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The Next Minister of Defense

Is it appropriate to note that when he (and some of the rest of us dinosaurs) were serving Canada had an airborne regiment; a Special Service Force complete with airborne artillery and engineers, as well as an infantry battalion and an armoured regiment;  Recce, Utility and Transport helicopters and a functioning fleet of transport aircraft?  And how about AMF(L) Allied Mobile Force (Land),  the light infantry battalion tasking in Scandinavia for which the BV206s were bought?

Stop me if I misunderstand, but aren't we looking to recreate something of that sort currently?

4CMBG was the focal point right enough - perhaps too much so - but there were other capabilities available in the days of the dinosaurs.  Canada was not a one-trick pony.
 
By "dinosaur" I am referring to the propensity of many of the previous generation of soldiers to believe in a strictly heavy metal mechanised battlefield, where national armies fought over clearly defined objectives in terms of land, resources and opposing ideologies.
They are characterised by an inability to see beyond this type of conflict, and question the use of any piece of equipment or training that does not fit into this framework. Historically, this meant hostility towards special forces and airborne units, as they were often seen as using a disproportionately large piece of the budgetary pie, for results not as easily ascertained as numbers of tanks, trucks and carriers.

This would appear to be further borne out by the open hostility O'Connor has shown in the media to the only Canadian SF unit, expressing his desire to move them to Gander - a less than ideal posting, questioning their professionalism in his desire to move them to a conventional army base, due to some threat that they each personnally represent, and implying that their use of a Mk 19 constitutes a violation of international treaty and national law.

 
I agree with Go!!!'s assessment,......lets hope we are both brutally wrong.

...and I for one will be glad to offer my public humiliation if that happens. :-X
 
"4CMBG was the focal point right enough - perhaps too much so - but there were other capabilities available in the days of the dinosaurs.  Canada was not a one-trick pony."

- Myself, I miss the nukes. 

Tom

 
It is going to get worse for Gordon O’Connor before it gets any better.

Today the Globe and Mail weighed in with a news story* and an editorial.  The latter is reproduced, below, under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060208.EDEFENCE08/TPStory
The defence lobbyist who became the minister

Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems intent on interrupting the honeymoon usually enjoyed by new governments by contradicting the very positions he took in Opposition. The Conservatives stand for an elected Senate and condemned the sponsorship scandal that compromised the Department of Public Works and party officials; so Mr. Harper appoints a party official to the Senate and makes him Public Works Minister. The Conservatives' first order of business is to restore accountability to government; so Mr. Harper hands a cabinet post to an MP who only two weeks ago ran as a Liberal and told voters to elect him because the Conservatives were a danger.

And there's a third example. Even as he creates a new rule that former ministers, ministerial staff and senior public servants cannot lobby the federal government for five years after they leave their jobs, Mr. Harper has named a former defence lobbyist to the post of defence minister. Until former brigadier-general Gordon O'Connor was elected in 2004 and named defence critic, he had for years been a registered lobbyist working for the public-affairs giant Hill & Knowlton and specializing in advising defence manufacturers on how to secure government contracts.

Consider a partial list of Mr. O'Connor's clients. From 1996 to 2004, he was an official lobbyist for defence contractor BAE Systems, which last June took over another of his clients, United Defense. From 1996 to 2001, he served defence contractor General Dynamics. From 1999 to 2004, he served naval electronics firm Atlas Elektronik GmbH. From 2001 to 2004, he served Airbus Military, maker of the A400M military transport plane, which has competed to provide transports for Canada's military. In fact, as Mr. O'Connor pointed out only two months ago while serving as his party's defence critic, Airbus was considerably inconvenienced by the way the military arranged its bidding process.

It is not unusual for retired military officers to take jobs connected to the defence industry, but it is rare for a defence lobbyist to jump so quickly to the post of defence minister. Mr. Harper dismisses the notion that lobbying before becoming a minister is in any way similar to lobbying after having been a minister. "Having worked in an industry in the past does not constitute a conflict of interest in the present."

