Vancouver is hosting the World Peace Forum 2006. Meanwhile, it is National Defence week in Canada, with the government heralding spending of $15 billion on military equipment. Keeping one step ahead of their critics, and avoiding the national media, the Conservatives spread out across the country to spread the word.

  • Monday in Halifax, from the Prime Minister we learned the Canadian Forces would get three new fighting ships, at a cost of $2.9 billion, with the first one to be ready for service in six years.
  • Tuesday was military trucks day. In Valcartier Quebec, $1.1 billion was announced as earmarked for 3,600 new vehicles, no details available on gas consumption.
  • Wednesday, in Edmonton, Minister of National Defence, Gordon O’Connor, and Chief of the Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, convene the press: “media lock-up for reporters only, no cameras or electronic transmission devices, not for attribution by name, info embargo until the commencement of news conference” to explain that as part of the “Canada First” Defence Procurement project, new helicopters will cost us $4.2 billion. Stephen Harper was in the Oiler’s hometown as well, even without a Stanley Cup game to attend, and was still not wearing an Edmonton hockey jersey for fear of a photo turning up in Calgary, though he did do the up-front announcement from the Alberta capital.
  • Thursday, in Trenton, Ontario, our tax fighting, deficit busting Conservatives have $4.6 billion to spend on new aircraft to replace Hercules transport planes. Good news for Boeing Co. of Seattle, Washington, with others lining up to get part of the action.

Conveniently, the House of Commons session ended Thursday of last week, so Ministers will not have to answer Opposition questions face to face. Gilles Duceppe lamented to Le Devoir, the absence of transparency, and open government as promised by Stephen Harper in Opposition, and on the campaign trail. Presumably since Quebec has aspirations for a home-grown aero-space industry, he also wants to know where Quebec stood on contracts received.

Conservatives will be conservative when given the chance, no surprise there; Liberals will be conservatives as well, but not usually while in Opposition. However, as the military spending began under the Liberals, party comments were limited to pointing out the links between the current defence minister and the companies which will benefit from the spending. Minister O’Connor lobbied on behalf of specific defence industry clients for over seven years as a consultant with Hill Knowlton; it will be fun to count how much each gets as the contracts are let.

It is a good time for a resurgence of pacifism. A main difference between left and right surrounds issues of peace and war. The right makes an exception for military spending when it does its ritual denouncement of government investment of public money. When it comes to military matters, government is by magic transformed into an efficient, far-sighted, expression of human ingenuity in action.

The left fails to grasp how we can plan to mobilize billions of dollars for years to come on military projects that are wasteful of scarce resources, ineffective, and pointless to begin with, while refusing to acknowledge our ability to meet basic human needs around the planet with similar planned spending.

Canada is at war, but Afghanistan is not mentioned in the Conservative patronage and pork barreling spending spree. Instead the military is presented as economic development, and jobs.

Swords into plowshares never looked better.

Bring on the Ministry of Peace, and the true exponents of one world, and collective security. Let us do away with feeding the insatiable appetite for useless military hardware.

People of the world unite. Military spending causes climate change, war, and the neglect of all the life-giving activities that get abandoned to feed the machines of destruction.

There is no excuse for militarist imbecility.

Duncan Cameron

Duncan Cameron

Born in Victoria B.C. in 1944, Duncan now lives in Vancouver. Following graduation from the University of Alberta he joined the Department of Finance (Ottawa) in 1966 and was financial advisor to the...