Canadian Power Timeline (2001-2012)

Part One
The expectations of 2001 being a year for exciting politics was not mistaken, and it got off to a bright and early start. On January 10th, 2001, Britain proposed that the Turks and Caicos Islands be brought into Canada, followed the next day by a similar proposal put forth by five Canadian MPs. The idea was a stunning one - the small Turks and Caicos Islands, with a population of 30,000, couldn't be a province, and the idea had been canned three times before.

But what had changed was demographics. Canada's population was changing demographically at a rapid rate, largely through immigration, which brought nearly 420,000 new Canadians to the country in 2000. The idea of bringing into Canada a small, moderately wealthy territory would not cause any particular demographic issues. Also under consideration was the immigration issues posed by the positioning of the islands off of Cuba. But Defense Minister MacKay and Maritime Command Commander Admiral Greg Maddison both told parliament that it was an obligation that the Forces could handle. MacKay also pointed out the increasing problem of illicit drug trades in the Caribbean region, and that having the territory be part of Canada would give the Forces a forward base, as well as alleviating many unemployment concerns on the island.

On March 20th, 2001, Canada agreed to allow the Turks and Caicos Islands to become part of Canada if the people voted to support it in a referendum. This referendum was held on May 3rd, 2001, and turned out to be a formality - 74% of the voters were in favor of the Union. On June 1st, 2001, the Turks and Caicos Islands officially became Canada's fourth territory, and were invited to elect a MP for the Canadian House of Commons. That MP was the former Premier of the territory, Derek Hugh Taylor, and officially took his seat in the House of Commons on August 10th, 2001, to wide applause.

Before the idea of the Turks and Caicos Islands becoming part of Canada rose, the most exciting political detail was the Reform Party. In a serious state of disrepair and with support in the gutter after Jason Kenney's political stunt in September 2000, there was talk of the Reform Party being brought into the Progressive Conservatives. But the three leading candidates to replace the retiring Preston Manning - Stockwell Day, Janet Brown and Deborah Grey - all angrily said that they would not join the Progressive Conservatives. Day ripped Harper as a "sellout" who was more interested in power than principles, which drew an angry response from Harper: "I made my decision based on what was best for my wishes to serve my, and it is because of ideologues that the Reform Party is still a small party. And they know that, but Mr. Day continues to look at issues in black and white." Day's hardline comments also angered two of the Reform Party's MPs, which led to Manning asking Day to bow out for the sake of the party. Deborah Grey, which was the first Reform MP in 1989, was ultimately elected to be the party's leader.

In June 2001, Canada began the process of ordering its new Fast Sealift Ship. Three vessel designs had been proposed, but the chosen design was heavily influenced by the American Algol-class of vessels, though the Canadian version was 30 feet longer than the American - it had been designed to just barely fit through the Panama Canal - and it was fitted with six cranes, with a lifting capacity of up to 55 tons, and the ability to drive vehicles on and off in two places. The vessel could carry as designed up to 750 vehicles and 300 TEU of containers, as well as being fitted with a massive desalinization unit to supply fresh water to others, and accommodation for up to 420 people. Fitted with four General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines, which when combined with four shafts and the fully automated engine control that was becoming de rigeur on Canadian-designed warships, the ship design made some 162,000 shp - enough for 33.5 knots (62.04 km/h) all out.

Halifax Shipbuilders won the bid to build the big ship, which was expected to displace some 62,500 tons fully loaded, on August 14th, 2001, with delivery expected in late 2003. The vessel would be christened HMCS Terra Nova (LKA-03), supposedly after the valley in Nova Scotia and what the island portion of Newfoundland is often called.

Part Two
Faced with a major new challenge in terms of security with the entry of the Turks and Caicos into Canada, the Maritime Command began to station a permanent present at the Islands. The first vessel to take on this challenge was HMCS Huron, which arrived at the islands on May 26th, and a flag from Huron is the first Canadian flag to be raised over the islands. Huron was busy while it was based out of the Turks and Caicos, as it and its Cyclone helicopter caught no less than three go-fast boats around the islands, frequently headed from Cuba or the Bahamas towards Florida.

