Russian bomber gaffe reminiscent of Cold War
“It’s the best plane … and when you are a pilot staring down on Russian long-range bombers, that’s an important fact to remember.”
You could be forgiven for thinking this is a quote by Tom Cruise’s Maverick character from the Cold War-era favourite Top Gun. But no, the comment was made by the Prime Minister’s director of communications after two CF-18 Hornets shadowed two Russian TU-95 Bears in the Far North on Tuesday.
Apparently miffed that the Russians had dared buzz Canadian airspace while his boss is in the Arctic, Dimitri Soudas was extolling the virtues of Canada’s fighter jets.
The fact is, the Russians regularly sniff around in the North and the only reason we know about it this time, one suspects, is because the parliamentary National Defence committee was set to meet to debate the $16-billion untendered purchase of the next generation of fighter jets, the F-35s, from Lockheed Martin.
The Russian presence was a timely opportunity for the Prime Minister’s Office to once again subvert diplomacy to the interests of domestic politics. “The CF-18 is an incredible aircraft that enables our Forces to meet the Russian challenges in our North,” said Mr. Soudas, an attempt to blunt criticism that its replacement is not suited to the kind of security tasks Canada is likely to undertake in the future.
In the short-term, raising the spectre of the Russian bear in the air must have seemed like a good idea, since it knocked the committee meeting off the news agenda.
But here’s why it was not. The Canadian government’s own strategy document says our only territorial disputes in the Far North are with Denmark over Hans Island and the United States over the maritime boundary in the Beaufort Sea.
A dispute with Russia may yet emerge if there are over-lapping claims along the Lomonosov Ridge, a mountain range beneath the Arctic Ocean, where a mini-submarine planted a Russian flag in 2007.
But co-operating with Russia may yield more benefits than confrontation. Where Canada claims the North-West Passage as an internal waterway, so Russia claims the North-East Passage — both of which are set to become navigable.
As Norway’s Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store, told me when he visited Ottawa in March, the West would benefit from “updating our mental maps, which are frozen in the Cold War” when dealing with Russia.
This is understood only too well by Canada’s bureaucrats in the Department of Foreign Affairs, many of whom have been left holding their heads in their hands in despair after the latest intervention by the PMO.
Sources inside the department said there is increasing frustration at a hostility toward Russia that is manufactured for entirely domestic political purposes. The relationship between this government and its bureaucracy is showing signs of fraying to breaking point. Conservative politicians might joke that a public service strike would bring government to a standstill, if it were not for the fact that it is already. They might not be laughing so hard if they tested the theory. “More and more, the system is starting to resist,” said one senior Conservative, who lamented the aggressive approach taken by the PMO.
No one is suggesting that Canadian sovereignty in the North is not important — nor that the Canadian Forces should not respond to potential incursions (even if, as NDP critic Jack Harris pointed out, the Russians have not entered Canadian airspace in the last decade).
But it is fair to suggest that there should be a more mature, sophisticated approach taken by the Prime Minister’s Office. To speak in the style of a wannabe Top Gun is not grown-up government.
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Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/08/25/john-ivison-russian-bomber-gaffe-reminiscent-of-cold-war/#ixzz0xgDAfAvo
