Why Canada Must Muscle Up

J. L. Granatstein, Canada's most prolific writer on national defence and the military, is also a realist. In recent years, he has used his high profile and astonishing productivity to sound alarm bells about our own apathy, namely Canada's declining stature in the world, the deterioration of our armed forces and our decreasing capability to safeguard our own domestic security. Like Kissinger, and for basically the same reasons, Granatstein envisions an active international role for his country. The problem, which Granatstein confronted a few years ago in Who Killed the Canadian Military?, is that Canadians actually have even more reason to be apathetic than did their American cousins in the 1990s. Terrorism poses something of a threat, but no foreign power vows to bring about Canada's destruction. Nor is Canada in danger of being invaded, by sea or land -- we share our only border with an inherently friendly superpower, a traditional ally that will protect our territorial integrity whether it wants to or not. Canada does have interests abroad, but are they compelling or substantial enough to warrant an activist international agenda? Canadians, moreover, have been unwilling to pay for the kind of military we would need for such a global role. Beyond doing good deeds, advocating good works, and leading the world by domestic example, does Canada really need a traditional foreign policy? Granatstein finds the question preposterous, and the fact that it could even be asked, dispiriting. He yearns for the days when Canada was an influential member of the international community. But not just any influence -- Canada cannot promote international ideals over national interests. He does not, for example, much like the moralistic global activism of Lloyd Axworthy and others who believe in a reflexively multilateral, pacifistic Canada. Objective, tangible benefits -- security, prosperity, the spread of like-minded governments -- should be our objectives, not altruistic but unrealistic notions of world peace, equality and good will. http://www.theglobeandmail.com:80/servlet/story/LAC.20070203.BKGRAN03/TPStory/Entertainment [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on February 5, 2007]

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