We're not making this up...

A word of advice to the new Liberal Leader. If anyone in your entourage used to work for Paul Martin suggests a campaign commercial on this Citizen story, there is only one solution: Atomic wedgie and immediate dismissal.

Military wants more troops in cities: Plan calls for emergency units, shifting desk staff to front lines

The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, February 1, 2007
By David Pugliese

The Harper government plans to increase the Canadian Forces presence across the country with new units in 14 cities as well as shifting 5,000 regular force personnel from support and desk jobs to training and front-line missions.

Between now and 2016, the army will establish "territorial response battalions" in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Niagara-Windsor, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Saint John, Halifax and St. John's. The units would be designed to react to domestic emergencies such as natural disasters or a terrorist attack.

The details are outlined in the Conservative government's "Canada First" defence strategy, which has been leaked to the Citizen. No date has been set for the strategy to be released publicly. The report outlines the direction the military will follow over the next 15 years.

During the election campaign, the Conservatives promised their government would create territorial battalions. At the time, Stephen Harper said each unit would be composed of 100 regular troops and 400 or more reservists. The strategy paper, however, does not contain details on how big the units will actually be.