But how could it not? Mr. O'Connor will, as Defence Minister, very likely be dealing with the same people he worked and supped with regularly in his former job as facilitator and enabler. We have no doubt that Mr. O'Connor is an upright individual. He is no longer in the paid service of the defence contractors, and, under Mr. Harper's rules, when he leaves politics he won't be able to return to lobbying for five years. But the man who so recently fought the cases of Airbus Military, of BAE Systems, of Alenia Marconi Systems and the like can't help but be compromised when those companies and others he served compete for new contracts. There is at least the perception of a conflict of interest. And make no mistake, the new Conservative government will be catnip to those companies. Mr. Harper announced in December that any government he formed would increase defence spending by $5.3-billion over five years.

It is perplexing that even as Mr. Harper erects a five-year barrier at the far end of public service, he welcomes into the defence portfolio a man who less than two years ago was a lobbyist with ties to a number of defence contractors. That the Prime Minister sees no contradiction is cause for worry.

We can acknowledge that the Globe and Mail is not a raging blue Tory paper but, despite Jeffrey Simpson’s petulant offerings, it did endorse Harper and the Conservatives and has been, broadly, even handed to favourable in its treatment of the new government.

Like it or not the Globe and Mail is an influential Canadian daily – it is, despite the National Post’s protestations, Canada’s paper of record; its editorial positions matter.

Mr. O’Connor is now on notice, as it were; if he interferes with – even if he just fails to press forward with enthusiasm on the fast track procurement of new Hercules aircraft he will be accused of favouring his old employers.  Those kinds of charges are:

• Hard to beat – how do you prove a negative? and

• Detrimental to the defence programme because Gen. Hillier’s plans (the whole Department’s plans) for transformation and rebuilding get caught up in a ministerial scandal – even if none really exists.

I appreciate that O’Connor is a hard working, loyal team player who has helped Harper’s team to victory – he was also one of the Ontario pioneers in 04, signalling the rebirth of Conservative fortunes in Ontario.  He has been rewarded for his skills, knowledge, hard work and experience; I hope his reward doesn’t penalize DND.

----------
* See: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060208.wxoconnor08/BNStory/National/home
 
Here is another editorial from today’s Ottawa Citizen, also reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright Act:

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/editorials/story.html?id=32901432-6af7-41e1-9ff0-4600dce1f6ec
General knowledge

The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Gordon O'Connor is known and appreciated for his no-nonsense style. As a former general, he was an obvious choice for defence minister, and thus the man in charge of the largest department in government, managing a $14-billion budget, with personnel and operations scattered across the country and around the world.

We like the fact that the two-fisted soldier is not a natural-born politician, but he does need to better appreciate the sensitivities that come with a cabinet post.

Mr. O'Connor was a paid lobbyist for many defence-industry companies from 1996 to 2004. Among the companies he represented during his time at Hill & Knowlton were airplane manufacturer Airbus and truck-maker Stewart and Stevenson, both of which will be bidding for billions of Canadian taxpayer dollars in military contracts that might come across his desk.

Defence contracts are tricky things. Just ask the pilots still flying Sea King helicopters because Jean Chretien cancelled in 1993 a deal to buy replacements. Just ask the federal lawyers who are about to defend the government against a $1-billion lawsuit filed 13 years later over a second contract to replace the same helicopters.

Mr. O'Connor is a man of integrity, but it is not good enough for him to dismiss questions about past lobbying with a "just watch me." His procurement decisions must be absolutely transparent, and he needs to give a clear sign that he appreciates why this is so.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006

I agree that no one questions, or should question, Gordon O’Connor’s honesty.  There is no hint, anywhere, that he is anything but a man of integrity.

His judgement is seen (by some – and some may be too many) to be suspect and that also calls Harper’s judgment into question.

 
To me, it seems that Harper has just baked himself a political hot potatoe.  Wouldn't it have been better to have given O'Connor a cabinet post which rewarded his party loyalty and work that didn't place him in such conflict-of-interest scrutiny? ie. Veteran's affairs or Public Safety?
 
