The Martin administration’s announcement was more political grandstanding than an act of defiance against the U.S. rulers.

During his visit to Canada last November, U.S. president George Bush had pointedly urged Ottawa to sign on to BMD. Washington is paying for the system and all missiles and radar installations are stationed outside Canada. The U.S. rulers are developing the nuclear shield in order to gain first-strike nuclear capacity and use it to blackmail any regime that doesn’t bow to Washington’s dictates. They are also pressing their imperialist allies and other governments to come under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. Washington has already won cooperation on the program from the governments of Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

The newly appointed Canadian ambassador to Washington, Frank McKenna, precipitated Martin’s announcement just days before he took up his post by telling reporters February 22 that Canada was already part of the BMD system. He cited a new amendment to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) treaty signed last year by the Canadian and U.S. governments. “We’re part of it now,” he said, referring to ballistic defense.

“The question is how much more do we want [to do],” McKenna said. “There’s no question the NORAD amendment has already given a great deal of what the United States needs in terms of input on North American defense.”

NORAD has run the military surveillance and control of North American airspace since the 1950s. The amendment allows for all radar data collected by NORAD to flow to ballistic missile defense installations for their use. U.S. and Canadian officers rotate in NORAD’s command structure.

By coincidence, the same day Martin made his announcement, the U.S. Navy cruiser Lake Erie carried out another successful test of the Aegis system that’s part of BMD. Lake Erie shot an interceptor missile that destroyed another ballistic missile launched minutes earlier. The February 24 mission was the fifth successful test for the SM-3 interceptor missile and its radar components in the system.

Martin’s announcement posed the possibility of new tensions in relations between Ottawa and Washington. These were strained by Ottawa’s refusal to take part in the U.S.-led “coalition of the willing” in the war on Iraq, and Washington’s retaliatory trade sanctions, which have sharply reduced Canadian exports of beef and softwood lumber to the United States.

Following Martin’s announcement, U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice sent a diplomatic signal of displeasure by postponing a scheduled visit to Ottawa in April.

Martin’s decision contradicted his statements of support for BMD during his campaign to be elected Liberal party chief. Minister of Defense William Graham had also made numerous statements in favor of signing on to the system.

U.S. ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci expressed Washington’s surprise with Martin’s position. “We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty—its seat at the table—to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada,” he said. Cellucci pointed out that U.S. forces would shoot down such missiles anyway.

The Martin government’s decision seems to flow from the administration’s political weakness and internal divisions. Martin heads a Liberal minority government that needs votes from opposition party members to remain in office. While there was a strong possibility the premier could have counted on Conservative Party votes on this issue, media reports indicate that Martin faced fierce opposition to BMD from a sizeable minority in his own party. At the federal Liberal party convention March 4, delegates passed a motion against Canadian participation in BMD. The Parti Quebecois, based in Quebec, and the New Democratic Party, a social-democratic party, have also opposed BMD.

Opposition to ballistic missile defense is higher in Quebec than the rest of the country, according to opinion polls. Martin needs to make electoral gains there to have a chance to win a majority government in the next election.

Despite the BMD decision, Canada’s imperialist rulers are preparing more military cooperation with Washington. Military spending in Canada has remained relatively low until recently. It was 1.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003—the lowest among NATO members after Luxemburg and Iceland.

This is now changing. The federal budget presented in parliament February 23 included a Can$2.5 billion (US$10.3 billion) increase in military spending over the next five years, the biggest jump in two decades. The Canadian rulers are adding 8,000 active and reserve troops to the Canadian Forces, and new equipment aimed at transforming the military into a larger, more mobile, and flexible force.

Negotiations between Ottawa and Washington have also been underway for months for a new treaty to expand continental military cooperation into areas of maritime and land surveillance and control along the same lines as NORAD. There is a May 2006 deadline for an agreement.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home