Huron 's challenge to ensure security led to the decision to immediately dispatch HMCS Bluenose, Canada's first landing platform dock, to the Turks and Caicos, along with five of Canada's S-2T Turbo Tracker aircraft. Though this helped, bigger plans were in the works for the new Canadian territory.

The new MP for the Turks and Caicos, Derek Hugh Taylor, asked for investment to his small, relatively poor territory. On September 5th, 2001, the response came. The plan, proposed by Conservative MP Peter Goldring, would have a Canadian Forces permanent base built on the islands, and would also establish a deepwater port and international airport on the islands, with the goal of building a thriving tourism and trade economy there. Goldring pointed out that as Canada now has a "tropical paradise" of its own, Canadian tourists would come in vast numbers. The decision of Air Canada to run direct flights between Toronto, Montreal and Halifax to Cockburn Town on Grand Turk reinforced the idea of Canadian tourists coming in numbers. The plan was passed by the House of Commons on November 17th, 2001. But as big as this news was, it was not the biggest news of the year.

That big news was the horror that befell New York City, Washington DC and a small town in Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001. Four hijacked airliners crashed - two into the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon in Washington and one, which would be later determined to be headed for the Capitol in Washington, crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The two towers in New York, struck at 8:46 am and 9:03 am, collapsed at 9:59 am and 10:28 am, claiming the lion's share of the nearly 3,700 lives lost in the attacks. A Canadian vessel, HMCS Ville de Quebec, was in New York at the time, and many of its crew raced from its berth in Midtown New York, along with its CH-148 Cyclone helicopter, to the attacks, attempting to help. The helicopter was successful in recovering 45 people from the towers before they fell, and also was helped by two USAF helicopters, which recovered 56 people between them. Eighteen members of Ville de Quebec ' s crew, including Lieutenant Commander Andreas Marceon, the ship's XO, died when the buildings collapsed.

The response from Canada, as in the United States, was immense grief and an immense roar of anger, as well as many selfless acts. More than 700 volunteers from over thirty different police and fire departments in Canada went to the side, many of them paying for the travel costs themselves. Canadian billionaire Jim Balsillie offered to pay all of these costs himself, and did. Marceon was awarded the Canadian Victoria Cross, as were the two pilots and four rescuers on Ville de Quebec's helicopter, one of whom died in the attack trying to help an injured person off the building. Four of the five Canadian Forces C-17 Globemaster III aircraft and all twelve of Canada's then-present A400Ms raced repeatedly from Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, Fredericton and Halifax to New York, delivering all the supplies that could be delivered.

The United States' airspace was closed after the attacks, and Canada in response initiated Operation Yellow Ribbon. Over 240 flights were forced to land in Canada as a result of the situation in the US. Thirty-eight of them landed at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, and the residents of the small town opened their homes and hearts to the people in acts that would later be looked upon as being kind on many levels. They landed as far west as London, Ontario. Some even landed at CFB Shearwater near Halifax, Canada's naval aviation home. Needing to get people home, on September 13th, A "air convoy" of 45 airliners flew from several places to their destinations in the US, escorted by a dozen Canadian Forces Tomcats and Hornets.

In many cases, flights that had been diverted had their passengers housed in as best a conditions that could be arranged. Gander was the best scene, as many local residents called it one of the best experiences of their lives and many of the over 6,000 people whose planes landed at Gander to this day continue to keep in touch with those they met during Operation Yellow Ribbon. When the bodies of Canadian Forces personnel were recovered from Ground Zero, they were carried back to Canada. The USAF out of respect offered to deliver the bodies right to the people's hometowns, but instead ten of them were delivered by a USAF airlifter to CFB Trenton, arriving on September 16th. The ceremony was private, though news photos would later see both PM Charest and Ontario Premier Mike Harris struggling to compose themselves. Despite the privacy, nearly 20,000 people gathered outside CFB Trenton, and the Convoy from Trenton to Toronto had a OPP escort and people lining virtually every bridge from Trenton to Toronto to watch.

