Privatizing the border

Just in case the Cons weren't looking for enough ways to transfer money gratuitously from government coffers to big business, Stockwell Day suggests that one of the changes he plans to make in Canada's security policy is to try to funnel yet more business to Halliburton and other private security contractors. And the first area Day would like to privatize is the Canada/U.S. border:

Canada is considering greater use of public-private partnerships to help bolster security both in Afghanistan and here at home, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told a counterterrorism conference Tuesday.

Already Canadian troops in Afghanistan are housed at the Kandahar Airfield base run by Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, the company U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney used to run.

Halliburton has been awarded close to US$10-billion in contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Asked what partnerships the Conservative government is considering in Canada, Mr. Day said the controversial formula, granting turn-key contracts to private-sector companies, could be used for Canada’s border security.

Now, there may be some perverse logic to such a move as long as Bushco remains in power, as the current U.S. administration will presumably be far more willing to overlook any security issues as long as its favoured corporate partners are making money out of the deal.

But from the standpoint of both security and effective use of resources, it's difficult to imagine a more shortsighted and counterproductive move than to take Canada's border out of Canada's government's hands. Which offers just one more area where the Cons' interests seem to be directly opposed to those of Canadians - and one more reason not to leave them in power any longer than can be avoided.