OTTAWA - MPs will vote on whether to extend or halt the Afghanistan mission this spring, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper hopes the Opposition Liberals will support a plan for a prolonged path forward.
In a year-end interview with Sun Media, Harper said Parliament must make a decision this spring to properly advise NATO partners of Canada's plans.
The PM will put the issue to the House of Commons after a panel headed by former Liberal cabinet minister John Manley makes its recommendations next month.
"We set up the Manley panel in the hope we could proceed with this issue in a way that Parliament, at least the two major parties, understood the long-term importance of this in terms of Canadian and global security, in terms of our international commitments and reputation and obviously the responsibility we think we owe to those who have sacrificed so much to get us this far," he said. "That's my hope, that we will see a consensus develop on a way forward."
Harper made it clear in the fall Throne Speech that his wish is to extend the current mission by two years, to 2011. The NDP and Bloc Quebecois want to end the mission, and the Liberals have called for a stop to the combat role in 2009.
Harper said he won't likely make Afghanistan a confidence vote.
"If we got to the point where all three Opposition parties said we won't extend, period -and I hope we don't get there and I don't imagine Manley would recommend that - but if we got there, what would be the point in making it a confidence vote?" he said.
"If the government were defeated, the only way you could then change that decision would be to win a majority on that issue. I think the government can run for re-election that it would be re-elected, but I don't think the government can run promising a majority."
One year ago, facing a possible confidence vote over Canada's role in Afghanistan, Harper said he would rather be thrown from office than cut short Canada's mission.
"I will never, as prime minister of this country, abandon the short-run needs of our men and women who are in a war theatre, nor will I abandon the long-term needs, this country's long-term security interests, for any political reason, for any political poll, or anything," he said in a year-end interview with Sun Media in December 2006. "If we're defeated in the House, if we lose an election, so be it. I could not live with myself if I played political games with the lives of Canadians."
