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A Canadian soldier walks past an abandoned Soviet-era tank during a foot patrol in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, September 10, 2009.

One of Canada's leading observers on Afghanistan is pushing back against growing doubts over the merits of its mission there, calling for more international troops on the ground and a renewed focus on attacking militant targets in Pakistan.

Chris Alexander, who served as Canada's first ambassador to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, said Canada and its allies should hold an international conference on Afghanistan later this year to set new goals to reflect the changing reality.

"Yes, this mission is taking longer than everyone had hoped, or than we expected because the conflict is getting worse. So we need to have a serious discussion about how we can succeed with the investments that we are prepared to make," Mr. Alexander said in a wide-ranging interview with The Globe and Mail Wednesday. Later, he confirmed to The Globe that he is seeking the Conservative Party nomination in Ajax-Pickering in the next federal election.

His comments on Afghanistan coincide with a mounting debate in both Canada and the United States over how the war should evolve.

Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama set new goals to boost the ability of Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight militants, but is struggling to muster support within his own Democratic Party to approve a surge of fighting forces.

Ottawa has also just issued a grim assessment of its Afghan operations, outlining in a quarterly report how Canada's mission is falling short of its military and reconstruction goals as instability worsens.

Mr. Alexander, 41, has just moved back to Canada with his wife and young baby.

His six years in Afghanistan, first as Ottawa's envoy and most recently as the deputy special representative for the UN Secretary General, arguably make him the most qualified Canadian to offer an informed assessment of the situation on the ground.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy to the region and Kai Eide, the top UN official in the country, are among those who regularly seek his advice.

There are a multitude of problems facing Afghanistan, and foreign involvement there, but they are not insurmountable, he argues.

"More troops is part of the solution in the short term," said Mr. Alexander, echoing a preliminary assessment from General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in charge of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"Our success is measured in our ability to protect Afghan communities, but we only manage that if we have the numbers to do it, to be present everywhere that the enemy wants to be present," Mr. Alexander said.

IED attacks have increased more than 100 per cent in Canada's area of operations. Even more crucial to defeating the insurgency, Mr. Alexander argues, is a refocusing on Pakistan, home to senior Taliban leadership.

"Where are those IED makers coming from?" Mr. Alexander asked rhetorically.

"Believe me, they are not just springing up fully formed, spontaneously. If you are going to lay an IED that defeats the ability of Canadian, British and American troops to detect it, you have been trained by a bomb-maker at a bomb-making school and those schools, to a very large extent are still outside of Afghanistan in the sanctuary of Pakistan," he said.

While Pakistan has launched a military offensive against Taliban fighters in the Swat Valley, to the north west, the insurgency is also being nurtured in the border province of Baluchistan.

"We've seen neither drone attacks nor Pakistani army operations there … yet it's the main threat to both countries. We should all fully subscribe to that view and strategize about what to do about it. Now is the time to focus on this absolutely critical item, because without progress on that front, the development goals will continue to slip," Mr. Alexander said.

It's a view that Mr. Alexander has long held, but one that, until recently, was only tacitly acknowledged by American officials. That has changed with the Obama administration, which is discussing the insurgency in Pakistan more openly.

Mr. Alexander described the 2011 end date to Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan as "probably right," but said there was "room for debate" on Canada's subsequent involvement in the country, focusing on reconstruction.

Mr. Alexander left Afghanistan in May, before votes were cast in the country's presidential election.

The Aug. 20 ballot was marred by ballot-box stuffing and vote-rigging, international and election observers have said, pitching Afghanistan into a prolonged period of political drift. Mr. Alexander is keenly aware of the fraud allegations. However, his assessment of the ballot is blunt.

"People have the perception that the fraud was universal, but that's honestly a superficial take on these elections and we need to look deeper," he said.

"My message to Canadians is don't loose your sense of perspective. There was fraud, yes, but I think most of the fraudulent votes can still be excluded in this election to the point that fraud will not have affected the result," he said.

Some Western officials in Afghanistan fear the process of adjudicating the fraudulent ballots will trigger a political crisis, and that a runoff should be ordered.

Mr. Alexander disagrees: "That would mean enormous expense. It means risk, above all for the electoral workers who died in their dozens. It means security forces and police, who were the principal victims, will have to be deployed again," he said.

"The true result of the election, after scrutiny, after the safeguards do their work, on the basis of technical due process will probably give the new government the legitimacy it needs," he said.

Chris Alexander will address the Empire Club today at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. 12 noon.

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