In the US, someone like Major-General Lewis MacKenzie (retired) would be a key political figure (think Wesley Clark). In Canada he is pratically nobody. This has to change. Acoording to M-G MacKenzie DART was always the wrong idea (looks like you need to be a Post subscriber to have access to this article):
...The strategy behind the creation of DART was unsound then, and is even more questionable 10 years later. Of the 100 worst natural disasters of the past 100 years, all but a tiny number were on the other side of the world, with the vast majority occurring in China, India and Bangladesh. No matter how eager we may be to help, Canada is not going to be one of the first on the scene in those parts of the world.
Since 1994, NGOs have managed a staggering number of humanitarian challenges in Honduras, Bosnia, Somalia, China, Sudan, Ethiopia and too many other places to mention. These experiences have turned most of them into extremely professional and effective disaster relief organizations, and in many cases they are actually represented on the ground in anticipation of a pending crisis. Consequently, our military would be put to better use by focusing on the less
glamorous — but frequently more important— long-term requirements that inevitably follow any major disaster.
Instead we should have military first response team. A combat unit with the ability to do humanitarian relief.
...The plan recommended the lease of two San Antonio class assault ships from the United States. These ships can carry 800 troops with their equipment, supplies and vehicles, and include command communications and a medical facility. It was recommended that the army reconfigure one of its brigades of four to five thousand personnel to take on a rapid reaction role. Two battle groups would be trained and equipped to deploy on board the two assault ships. The air force would operate from the ships’ decks with helicopters capable of lifting soldiers, supplies and casualties.
SEAHORSE would provide just the type of support so urgently needed throughout the entire disaster region now and in the future: helicopter delivery of supplies and evacuation of serious casualties; surgery; basic reconstruction and safety evaluations of standing structures; basic road and airfield construction and maintenance; secure and comfortable accommodation to provide breaks for overworked NGO personnel; security for aid distribution points; equipment maintenance and hospital generators; fresh water supply and a multitude of other tasks including brute, disciplined labour demanded by most disasters and easily undertaken by 800 tough, fit Canadian soldiers.
Such a force would not have to be reorganized or re-equipped to do the job. And an equivalent U.S. force is currently being praised by the victims in Indonesia. Similar forces are on the way to the area from Brazil, Spain, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Update: According to this link at the CBC Major-General MacKenzie has run as a Progress Conservative in the past. Thanks for the correction.
Political History: Parry Sound, In 2000, Liberal Andy Mitchell defeated Alliance candidate George Stripe to win a third term. In the previous election, Lewis MacKenzie had run against Mitchell as a Conservative candidate and lost. MacKenzie is a retired major general of the Canadian Forces, renowned for his peacekeeping work in Sarajevo.
So I guess my question is now, how do we get him to run again?