The aftermath of the attacks was an almost immediate discovery of those responsible, and their connection to Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden. The Canadian Forces immediately went to high alert. HMCS Warrior, which was off Argentina having just went around Cape Horn at the time, was ordered to immediately head for Halifax. New anti-terror legislation was introduced by the Charest Government, and easily passed on October 20th.

With news of the response to Afghanistan filtering into Canada, The Canadian government easily and unequivocally signed on to the effort in Afghanistan. Warrior arrived in Halifax on September 23rd, and was only there long enough to resupply and refuel, which didn't bother its crew much, and left for Afghanistan on September 25th. Arriving on station, Warrior was one of no less than six aircraft carriers on the scene - USS Nimitz and USS Abraham Lincoln, HMAS Australia, HMS Ark Royal and MN Charles de Gaulle being the others. The Pakistan Air Force did not make any trouble for them, and striking aircraft flew right over Pakistan.

President Gore, however, made 9/11 both an attempt to destroy terror, but also mend a bridge. A week after the attacks, Gore invited Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to the site, a move criticized by some at the time but would prove to be incredibly astute. Gore is said to have told Khatami ''"This is what real extremism looks like, isn't it?" Khatami responded by saying that Iran "Is a proud society, proud of our heritage, proud of our society." To which Gore responded "So is America, and that is why our long-standing disputes must end."''

Gore took a hard line with terrorists, but repeatedly stressed that it was not a battle with Islam, but with terrorists. Gore's invitation to Khatami gave him a lot of weight in the debate. Khatami was understandably quite moved, and upon arriving back in Iran commented "America was once a nation which sought to dominate us. But I do believe that as we have changed, so have they, and we ought to respect that. I believe that if we respect them, they will do the same." The hardliners hated that, But Khatami sailed to his 2001 re-election nonetheless.

Forces of more than sixty nations began pouring into Afghanistan on October 12th, 2001. The destruction of the Taliban was primarily undertaken by Afghans themselves, assisted by Special Forces troops and airpower in abundance. The Canadian SAS and Airborne Regiment were part of this, and Hornets, Tomcats and Tornados from Warrior were also in large part responsible, to the happiness of the Canadian public. The Toronto Star's headline on 9/12 had been "Bastards!" and that pretty much summed up the opinions of Canadians, and the knowledge - and in many cases, gun camera footage - of Canadian aircraft striking Taliban positions.

On December 10th, 2001, a multinational effort - including the Canadian SAS - raided the Tora Bora complex, in the process picking up Ayman al-Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden. bin Laden was seriously ill from kidney disease, but medics kept him alive and treatment allowed him to be healthy enough to stand trial. He would stand trial, in New York, through 2002, before being found guilty on July 19th, 2002, and sentenced to life in prison. The jury foreman in the case said that "Having you sentenced to death, sir, I know is what you wish, because then you can be seen as a martyr to your cause. I will not do that, because I want you to spend the rest of your life, no matter how long it happens to be, thinking about your actions."

Part One
Opening up with a war in Afghanistan, a shaky economy due to the problems of 9/11 and a new territory to integrate into Canada, 2002 opened on a rougher note than most had hoped. But that didn't stop it from being a good year.

The world spent much of 2002 focused on New York City, both the ongoing cleanup at the former World Trade Center but also the trials of Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and eight other senior Al-Queda officials. There was virtually no doubt of their guilt, and even Arab countries closely watching the trial pronounced that it had been a fair one. The FBI had done a very good job laying out the evidence in the case, and the accused's attempts to mock the court didn't help things. Incendiary rhetoric from some of the Republicans and parts of the American media wasn't helpful. This became a Canadian issue, when American commentator Ann Coulter, while speaking at York University, called for the United States to "invade their countries, kill their leaders and force all of the savages to convert to Christianity and see God." Coulter went back to the US before the response came, but Canadian authorities asked her not to come back if she was going to say such rhetoric - under Canadian law, Coulter may well have been guilty of hate speech. As it was, Coulter never did come to Canada again.

