Peace Campaign Questions

“If your party is elected, when will Canadian troops leave Afghanistan?”
The threat assessment maps produced by the United Nations demonstrate a steadily deteriorating situation from May 2005 (with no districts in Afghanistan identified as “extreme risk”) to December 2007 (with 14 of the 17 districts in Kandahar marked as “extreme risk”). The Globe and Mail reported on March 1 that "Last year, more than 6,500 people, most of them ordinary Afghans, were killed in violence, as compared with roughly 4,000 in 2006, and 1,000 in 2005."

The so-called 'Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan' headed by John Manley acknowledged that, "By many knowledgeable accounts, security generally has deteriorated in the South and East of Afghanistan, including the Kandahar province where Canadian Forces are based, through 2006 and 2007."

An Angus Reid Strategies poll released on December 31, 2007 shows that 61 percent of Canadians oppose an extension of the military mission beyond the current deadline of February 2009. 53 percent of Canadians want Canadian soldiers to come home before that date.

“Would you grant refuge to all U.S. war resisters?”
On June 27, it was reported that, “A majority of Canadians would agree with the decision to let American military deserters stay in Canada as permanent residents, a new Angus Reid Strategies survey reveals. In the online survey of a representative national sample, three-in-five Canadians (64%) say they would agree to give these U.S. soldiers the opportunity to remain in Canada as permanent residents.”