By promising that Parliament will be consulted next week before his government reshapes its mission against the Islamic State, Justin Trudeau has entrenched a precedent established by Stephen Harper. Though parliamentary purists may object, this is welcome news.
Those purists will point out that, under our constitution, the government of the day is responsible for the nation’s foreign and military policy, and that Parliament’s role is to withdraw its confidence if it opposes that policy.
In practice, governments have sometimes sought the will of the House in matters of war and peace, and sometimes not.
William Lyon Mackenzie King convened Parliament in September, 1939, and requested permission to declare war on Germany. (Canada has not formally declared war on anyone since the Second World War.) The St. Laurent government chose to join the police action against North Korea, though Parliament later affirmed its support for that action. The Mulroney government sought and obtained approval to send forces to help expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. The Chrétien government consulted the House when joining the mission in Somalia, but decided on his own to join the mission in Kosovo. And from 2001 to 2006, under both Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin, Parliament was never asked to endorse Canada’s expanding commitment in Afghanistan.
As a newly minted prime minister, Stephen Harper sought and obtained parliamentary support before committing his government to the Afghanistan mission in 2006. Parliament periodically re-affirmed its support for that mission, and Mr. Harper also sought and obtained support for the mission in Libya and for the current mission in Iraq and Syria. A precedent appeared to emerge: When committing air, sea or land forces to a conflict zone, the government first seeks Parliament’s consent. Where mere logistical support is involved (such as offering France heavy-lift aircraft for their mission in Mali) no such consent is required.
Mr. Trudeau could have returned to the former practice of consulting Parliament on an ad-hoc basis. Instead, he appears to be following Mr. Harper’s lead. Given the nature of the commitment involved, and for the sake of national unity, that seems the right thing to do.
Trudeau entrenches Harper’s precedent on military missions