Early 2002 also saw the ugliest incident in the Quebec biker war between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine, when on April 19th, a bomb in a jeep exploded, but did so in front of an elementary school in Blaineville, Quebec, killing three school students as well as three people in the jeep. Furious, the RCMP and SQ came down on the bikers like a ton of bricks. A gun battle between Hells Angels members and RCMP which killed three officers in Trois-Rivieres a month later just made things worse. The RCMP set up a special unit designed to beat biker gangs and organized criminal units in May 2002, and this unit would be trained in heavy-hitter tactics by the CF, namely the Canadian SAS.

Afghanistan through 2002 saw a steady escalation. The Taliban had mostly fled over the border into Pakistan, and Pakistan's already badly-burdened governmental structure could not keep track of the lawless tribal areas that bordered Afghanistan. Trying to move people and goods through this area was a challenge already, trying to do both was too much for Pakistan. Realizing this problem, President Gore made a massive political gamble and called the Iranians, asking if the US could overfly their territory to deliver needed supplies and equipment to Afghanistan. To the surprise of the Americans, the Iranians had no objections - indeed, in early 2003 Khatami offered to allow troops to land in Iran and move overland into Afghanistan, an offer the Americans would take up.

All twenty-one of Canada's Airbus A400Ms - named the CC-176 Airmaster in CF service - had been delivered by August 2002, but demands on Canada's airlift ability saw ten of Canada's C-130H Hercules aircraft, which had been slated for retirement, kept on to provide additional airlift capacity. In addition to that, the CC-150 Polaris aircraft were also incredibly busy, moving people and goods. This began to raise the idea of additional airlifter orders.

Warrior, having arrived home from Afghanistan after a very long deployment on February 11th and needing upkeep on its systems, spent much of the early part of 2002 in a dry-dock in Halifax. Warrior had sailed nearly 200,000 nautical miles in its five years of Canadian service, and the idea soon percolated through the Canadian government of a second, smaller carrier to allow some reserve, as Warrior was being worked hard and as a result was starting to require more substantial maintenance. The problems also were quite real for the support fleet, particularly the destroyers - the newest of which had been built in 1980. With that in mind, the Navy began its plan for its new destroyers, and the plan was to build eight to ten units to replace the ones already in service.

That procurement project quickly grabbed bidders. Britain had been paying an arm and a leg to develop and build its new air warfare destroyers, known as the Type 45, and was keen on the Canadians buying them - and their case was helped by the fact that the Two Canadian Type 42s, which had served the Maritime Command since 1988, had done so quite successfully, with few problems and no serious breakdowns. Three bidders - the Americans (with Gibbs & Cox's Canaburke design), Japanese (with Mitsubishi's Atago-class and Spaniards (Navantia's F100-clas) proposed a vessel for Canada using the American AEGIS Combat System, which had been astoundingly effective in service. And in a very surprising move, the Russians bid, offering up a heavily modified version of their Udaloy II-class to the Forces. DCNS and Fincantieri would both propose modified versions of the Horizon-class destroyers as well. Two indigenous Canadian designs were also proposed, one using AEGIS and the other using a modified variant of the SAMPSON system used by the Type 45.

The Russian bid was far out and was the first to be eliminated - it had too small of a helicopter deck and too many new systems, and it could not use many of the weapons in the Canadian arsenal. The size of Canada's ASW helicopters was a problem for everybody, because even with the beartrap system employed by the CF the helicopter decks in several cases are too small, and several of the designs lack anti-ship missiles or ASW weapons. One of the Canadian designs was the largest, coming in at an astounding 9,650 tons, but it had all of the features and used the SAMPSON system.

BAE Systems, realizing that the Canadians wanted to use their well-known SM-2 Standard missiles on their new destroyers, began looking at installing it on the Type 45, which would require additional software fixes. But by then, the Canadians were aiming for a proven systems.

In November 2002, Canada announced its preferred design, a home-grown design using the AEGIS Combat System, which was a large design displacing roughly 9,000 tons, which had two 64-cell Mk.41 Vertical Launch Systems, 8 anti-ship missiles, a large helicopter deck and a towering forward superstructure with the AEGIS radar panels on it. The vessel was powered by four gas turbines in a COGOG system, similar to the Iroquois class destroyers.