O'Connor is could be a problem unless procurement decisions are put to a parliamentary committee for final decision and not made by bureaucrats in PWGSC or the PMO.  Maybe it is wishful thinking but I seem to remember something of the sort being proposed about the time that the Submarines and Chicoutimi were being debated.

Don't know if it will happen but it would change the dynamics.
 
As President of Gordon's board and an integral part of his campaign team for the last two elections I can assure you that he is a man of integrity. Our campaign team refused to accept  funds from any company that does business with DND which consist of almost all the businesses in Kanata.. I find it amusing that the press continues to focus on  Gordon's  past. For the last thirteen years the press ignored all facts and did not even whimper when the Liberal government hacked to death the military's budget but quickly jumped in bed with political hacks who invited them to cocktail parties.
Now we have a retired general who knows how DND functions , he can work with the CDS to rebuild our forces  which will enable Canada to have a say at the table and  play a larger role across the globe  . Gordon has personally written and presented a clear plan for the future, unlike his many predecessor who had no clue where they were going or what they were doing.
The media and special interest groups will  gnaw and mash their teeth
as long as the Conservative government remains in power. Many of these journalist now realize that this caucus is very tight lipped and no leaks will occur therefore no stories and no free parties. :cdn:
 
"Gordon has personally written and presented a clear plan for the future, unlike his many predecessor who had no clue where they were going or what they were doing"

Can you share this with us?
 
You say:
Our campaign team refused to accept  funds from any company that does business with DND
and yet, what do I read online today?

PUBLICATION:  The Ottawa Citizen
DATE:  2006.02.08
EDITION:  EARLY
SECTION:  News
PAGE:  A3
BYLINE:  Mike Blanchfield
SOURCE:  The Ottawa Citizen

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Defence firm helped fund O'Connor campaign: Contribution raises concerns over past role as lobbyist

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada's new defence minister, already under fire for his past career as a defence industry lobbyist, received one-eighth of his campaign donations for his inaugural foray into federal politics from a company that has benefited from more than half-a-billion dollars worth of contracts from the Defence Department.

Calian Inc., a subsidiary of Calian Technologies Ltd., donated $1,000 worth of money and services -- the maximum allowed under federal elections law -- to the June 2004 election that brought Gordon O'Connor to the House of Commons for the first time as a Conservative MP and later as the opposition defence critic.

Hmmm.... Didn't Calian recently get a big DND health care contract?

 
I'm sure his reply is going to be that that what happened in the 2004 election is ancient history and that we should only focus on the last one...

 
Sheerin said:
I'm sure his reply is going to be that that what happened in the 2004 election is ancient history and that we should only focus on the last one...
I'm not so sure.  Why don't we let HIM answer.
 
Dorianhawk,

Since you are so well placed in Mr. O'Connor's staff, can you explain the hostile position that he has taken towards the JTF? Will this sentiment be extended to the CSOR? Or is Mr. O'Connor prepared to perform a 180 degree turn and start supporting the non-conventional portions of the military?

 
The press and the usual suspects are slathering dirt over Prim Minister Harper's team right from the get go in order to avenge the defeat of their Liberal patrons and protectors.

While it is true Prime Minister Harper's choices of David Emerson and Mr O'Conner have bad "optics"; I think we should all be willing to look at their performance on the job before rushing to judgement. As was noted in a previous post, our former government's ministers (and MPs) were never held to any standard of conduct or accountability, and the public record of their performance should speak for itself.
 
The press and the usual suspects are slathering dirt over Prim Minister Harper's team right from the get go in order to avenge the defeat of their Liberal patrons and protectors.

Curiosity time:  During the reporting on the swearing in CTV had two CPC spokesmen supplying "colour commentary".  There were no spokesmen on CBC. 
During the campaign Harper would not commit to "Townhall" on CBC until the very end of the campaign.  I wonder if there are many nervous/angry CBC producers out there?
 
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