Calendar creep on the Afghan map

Interesting things coming out of the Lisbon NATO summit. Canada's grand emissaries to the summit had better be prepared to explain, with absolute clarity, what their hillbilly mouths agreed to.

First is this from the Afghanistan Daily Outlook. (The link will probably not survive so I'll quote the relevant line)

NATO nations formally agreed Saturday to start turning over Afghanistan's security to its military next year and give them full control by 2014. The U.S. and its allies appeared to take conflicting views on when NATO combat operations would end. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he did not expect NATO troops to stay in the fight against the Taliban after 2014. "I don't foresee ISAF troops in a combat role beyond 2014, provided of course that the security situation allows us to move into a more supportive role,"

That requires a careful re-read. Canada has committed to pulling out of a combat role commencing mid-2011 and starting a new mission in a training role by the end of next year. NATO has determined that an end date for its combat involvement will be 2014, if the security situation allows it, and then to take on a more "supportive" role. That could be anything from training to providing combat support in the field. The issue is that Canada assuming a training role, supposedly until the end of 2014, without grinding out the details in a proper national discussion, may well end up committed well past that advertised time.
The NATO plan is highly conditional. The US has rejected any end date and has stated that they will continue combat operations alone, if necessary.

By contrast, US officials insisted that the Nato transition plan did not guarantee an end to American combat operations. US forces could go on fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan even after transition, they said.
Transition and ceasing combat operations are “not one and the same”, said a senior US official. Speaking to reporters at the Nato summit , Barack Obama, the US President, said: “One thing I am pretty confident we will still be doing after 2014 is maintaining a counter-terrorism capability. It’s going to be pretty important to us to continue to have platforms to execute those counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan.”

And now the Harper statement:

Regardless of what role NATO forces may play in Afghanistan after the deadline, Canadian soldiers will not be there to participate, according to Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.
Combat troops are pulling out next year as planned, he said, and the military trainers pledged to NATO this week will not stay past March, 2014, regardless of what other members of the alliance do. “There is no flexibility,” he said.

Right. Given that just this past summer Harper was rattling on that after 2011 the Afghanistan mission would be completely "civilian", there is absolutely no reason to believe that statement. Without a proper national discourse this is nothing but foreign affairs governance by press release.
And we don't know whether Harper and Cannon have consulted with Bob Rae yet.

Conservatives to invent a bus with no wheels

This is now a typical Conservative Party announcement.

Canada's transportation and infrastructure minister said Saturday the government is going to draw up a national urban transit strategy.

Going to... as in, we hadn't thought about that, but now that you mention it, we will.

"You have asked the federal government to take leadership, we have heard your message," Lawrence Cannon told the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities.

Because up to now, this load of Harper cut-out dolls have been rotating on their thumbs.

The government will meet with provinces, territories and municipal groups over the next several month to put together the policy, he said.

Yeah, well, that will give him something to do. The fact is, the municipalities have been meeting without the federal government and produced a well researched document with the assistance of, you know, experts.

The document says an appropriate strategy must increase transit ridership, improve the economic competitiveness of Canadian cities, enhance the quality of urban life and reduce greenhouse gas reductions and improve air quality.

Cannon agreed with these broad goals, saying the government "recognizes that increasing the use of public transit can help reduce traffic congestion in cities, help reduce air pollution and the growth of greenhouse gas emissions."

Stunning. But in fairness, Cannon is a Conservative so such things would not have attracted his attention unless someone actually pointed them out. At least his recognition and awareness of the issue, accompanied by a grand announcement should mean some action. Right?

Tell me you don't know what's coming next.

"This national transit strategy is not about new funding beyond what is already committed, nor is it about federal intrusion," he said.

"It is about facilitating greater co-ordination and co-operation and collaboration between key funders and stakeholders."

No. Kidding.

Here, take my box of tissues and blow your nose. Oops! The box is empty. Oh well, it's still a box of tissues because it says so on the package.

Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier, a member of the caucus, said they're looking forward to hearing the details of the government strategy - something he said Cannon told him would be available around September.

"Launching the strategy is something positive from the Big City Mayor's Caucus, positive from the city of Calgary," he said.

Bronconnier said he and the minister met after the announcement to talk about different ways governments can fund major transit projects.

"Nothing firm, other than he was supportive, saying, 'If you have a proposal that's innovative that brings in the private sector, that deals with land use and a possibility for an innovative solution that may be available to other municipalities besides Calgary, then send it to me," he said.

Bronconnier should know better. Cannon could have told him, "I got nothin'," and it would have amounted to the same thing. Given that the Bronconnier has been aggressive in developing Calgary's infrastructure and understands the private sector's extreme reluctance to become involved in municipal transit systems, what he actually got from Cannon was a snub.

What Cannon is not acknowledging is that, in 2005, the $4.2 billion spent on urban transit in Canada realized only $2.6 billion in revenue. The $1.6 billion shortfall was made up through municipal contributions. Capital investment of $1.6 billion in various systems came 100 percent from all three levels of government. With those kinds of numbers, the private sector wouldn't touch urban transit with a ten foot pole.

There is Cannon's record of achievement in urban transit to be considered. From 2002 to late 2005, when Cannon was president of Société de Transport de l'Outaouais, Gatineau's transit system across the river from Ottawa, he embarked on a transit plan that concentrated on building roads for vehicles while steering away from mass public transit.

At the same time, totally ignoring efforts by the City of Ottawa to develop an integrated light rapid transit rail system, Cannon focussed on putting more buses on the National Capital Region's already bus clogged streets. The result of this conflict has been to have the City of Ottawa drop a comprehensive urban transit study and go back to the drawing board.

Cannon's announcement is standard fare from the Harperites: No plan, no money, no substance and absolutely no thought.

He's got nothin'.