{"id":90441,"date":"2017-09-09T09:06:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T09:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/odd-that-canada-hasnt-joined-u-s-missile-defence-program-ex-top-general-says.html"},"modified":"2017-09-09T09:06:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-09T09:06:26","slug":"odd-that-canada-hasnt-joined-u-s-missile-defence-program-ex-top-general-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/political\/odd-that-canada-hasnt-joined-u-s-missile-defence-program-ex-top-general-says.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Odd&#8217; that Canada hasn&#8217;t joined U.S. missile defence program, ex-top general says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>The best way for Canada to defend its people from a nuclear-armed North Korea is to join the \u00a0U.S. anti-ballistic missile defence program, argues a former chief of the defence staff. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>And Tom Lawson, who served as Canada&#8217;s top general under former prime minister Stephen Harper, said he&#8217;s heartened to see signals from the Liberal government that they might be open to it.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>ANALYSIS: <\/strong><strong><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">N. Korea nuclear threat renews debate on U.S. missile defence<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"><strong>If the U.S. is alarmed, &#8216;we should be alarmed,&#8217; says Peter MacKay<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u200b<\/strong><span>&#8220;If a rogue nation fired a ballistic missile at the United States and it went off course towards Canada, it&#8217;s not a certain thing that that missile would be brought down by American ballistic missile defence, because Canada hasn&#8217;t signed on,&#8221; said Lawson, who also served as the d<\/span>eputy commander of the North American Aerospace Defence Command.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4195009.1501631183!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/north-korean-missile-launch-july-4.jpg\" alt=\"North Korean missile launch, July 4\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"figure-caption\">This picture taken on July 4, 2017 and released by North Korea&#8217;s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on July 5, 2017 shows the successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 at an undisclosed location. (STR\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;It just really makes sense that if the Americans are asking Canadians to come on board this would provide Canadian politicians, at times of crises, a say on what happens with that portion of Norad defence.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>Lawson said just a few years ago it looked more unlikely that North Korea would be able to build up its nuclear capacity to what it has today. North Korea&#8217;s leader, Kim Jong-un, now claims his country has missiles with the range to hit Chicago.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Emerging threats&#8217; covered in defence plan<\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p><span>The Liberal government chose in <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">its recent defence policy<\/a> to remain outside of the U.S. anti-ballistic missile program, upholding a decision made more than a decade ago by former prime minister Paul Martin. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>But Lawson said the defence policy does\u00a0have\u00a0a line about\u00a0engaging\u00a0&#8220;the United States to look more broadly at emerging threats and perils to North America, across all domains as part of Norad modernization.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;What it means is we&#8217;ve got an open mind to other things,&#8221; said Lawson.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><span>&#8220;We should come on board. There is kind of an open invitation from our American hosts [\u2026] Most military advisers find it a very odd stance that Canadian politicians have taken, that we don&#8217;t get on board with ballistic missile defence.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Former defence minister Peter MacKay said recently he laments not joining the U.S. ballistic missile defence program when he had the chance.<\/p>\n<p>The policy was a matter of intense debate for the former Conservative government, as it was for the Liberals.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We share a great deal of intelligence with the United States and if they&#8217;re alarmed, we should be alarmed,&#8221; <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\">MacKay told CBC News last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not being involved in the program is &#8220;a huge problem,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n<p>Article source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/tom-lawson-north-korea-missile-defence-1.4281179?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The best way for Canada to defend its people from a nuclear-armed North Korea is to join the \u00a0U.S. anti-ballistic missile defence program, argues a former chief of the defence staff. And Tom Lawson, who served as Canada&#8217;s top general under former prime minister Stephen Harper, said he&#8217;s heartened to see signals from the Liberal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-90441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90441\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}