Canadians support the troops - but not pricey procurement

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1) Government boys and expensive toys. Canada may be sliding $164-billion deeper into deficit over seven years, but that's not stopping the Harper government from ringing up some massive military hardware purchases like the fighter-jet announcement taking place this morning in Ottawa.

As the Tories embark on a massive aircraft purchase estimated to cost taxpayers $16-billion over two decades, they do so knowing there is mixed public support for such outlays.

According to newly-disclosed polling conducted for the Department of National Defence by The Strategic Counsel, the Canadian public is very supportive, in the abstract, of more government spending on the military. But that doesn't hold when things get more specific.

Polls conducted in late 2009 show that 74 per cent of Canadians surveyed support "significant government investment" in the Canadian Forces. That's hardly a universal sentiment though - or one that's shared evenly across Canada. Ninety-one per cent of Albertans agreed with the statement but only 51 per cent of Quebeckers concurred.

But when it comes to buying big toys, Canadians grow more wary.

When asked if spending money on ships, aircraft or vehicles is a good use of public funds, only 54 per cent of respondents agree. (Nineteen per cent aren't sure and 25 per cent disagree.) This support is a drop of 8 points from 62 per cent of Canadians who held this view in September, 2009

And when Canadians are quizzed on whether they think the government "gets good value for money when making major equipment purchases," only 26 per cent agree. Forty-four per cent think not and 16 per cent don't know. Basically three quarters of Canadians feel Ottawa gets ripped off when it buys big.

(The survey of 1,000 adult Canadians was carried out between December 10 and 15, 2009. The results are considered accurate to within 3.1 per cent 19 times out of 20.)

2) Lest we forget. The Harper government is mulling what to do with its Veterans Affairs Department as the vet population slips away. (Every month 1,700 more veterans from the Second World War and Korean War die.)

A newly-disclosed government poll, however shows the Veterans Affairs Department has its work cut out for it when it comes to educating Canadians about the heavy price that vets paid in the service of their country.

A full 27 per cent of Canadians surveyed for Veterans Affairs in an April 2010 survey "consider themselves to be not very, or not at all, familiar with ... accomplishments and sacrifices" of veterans, a report on the findings by Phoenix Strategic Perspectives says.

Young Canadians, meanwhile, know little about key military events where Canada played a role. A slight majority of younger respondents claimed to know at least a moderate amount about the Second World War - "but beyond this, their knowledge was very limited," the Phoenix report says. Aside from that, clear majorities said they knew "very little or nothing at all" about events other than the Second World War. Their mental blind spots include the First World War, the Korean War and Canadian peacekeeping efforts since 1960.

Quebeckers also appear to know little about the sacrifices of vets. Over three-quarters of residents in all regions of Canada except Quebec claimed at least "moderate familiarity " with the accomplishments and sacrifices of Canada's Veterans. In Quebec a majority of 55 per cent claimed "little or no familiarity" with the sacrifices of Canada's retired soldiers.

There's a marked gap in the amount of attention paid to Remembrance Day activities between Francophones and Anglophones in Canada. (The report said its findings on francophones should be considered synonymous with Quebec sentiment and Quebec, as readers will recall, was opposed to mandatory service in the Second World War.)

The Phoenix survey finds that anglophones are more likely than francophones to take part in: attending Remembrance ceremonies (44 per cent versus nine per cent); wearing a poppy (35 per cent versus 26 per cent); donating to remembrance-related charities (18 per cent versus 10 per cent); participating in or helping organize Remembrance ceremonies (17 per cent versus eight per cent); and teaching their children about Canada's history and heritage (10% versus 4%). Francophones were much more likely to say they do nothing to mark Remembrance Day (24 per cent versus 4 per cent of anglophones).

3. It's just a flesh wound. Canada's broadcast regulator has rained on Quebecor Media's summer day, saying "nice try" to its Fox News-style TV network's request for a lucrative "must-carry" license. The CRTC has said it doesn't buy Sun TV's argument that it's poised to create "a completely new genre in Canada."

This is sending Quebecor back to the drawing board to submit an amended application for a broadcast license - one could see the network required to work harder to earn cable subscriptions.

Quebecor executive Kory Teneycke (a one-time spokesman for Stephen Harper) tells The Globe and Mail's Susan Krashinsky this isn't a setback for the planned right-of-centre TV network.

He says Sun TV is "not particularly fazed" by the response from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which suggested in a letter there was little to distinguish Sun TV from all other news services.

Mr. Teneycke has said he will likely next week begin unveiling more media hires for the TV network, which expects to start broadcasting its new format in January 2011. Recruitment so far has included accomplished journalists such as David Akin, formerly of Canwest News, Astral Radio's Brian Lilley and CBC TV's Tobias Fisher. Sun TV has said its hard news operations will be clearly separate from the right-of-centre editorializing on opinion programming - though more populist in orientation than other offerings on the dial.

On other subjects making headlines, The Globe and Mail's Nathan VanderKlippe writes about Stampede party animal and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who may or may not be found catching up on his sleep in his car after all the festivities in Calgary.

And Industry Minister Tony Clement, who refuses to back down on scrapping the mandatory long-form census, has a theory on why Ottawa's privacy watchdog isn't registering more concern from Canadians on something the Tories say is a coercive intrusion into people's lives.

Mr. Clement said Thursday that Canadians worried about the meddlesome arm of the state aren't likely to bring their concerns to the Ottawa-based Office of the Privacy Commissioner. They are likely to tell their MPs.

"If you're concerned about government intrusion, you're not likely to complain to another organ of government," Mr. Clement said in an interview. "They would see it as compounding the issue if they complained."

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is an arms-length body that is outside the control of the federal government. But Mr. Clement said this distinction is lost on many. "No offence to the Privacy Commissioner, but most people wouldn't understand that [this]person is an independent actor."