On reckless spending

It'll be awhile yet before we see the parliamentary budget officer's report on the costs of Canada's involvement in Afghanistan. But it's certainly worth pointing out one major piece of the puzzle, as the costs to the Defence Department alone have been estimated at over $22 billion:

The Afghan war is going to end up costing the Defence Department more than $22 billion, in actual money spent on the mission and future payments to rebuild equipment and provide long-term care for veterans, a military conference heard yesterday...

In an interview last night, Mr. Perry said he was not surprised at the numbers he found. "We're fighting a war on the other side of the world and that takes a lot of resources," said Mr. Perry, currently in Ottawa.

He said that the number of Canadian veterans of Afghanistan is projected to be around 41,000 by 2010. That far exceeds the estimated 25,000 Canadian veterans from the Korean War, Mr. Perry said.

Officials with Defence Minister Peter MacKay's office did not respond to a request for comment.

The figures don't include the cost of aid to Afghanistan or the cost of the mission for other federal departments such as the RCMP and Foreign Affairs.

Presumably the Cons will need some time to fire up the spin machine in order to explain why this particular eleven-figure expense is entirely different from the much smaller initiatives which Stephen Harper has been trying to label as "mind-boggling".

But with only one portion of the price of Afghanistan dwarfing even the most ambitious social programs on offer during this election campaign, it's apparent that it's Harper and his party who have the worst track record of ignoring the real costs of their pet projects. And when the full picture comes out in the near future, the reckless waste of Canadian resources for a mission which even Harper concedes to be nearing the end of its shelf life should only become all the more clear.