As this was coming to an end, the search for a second carrier came to a surprise. France offered its aged, but still useful, Clemenceau to Canada for peanuts, and offered to send over museum ship Colbert right with it. The decision was a surprise. Clemenceau was an old ship - forty years old by this point - and could not handle the big F-14s that were part of the Maritime Command, but it could be operated cheaply - she required only 1340 men in French trim, and the Canucks guessed that adding the systems used on Warrior could drop this down to about 900. It was also noted that the excess manpower realized from the older destroyers being replaced would provide 700 men, so the Navy would only be needing 200 additional manpower, for a second aircraft carrier. Supporters also pointed out that the Warrior had entered US service as Forrestal the year Clemenceau was ordered. The detractors pointed out that the Forces already had big manpower requirements and big procurement needs. Expecting an knowing this, Defense Minister MacKay said that if the Clemenceau was acquired, the manpower-intensive sub tender would have to be cancelled. MacKay also defended the decision by pointing out that Warrior was being worked very hard, and that the hard toll would almost certainly reduce its lifespan. The debate over the new ship raged through the late stages of 2002.

Part Two
In terms of military significance, few points beat out the Open Skies treaty, which went into effect in 2002. The idea was that countries would be allowed flights over each others' terrain as a means of ensuring that attacks were not being prepared. Satellites had made the idea of hiding anything problematic, but the Open Skies treaty was made to address this for good. This also provided a reprieve for two of Canada's aging CC-137s, which were converted into reconnaissance planes, including cameras, synthetic aperture radars, infrared line scanner and video scanners, which ultimately made them very similar to the American OC-135B aircraft. These aircraft, which began their modifications in June 2001, would be used for Open Skies work, but they would also see extensive work in Afghanistan, and both would enter service in November 2002, seeing four missions to Afghanistan before the end of the year.

Operation Anaconda was the first direct action of the Canadian Forces (aside from Special Forces units and Air Command/Maritime Command aircraft), beginning of March 1st, 2002, with the direct goal of destroying what little was left of the Taliban insurgents. The mission was a tactical victory, with the Taliban being routed and taking serious casualties at the hands of the 2000 Coalition troops involved. A newsmaker here was the longest sniper kill in history, which belonged to Master Corporal Rob Furlong, a sniper from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, who recorded a kill at an astounding 2,430 meters, more than a mile and a half in imperial terms, which earned Corporal Furlong a promotion and a commendation, not to mention enduring respect. Canadian CH-146s became lifesavers on March 3rd-4th, as an American Force ran headlong into a Taliban ambush at Takur Ghar, and realizing the mess, Australian UH-1s and Canadian CH-146s both, in both cases armed with Dillon Miniguns, came to bail them out. Seven US soldiers were killed in the battle, but the minigun-equipped choppers ultimately made the difference, though one Canadian pilot, the co-pilot on his CH-146, was hit by small-arms fire and ultimately died of his injuries. The commanders of the Australian and Canadian units involved in the battle were awarded Bronze Stars by the US Army, and in both cases the honors were given to the individual soldiers involved. A lesser note happened on the night of April 18th, 2002, when four soldiers from the PPCLI were killed in a friendly fire incident when a USAF F-16s mistakenly dropped a 500-lb bomb on them.

Growing numbers of Canadian Forces personnel were arriving in Afghanistan. By the summer of 2002, 3,200 Canadian troops were in Afghanistan, and their gear was also arriving. The Taliban's tendency to attack anywhere and everywhere led to problems, especially with the G-Wagen, MILCOTS Silverado and Iltis vehicles. Most of the time, the troops were going out with armored personnel carriers, though by the time they reached towns and villages, they frequently disembarked. The goal of the Canadians had been the same as it was in South Africa, Rwanda and Bosnia - try to make the local population into allies. The tactic, while it caused five Canadians to be killed by the Taliban in 2002, did have positive effects.

Outside of Afghanistan, things began to get better. A Norwegian-negotiated ceasefire brought peace to Sri Lanka for the first time in 15 years on February 22nd, 2002, to the relief of 500-strong Canadian contingent that was part of UN peacekeeping operations there. That was added to three months later on May 20, when East Timor formally gains its independence. To the stunned surprise of France and much of the world, on July 14th, 2002, during Bastille Day celebrations in France, French President Jacques Chirac is saved from an assassination attempt by a Canadian tourist. The assassin was a lone gunman with a rifle in a guitar case, but it was still enough to cause more than a little embarrassment to the French security forces and yet another reason for headlines in Canada.

