Bureaucracy (from Thunder Bay with love)...

Today, on my vacation in "beautiful" Thunder Bay, I saw most of Peter McKay's speech to the House preceding the debate on extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Though I didn't watch his entire speech (I'm on vacation here), I was touched by his words and his story about the young Afghani girl clutching her colourful backback filled with school supplies by a Canadian child who didn't know her.

And tonight, I remember a cab driver from here in Thunder Bay who I met three years ago while I studied at Lakehead University.

According to him, when Port Arthur and Fort William amalgamated into Thunder Bay, there was a vote for the name of the new city, and it came down to one word: "the."

You see, when Fort William and Port Arthur voted for the new name of their city there were two choices: Thunder Bay, or Lakehead. But the bureaucrats who were biding for the name Thunder Bay gave one more option: The Lakehead.

Smart move on their part. This one word split the vote and Thunder Bay - the name that most people didn't want - became a city.

Bureaucrats make a living with words, not actions. So with that, I congratulate Peter McKay on his wonderful and heart-warming speech about the Afghani plight and our brave, legendary soldiers trying to make a difference in the world (or more likely, a buck.)

But I urge Canadians to look past the words of one man and look at the numbers of the situation.

No, we shouldn't leave Afghanistan. We're there now and we have an obligation to see the war through whether it was a mistake or not. Canada's tenacity and reputation depend on this and despite the debatable reasons for going in we need to stand firm.

We can't fight this war alone. We need help from foreign allies as well as the Afghani people. Reform will never work in a country that doesn't appreciate it. This is the only thing that can hinder Canada's progress in Afghanistan.

This war will go past 2011 no matter what people on the hill predict or say. In one form or another, Canadians will be in Afghanistan for a very long time and we have to accept that. These might be the roughest of times for this generation of our military but unless some great uprising starts and Afghanistan becomes too dangerous for even the hardest militant, we're a long way off from seeing the last Canadian boy or girl step foot on the last chopper out.

Finally, we need to decide if this mission is even about Canada. Did we invade Afghanistan because we're afraid of the Taliban and want to destroy them or are we there to liberate it's people from fascist, religious extremists?

We can do both, but the bureaucrats who represent us can't hold virtue in one hand and vengeance in the other.

Don't listen to Peter McKay or any other politician. Don't listen to people who get emotional about the situation because they had a friend or family member die for something that we might have no business involving ourselves in. Don't listen to me.

Look at the numbers.

Tell people what you think.