October 13, 2006 :: Ottawa Citizen :: News
Canadian Senator Colin Kenny, chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defense, has written an op-ed in the Ottowa Citizen supporting ballistic missile defense cooperation with the U.S. “We Canadians need to defend ourselves,” he writes. “We should take advantage of what the Americans have to offer us in defending North America. We need to do that in our own national interest, not theirs.” Kenny asserts that participating in BMD would offer Canadians a “practical, cost-effective way of defending Canada.”
Noting that the U.S. system already has the potential to protect hundreds of thousands of Canadians from a rogue attack, he points out that “BMD is the closest we will ever come to a free lunch.” Yet the former Liberal government and the current Conservative government have both shied away from joining the U.S. missile defense program. “It boils down to this,” the Senator writes. “Joining BMD would undoubtedly hurt both parties’ chances of electoral success, particularly in Quebec. … As the arguments against ballistic missile defense fall away, we’re left with plain old anti-Americanism.” (Article)
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