As if that was not enough, a shocker came in February. Australia's oldest airline, Ansett Australia, which had suffered serious financial problems in 2001, had an unsolicited buyout offer sent to them from a Canadian coalition, including Bombardier, North American Aviation and Air Canada. Qantas didn't think it serious, and caused a massive political mess when they advocated to Canberra to not accept it, and the financial uncertainty around the new buyers of Ansett meant its future was still very much in doubt. Ansett's employees howled in anger, demanding to know why Australia would not allow another nation - and a Commonwealth one which was fighting alongside them in Afghanistan, no less - to buy the firm, expecting that Bombardier would keep it running.

On March 4th, 2002, Canberra agreed to the deal. Ansett officially passed into Canadian hands on March 20th, 2002, and on April 1st, 2002, the company's A320 fleet began operating. As expected, new airliners began being ordered for Ansett, and not surprisingly many of these came to Bombardier, though the company established a plant in Australia for assembly and repair purposes, and also began fixing the Boeing fleet Ansett owned. The two 747-400s owned by Ansett were originally to be transferred to Air Canada, but instead wound up flying what became known as "The Commonwealth Route", flying from Toronto and Vancouver to Sydney, and Ansett fliers able to go via codeshare immediately to Air Canada flights to Europe or other places in North America. Ansett stayed in business, and the takeover, which had been substantially underwritten by Ottawa and Quebec City saw a new wave of tourism between Australia and Canada.

The Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II resulted in what became as the Party in the Palace, and part of this was an air show, put on enthusiastically by the Royal Air Force. The Canucks, keen to show off themselves, painted up four F-14s in old-school RCAF white and red paint and sent them for the show, along with one of the CC-180 VIP aircraft, which showed off during the flypast, all four of them doing the wing sweep while they passed overhead. That same CC-180 would see service when Queen Elizabeth II traveled across Canada in October, ferrying the Queen of Canada, as well as in many cases the Governor General and high-ranking political leaders, along their tour routes. On the Request of the Queen, the CC-180 would also ferry Queen Elizabeth II on the next leg of her worldwide tour, flying her from Vancouver to Sydney, Australia, staying for five days for an Air Show in Melbourne, before getting another honor by flying Australian PM John Howard and his entourage to Canada.

In a stark contrast to her hard running during 1997-2001, Warrior after returning home from Afghanistan spent 2002 usually cruising the Atlantic Ocean, exercising and twice making the trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Cockburn Town, Turks and Caicos. Part of this is the need for repairs for a number of the CF vessels which usually escort Warrior - all four of the Ontario-class destroyers have new engines installed in 2002-2003 and get the DELEX life extension upgrades - and part of is the need to show the flag in a part of the world that will almost certainly end up involving Canada deeply in the years to come.

Ground is broken in October 2002 for two new CF bases. The first is at Iqaluit, Nunavut, which includes a major airport and naval base. CFB Iqaluit would end up the community's biggest employer, but the base also provides a strong element of security to the Canadian North. Iqaluit is the home base for the Nunavut Defense Regiment, which has existed since 2000, and is already starting to get a reputation as the CF's cold-weather experts.

The other is the massive base at East Caicos, set to become CFB Turks and Caicos, which will include a naval and air base, a training area for the Forces and one of two big deepwater ports, designed to be transhipment points for goods between Quebec and the Caribbean. One of the dreams of many of those who supported the islands entering Canada was that the islands would see Canada become one of the major players in the Caribbean, simply by allowing Caribbean goods and services using the islands as a trans-shipment point between there and Canada or Europe. Also broken ground in May 2002 was a major expansion of the JAGS McCartney International Airport on Grand Turk, which will gain a new runway and an extension and repaving of the original. Some are lamenting what some figure is an inevitable loss of the islands' more natural character, but most of the residents are enthusiastic about the possibility of hundreds of thousands of tourists making the islands much wealthier. Canada Steamship Lines, which had been contracted to develop and improve the Canadian merchant marine, is also very enthusiastic about the idea, seeing the possibility of a major improvement of its business.

