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Dion to push for Afghan Marshall Plan

Campbell Clark & Brian Laghi, Globe & Mail, 6 Dec 06

Article Link

 

New Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said Tuesday he'll have little patience for the rising death toll of Canadian troops in Afghanistan unless there is progress in making that country more secure.

 

Mr. Dion said Canada must push its allies to build a Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of the strife-torn country, because the current strategy of focusing on combat against the Taliban is not achieving results.

 

“I cannot give a deadline, but I will not have a lot of patience if I see that we are risking the lives of our soldiers and civilians without any result for the security of the people of Afghanistan,” Mr. Dion said in an interview with The Globe and Mail.

 

“It's an assessment I will do day after day, but I want a result.”

 

Mr. Dion said the Canadian presence in Afghanistan means Canada's military cannot contribute in other parts of the world, so it must be effective.

 

A professional review needs to be done, he said, and Canada must push all nations involved in Afghanistan to assemble a major rebuilding and economic development plan.

 

“Can we have a kind of Marshall Plan as we have done in Europe, in Japan, in Singapore, in Taiwan, in so many countries before that?” he asked. “We need to stop being neo-conservative. You need to believe in the role of the government to help an economy to be built. For that we need a Liberal government.”

 

A key problem in the nation, he said, is the proliferation of the opium poppy crop which now makes up half of the Afghan economy, and provides money for the Taliban's operations. Canadian troops can't just focus on fighting Taliban militants who slip over a porous border with Pakistan, he said.

 

“There's no use for us to try to kill the Taliban in every corner of every mountain and to risk the lives of our soldiers in this way,” he said.

 

The Liberal government committed troops to Kandahar because they were told Canada was needed for a transition from a U.S. mission to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization operation, he said, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper extended the Canadian presence to 2009 without explaining what the mission would be.

 

Mr. Dion had harsh words for that move, saying Mr. Harper should have obtained the prior agreement of other nations to contribute more.

 

“Why he didn't make the first step (and say), ‘If I stay two years more, I want to know what you guys will do'?” Mr. Dion asked. “He did it for partisan reasons. To embarrass us, to divide us in the House, when it was such a dangerous and important reason for the country.”

 

Still, Mr. Dion said he would not abruptly pull the Canadian troops because that would further unsettle Afghanistan. “How would they feel if, in doing that, without any preparation, you are increasing the danger of the population,” he said. “It's not easy to get out.”

 

In his first days, Mr. Dion has stressed a political divide between his party and the Conservatives. But, speaking in a hoarse and cracking voice in the Opposition Leader's Parliament Hill office after the most eventful week of his political career, he took a go-slow attitude to the next election, making no threats to defeat Mr. Harper's minority government soon.

 

Mr. Dion ran his campaign on an environmental platform and argues that, unless the Tories are replaced early next year, Canada will not be able to meet the 2008 targets under the Kyoto Protocol. But he said he will not rush an election so they can be met, and if Canada misses the first targets, he would redouble efforts so later targets can be met, he said.

 

The Liberals remain unorganized and underfunded for an election campaign, particularly in Quebec, and many Liberals have questioned whether Mr. Dion can make gains there.

 

Mr. Harper has promised to lay out a solution to the so-called “fiscal imbalance” with the provinces — a touchstone issue in Quebec — in the next budget. But Mr. Dion has refused to use the term, despite its symbolism in the province.

 

Yesterday Mr. Dion said he does not know whether he will be against Mr. Harper's fiscal proposal, because he might favour it if it centres on equalization payments, for example.

 

But he said he is not willing to bandy around the term if it is unclear — and he accused Mr. Harper of seeking short-term political gain by adopting vague symbols favoured by Quebec nationalists.

 

“We need to get out of symbolic politics. When you accept to go to symbolic politics in order to look good in the coverage of the day after, it's for what purpose? We need to be sincere. I would not be sincere if I said to you I know what that means.

 

“I know what is the game of the separatists around this word, though: It is to give the sense to Quebeckers that Canada is unfair. And they are using that this way.”

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