With their military having spent the better part of a decade amongst insurgents, improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers, Canadians have arguably become accustomed to the idea that future wars will largely consist of low-intensity counterinsurgency conflicts. As a result, many are questioning the government’s recent decision to purchase 65 stealth strike fighters—a fleet of planes that would not have been used by Canadians in Afghanistan, and instead conjures images of Cold War arms races.

The Canadian Forces expect to have 65 of the F-35 stealth strike fighters operational by 2016 at a cost potentially surpassing $16 billion. Credit: DND

Yet when he was appointed Canada’s most recent foreign minister in October 2008, Lawrence Cannon received a stack of briefing documents prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Tucked into one section was a page that discussed the global political and security environment. China figured prominently.

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Paul Stothart is excited.

Last year, iron ore and coal alone accounted for nearly $1.6 billion in Canadian exports to China. This represented $1 billion more than in 2008, continuing a trend that has become a major boon for Canada’s mining sector.

“Everything in our industry is driven by China,” said Mr. Stothart, vice-president of economic affairs at the Mining Association of Canada, explaining that world mineral prices for copper, nickel, zinc and uranium are largely set by—increasing—Chinese demand for raw minerals.

The Middle Kingdom looms just as large for Andrew Casey, vice-president of foreign affairs and international trade at the Forestry Producers Association of Canada.

“It’s been a brutal couple of years,” he said, adding that the ongoing downturn in the US housing industry has had a dramatic impact on Canada’s forestry industry. He predicts that long-term economic sustainability for the sector will ultimately arrive only from diversification. A comprehensive approach to selling Canadian forest products, he said, includes Asia.

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Throughout Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, many have complained that the public is not receiving sufficient information from the field about the military and its operations.

Certainly journalists have stepped up to the plate to provide what the government often does not. Opinions differ, however, on whether that reporting has been comprehensive enough, and if not, then who is to blame for such scarcity.

Last Wednesday, Senators Romeo Dallaire and Pamela Wallin, co-chairs of the Senate’s National Security and Defence committee, offered an answer: The media.

During a briefing detailing their findings in an interim report on “Canada’s present and future role in Afghanistan”—they concluded that Canada should continue to train Afghan security forces beyond 2011, and encouraged Parliament to revisit the debate over extending the pullout date—the senators found themselves in a discussion over the quality of media coverage.

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