I agree that DND needs to transform the attitudes and ingrained beliefs of the most senior Mandarins (the deputies).
Do not, however, minimize the importance of MPs: the PM lives and dies on the support of his caucus - a pro-military PM cannot push an anti-military caucus very far. Back-bench MPs are both leaders and follows with respect to their constituencies: they bring their constituents' POVs to Ottawa and they are supposed to bring the party's (cabinet's) POV back to the constituency. When, as in Canada in 2000, one social issue, health care, totally dominates the political agenda there is neither much scope nor much need for Liberal MPs to do anything: their constituents' main concern - reinforced by so-called journalists who are, in reality little more than stenographers, taking dictation from Liberal Party spin doctors - is also the central plank of the Liberal Party's platform.
There may, however, be a window in 2005/06.
"¢ Canadians are, I think (maybe I just hope and my thought represents the triumph of hope over experience, again), becoming aware of the fact that the current health care model is unsustainable and, in fact, undesirable: the WHO ranks us 30th in health care performance - below everyone in the OECD (the developed world)? - but we are near the top in health care spending in GDP per capita terms. Canadians are, slowly but surely, I think. coming to realize that they have been sold a bill of (Stalinist) goods. They know the Canadian/Cuban/North Korean model is wrong; they know the system must change; they know the Liberal/NDP alliance is incapable of making the change; and
"¢ Canadians are turning their attention to other, difficult, issues: aboriginals, infrastructure, productivity, education and foreign policy. None are easy, none have anywhere near the political traction of free health care, but all are climbing up the agenda - it might be that Canadians are waking from a 20 year political coma.
This is about defence, I promise; I'm just too lazy to organize my thoughts into a short, sharp, clear post.
So, MPs still matter and might matter a lot more now that there is an opportunity to broaden the political agenda to include foreign and defence policy, MPs need to understand what General Hillier needs to do and why he needs to do it - build more efficient and combat effective, combat ready forces so that he can give the government more choice, more flexibility to do Canada's will in the world - and they need to take that back to their constituencies and do some mind changing.
I believe the deputies pose a different problem. They do not, I think, disagree with much of anything General Hillier says or wants to do with the military. They do not believe that DND (which includes the CF) is properly managed; they do not believe that the Department's management can give effect to Hillier's ambitions. Even worse: they believe Hillier is working in a policy vacuum. Many (maybe even most) mandarins understand that Canada does not have a coherent foreign policy. We are, in effect, stuck in the 1969 model, which had two overwhelming faults which made it a totally failed policy from the day it was published:
"¢ It failed, totally and miserably, to address the central issue in Canadian foreign policy - the United States; and
"¢ It stated, explicitly, that Canada had neither the means nor even the will to make any appreciable difference in the world.
The saddest thing about the '69 policy mess was, still is, that is popular - especially amongst Liberals and a large slice of the academic pseudo-intelligentsia.
If we have no coherent foreign policy, argue some mandarins, then how can we have a useful defence policy? Why send good money after bad? Absent a useful defence policy Hillier's ideas and plans are just band-aids - expensive band-aids. DND doesn't need a band-aid, it needs major surgery. Until that happens, they suggest, money is better spent on aboriginals, education, infrastructure, and, and, and, ad infinitum.
I suggest 'we' (General Hillier, actually) do not need to take the deputies to Afghanistan. The deputies already know that the men and women in units and formations, including their commanders, are good people doing the right thing and doing things right. They believe that those few good men (and women) are ill-served in Ottawa, by Ottawa. We do need to change the deputies' minds but words will not do the trick unless they are White Paper words backed up by bureaucratic and management reform within DND and, equally important, within the incredibly complex, inefficient and highly politicized defence procurement process.
The problems and solutions are not, in so far as I understand the mandarins' views, just within the budget and procurement processes. The problems start with policy and include organization, management (including the civilian military 'split' and 'overlaps' in NDHQ), communications (public relations) and money and procurement.
If I understand them then I agree with the mandarins.
Edit: corrected grammar
