Granatstein Vs Layton: Letter To The Editor

Canadians didn’t support the invasion of Iraq, because there was no threat to North America from Iraq, the intelligence reports are leaking every day to remind Canadians, we were right to stay out of that conflict. Had it been a legitimate war, the United Nations would have given their blessing to the invasion. They did not. The war has by all news reports escalated violence in the world, not brought freedom and peace. The BMD program is a very frightening dream, as yet no one has stated that the plan would in any way protect North America from attacks. Why would Canada want to indulge in this fantasy, which will only encourage the world to increase their weapons programs, to defend against a pre-emptive strike? This country has many issues, truly Canadian issues, to address; such as hunger, poverty, medical needs, social programs to support, protection our natural resources from depletion and our census information from becoming public knowledge. There is far more to protecting a country from perceived enemies than just arming it to the teeth! If Mr. Granatstein is trying to defend the BMD, he ought to provide Canadians with some hard data. Canadians don’t just accept the media spin anymore, as in the Free Trade deals, no we are more aware now and want to know the real impact of these decisions before we sign anything, including the ballot. If Mr. Granatstein is trying to convince me, he will have to find other examples of anti-Americanism, than those he cited, such as Paul Hellyer, Jack Layton, Lloyd Axworthy and the others mentioned, who from my assessment are the best examples we have today of Pro-Canadians, working to protect this country from becoming nothing more than a ‘yesman’ to another country‘s idealism! Standing up for a sovereign Canada is just plain old fashioned patriotism, not anti- anything! C.Whelan Costen