieval prisons during their long tenure, so this must be taken with a grain of salt.

3. The NDP shows us how serious they are on foreign policy by not addressing the topic at all on their website. How can you be a serious party by not addressing defense spending, a huge area of the budget? Here, they talk about National Sovereignty by stating:

[Stephen Harper] threw money at military gadgets for the Arctic instead of investing to strengthen northern communities and expand Coast Guard capacity to assert an authentic sovereign presence.

Uh, and their solution?

[The NDP] Published a plan to assert our Arctic sovereignty by investing in northern communities, building deep water ports, retrofitting airports, improving search/rescue and Coast Guard capacity, and tackling the global warming that’s already ravaging the north.

Great. So, no military patrols or spending? When Russia is resurgent and there are serious claims made by all artic countries to many of our northern lands? This is baloney as far as governance, and completely out of sync with the times.

They also go on about restoring our foreign aid back to 0.7% of GDP, which can be a powerful weapon in Canada's foreign policy, and should be reinstated. It's not a waste of money to use our resources wisely overseas to project our power and influence, even if by the use of foreign aid. This is a useful tool in our foreign policy that has been completely laid to waste by the Liberals and the Cons.

4. The Bloc? Who cares. Seriously.

5. The Conservatives? No real foreign policy formulated. Still waiting, and still ridiculous. Why is no one challenging them on this? They have some BS stuff about Sovereignty, but no real discussion of the road ahead.