Harperius Minimus

Harper pledges to boost military presence in cities
Last Updated Wed, 28 Dec 2005 13:15:05 EST
CBC News

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was back on the campaign trail this week, promising to beef up military presence in major cities to respond to emergencies.

In other news, Harper announced that he will form a special "Praetorian Guard" unit for Ottawa. When asked why, he answered "Oh, no reason" and smirked.

"A large number of our cities have no military presence," Harper said while campaigning on Vancouver Island Tuesday.

Um, good?

If he's elected Jan. 23, Harper said, territorial battalions made up of 100 regular troops and 400 or more reservists would be stationed in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Winnipeg, the Toronto area and other major metropolitan areas.

"This is a full military presence," he added. "Obviously we would anticipate that its domestic need would be in case of disaster...

Oh come on. We're not (very) stupid over here. I would like to know under exactly what circumstances we would have tanks in the streets. Meteor strike? Escaped circus animals? Labour unrest?

but obviously they would be military forces that could be forward-deployed in the event of more serious military conflict elsewhere.

The Conservative leader said he would boost the military's presence in British Columbia and across Western Canada because the West Coast is vital to national sovereignty.

Dude, the main threat (and believe me it's not much of a threat at all) to Canada's sovereignty in the West is whiny Albertans. Not something that requires active urban military deployment.