Stephen Maher: Peter MacKay may be a knucklehead, but he’s the best Defence Minister we’ve had in a long time
Postmedia News
Dec 2, 2011
By Stephen Maher
When I was a carefree young newspaper reporter, I was once lucky enough to go for a ride on the beautiful Gander River, to take a picture of a rotting moose carcass.
It was a great day, sunny and cold, and as the boatman expertly steered the Gander River Boat through the rocky rattles, he told me funny stories about sly local salmon poachers. Twenty years later, from time to time I still think about what a great day that was.
Our defence minister, Peter MacKay, the knucklehead, could have had a great boat ride like that last summer, and the world would still not know how stunned he is.
MacKay was fishing at a salmon lodge on the same stretch of river in July, when he had to cut short his trip to catch an 8 a.m. flight from Gander to London, Ont., to announce a contract at noon.
Instead of enjoying a bracing morning run up the river, his office called in a Cormorant helicopter from the Gander search and rescue base, where crews stand ready to haul fishermen off sinking boats in the treacherous North Atlantic.
MacKay showed terrible judgment, unlike Air Force Col. Bruce Ploughman in Winnipeg, who advised against the trip.
“When the guy who’s fishing at the fishing hole next to the minister sees the big yellow helicopter arrive and decides to use his cellphone to video the minister getting on board and post it on YouTube, who will be answering the mail on that one?” Col. Ploughman wrote in an email.
It wasn’t a YouTube video that caught MacKay out, but Bob Fife at CTV, who reported on the trip in September.
Back then, MacKay stood in the House and portrayed his chopper ride as part of his duties.
“I cut the trip short to take part in a search and rescue demonstration,” he said.
That tissue-thin excuse collapsed when Allan Woods of the Toronto Star used access-to-information law to get Air Force emails.
One email says that the trip would be “under the guise” of search and rescue training.
Ploughman, who is smarter than MacKay, predicted that reporters would get the goods.
“If we are tasked to do this we of course will comply,” he wrote. “Given the potential for negative press though, I would likely recommend against it, especially in view of the fact that the Air Force receives (or at least used to) regular ATIs specifically targeting travel on CF aircraft by ministers.”
Like Prince William, who once landed a military helicopter at his girlfriend’s house, it looks like MacKay was showing off, having fun with equipment that should be reserved for serious business.
And he seems to have misled the House, which is the sort of thing that once led ministers to resign.
But he should not resign, because he may be a knucklehead, but he is also the best defence minister we have had in a long time, and it would be silly to let this mini-scandal end his career.
MacKay has had the job since August 2007, presiding over a golden period for the Canadian Forces.
During the Jean Chretien years, the military was starved of equipment and sometimes treated shabbily by Liberal politicians who saw our forces as a necessary evil. Under Stephen Harper, the Canadian Forces have received their due — and more.
MacKay has been the cheerleader-in-chief for the ramp-up and deserves credit for that, and for all the time he has spent connecting with members of the Forces.
He has also done a good job at military diplomacy, expertly toadying to our American friends and, I hope, privately reminding them at tedious length of our contributions.
He runs into trouble, though, when he identifies too closely with the troops. He is a politician, not a member of the Canadian Forces, and he should not play soldier.
For one thing, it is his job to watch how the soldiers spend our pennies.
In an exhaustive report on the Forces, retired Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie found massive recent growth in spending at DND headquarters, both on civilian employees and consultants. If retired bigwigs are signing sweetheart contracts with their former subordinates, don’t expect the media to find out.
Only MacKay is in the position to provide oversight. That requires a certain remove.
Too often, when opposition politicians do their duty and ask questions about the Canadian Forces in the House of Commons, MacKay accuses them of attacking the troops.
At its worst, during the painful debates about Canada’s treatment of Afghan detainees, it was chilling to see how far he’d go.
I think MacKay reacted so aggressively then because he was rattled. The government was too slow to act when the Department of Foreign Affairs warned that our Afghan allies were likely torturing detainees for whom we were legally responsible.
The documents are all secret, but I suspect the government — then brand new — relied too heavily on advice from the Department of National Defence and not enough on the advice from Foreign Affairs.
In certain Ottawa offices, Canadian politics is seen as a struggle between DND and DFAIT. When the Tories are in, it’s good times at DND HQ. When the Liberals are in, it’s bubbly at Fort Pearson.
As defence minister, MacKay’s job is to oversee DND, not be part of it. When you get mixed up about that you start thinking the Air Force should pick you up in a Cormorant so you don’t have to get up at sunrise for a very nice boat ride.
Postmedia News
smasher@postmedia.com
