Surprise! Photo Ops Come First

Jonathan Kay in the NP suggests why our $1.5 billion aid effort in Afghanistan has been judged a complete failure.

Foreign Affairs [unlike CIDA] doesn’t much care about poor people. They want Canadian aid to support whatever the current political game plan may be. So if Afghanistan is the hot topic of the day, they want a visible Canadian aid presence on the ground, new school buildings and medical centres with Canadian flags flying from them, perfect backdrops for the PM or Ministers’ photo-ops when they fly in to inspect this, that, or the other thing.”