Tories, Grits talking post-2011 role in Afghanistan
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The Canadian Press
The future of the Afghan mission is quietly being shaped in the corridors and backrooms of Parliament Hill.
Here, some Conservatives and Liberals are having hushed talks about Canada's role in Afghanistan beyond next year, The Canadian Press has learned.
As MPs from all sides try to resolve a long-simmering dispute over access to uncensored Afghanistan detainee documents, parallel albeit passing discussions about the mission are underway in Ottawa.
The overtures aren't formal. People interviewed for this story stressed the talks are more like feelers going out than anything else.
But what arises from these casual chats could have profound implications on Canada's military and civilian functions in Afghanistan.
Parliament passed a motion two years ago to end combat operations in Kandahar by July 2011. But the motion says nothing about staying in other parts of the country. Prime Minister Stephen Harper added the rider that every Canadian soldier would leave Afghanistan.
Harper is believed to be privately skeptical and worried that Canada has been mired in an endless conflict.
Others see it differently.
A senior member of the Conservative caucus said "two or three" top Liberals approached him recently about the Afghanistan quandary.
Tory Senator Hugh Segal, a one-time adviser to Harper who also served as chief of staff to prime minister Brian Mulroney, said the overtures started a few months ago.
"I've had at least two or three senior people (from) the Liberal party say that they are more than open-minded to a discussion about a military training presence," he said.
Segal said he has not spoken about this to the prime minister, and he has no formal authority to broker a deal on the Afghan mission. But that hasn't stopped him from having private chats with Grits.
"I've actually had them, off and on, for the last two-and-a-half to three months," Segal said.
"The Liberal caucus people with whom I have spoken are all kind of front-bench people who noticed and asked many questions of the kind you're asking, and who have indicated that they would be open if something were to come in the process," he added.
"But they're people who struck me as reasonably senior in the process."
Both parties seem to be sussing each other out. Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh said some Tories have casually approached him to get a read on his party's position on Afghanistan.
"(The) odd Conservative has asked me: 'Where are you guys?' And my answer always has been" 'Look, come up with a proposal, give it to us,'" he said in an interview.
Another senior Liberal told The Canadian Press the party has "tried to be constructive, trying to make it clear to the government we're open to discussions on training."
But so far the Grits have been "surprised by the rigidity of the Harper government."
"It sounds like they want out, period."
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