I think Mr. Potter and, Mr Trudeau, have forgotten something. In the months before the federal election in 2015, Prime Minster Stephen Harper was slashing military spending during a time of international tumult and barbarism created by the ISIS. Ignoring this https://nationalpost.com/opinion/matthew-fisher-obama-and-harpers-tepid-strategy-against-isis-menace-is-designed-to-placate-voters, it made him believe he could show a surplus budget before the election. He dearly needed to win points with the public, because his popularity was quickly tanking. During this time, he refused to have Canada join the US coalition that would be fighting the ISIS.

Well, President Obama wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. He browbeat Mr. Harper into joining, and to putting additional funding into the war effort. What happened next, is what Mr. Potter and Mr Trudeau have forgotten. It had the unexpected effect of increasing his popularity. There were a lot of Canadians, that were throwing their support behind Harper. When he saw this, he wholeheartedly decided that Canada needed to be involved.

I understand there is a large population of Ukrainians living in Canada, and there is a lot more that aren’t Ukrainians, that want to see Canada take a more active role in pushing back against Russia. The international community would view our efforts more favourably, and it could give Trudeau the edge over the Conservatives in the next federal election. Harper was polling a lot lower in the polls than Trudeau is, so this strategy didn’t work so well for him. But I can’t help but wonder if Trudeau might have different results?