Part One
2003 began with Canadian Forces winding down operations in East Timor - the nation's independence had been set up in 2002, and while problems persisted in Indonesia, the need for Canadian Forces troops there is winding down. Just as in Rwanda and South Africa, peace had come, and now the people of East Timor were on their way to making their own destinies for the first time ever.

The Forces in Afghanistan were facing problems too, namely those centered around the Taliban's ability to operate from Pakistan. Since their almost total destruction in Operation Anaconda in 2002, the Taliban had fought a guerilla war, run form bases in Pakistan's lawless tribal regions. These were proving to be a massive problem for the entirety of International Forces in Afghanistan. On February 15th, 2003, it backfired in the faces of the Taliban, however. Some 60 Taliban fighters ran into a patrol of CF Airborne Regiment and US Marine Corps troops, resulting in a massive battle that is said to have crossed the Pakistan-Afghan border repeatedly. Three Canucks and two Americans were killed in the fight, but Pakistani authorities came and broke up the fight, with the Taliban retreating back over the border into Pakistan, as the Pakistani paramilitaries opened fire on the American and Canadian troops, forcing them back into Afghanistan, killing at least one Canadian.

General Rick Hillier, who was now commanding the Afghan mission, was openly furious with Pakistan, and demanded an explanation. Ottawa didn't push all that hard, causing more fury on Hillier's part. Charest wound up having to explain to Hillier personally that Canada's concern was the stability of the Pakistani government. This didn't reduce any of Hillier's fury, or for that matter much of the Canadian Forces. Things were made worse when Pakistan's president demanded a halt to the patrols along the border, saying that "our first concern is our country's territorial integrity. We will not apologize for attacking those who violate Pakistan's boundaries." The comment was aimed primarily at India, but it caused a diplomatic row between Canada and Pakistan. Hillier and his boss, CF Chief of Staff General Romeo Dallaire, demanded that Pakistani shut down the Taliban inside Pakistan. Islamabad attempted to do so, but their offensives had at best mixed results.

Faced with the unpleasant reality that Taliban fighters had effectively garnered themselves a safe haven, Hillier decided to add to the troop presence strategy and turn up the heat along border areas. In April, another group of Taliban came over the border and ran into a Canadian patrol, but this time the patrol called on one of Canada's Rooikat 105 fire support vehicles and a pair of American AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, which helped the patrol send the Taliban running. Another firefight in an isolated village a month later had much the same results, but with civilians in the area, open fire risked friendly fire and civilian casualties. But the presence of two Canadian CH-136 Kiowa Warrior observation choppers allowed CF troops to accurately target fire and avoid casualties. Taliban fire, however, killed a Afghan boy and wounded four others - these other four were rescued, under fire, by the crew of one of the Canadian Kiowas, earning the two rescuers the Order of Valour. By mid-2003, the Taliban had promised a summer offensive - but regular patrols by American helicopters and observation aircraft, as well as UAVs, were quickly locating Taliban fighters. Several squads in 2003 also wound up wounding Afghan civilians, which started to turn Afghan public opinion against the Taliban. Assisting in this was a growing number of Muslim soldiers within the CF - recruiting efforts had been partly aimed at Canadian Muslims, and the CF had made the fluent speaking of local languages a skill which earned such troops extra pay. Between this and substantial aid that began flowing to the area in 2003, the tide began to turn against the Taliban for good.

February 1st, 2003, saw the first tragedy of the year for the CF, and this time it was aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. The eight crew of the shuttle, including Canadian Forces Colonel Ryan Hamilton, was lost when the shuttle broke up on re-entry over Texas. It was the first eight-crew flight of the Shuttle, and also among those lost was veteran Israeli pilot Ilan Ramon. Colonel Hamilton, being the first Canadian astronaut lost in an accident, was posthumously awarded the Canadian Victoria Cross, for both his shuttle ride and his 18 years flying for the CF.

The 2003 Canadian Military Budget included the provisions to upgrade the Hornet, Corsair and Tomcat fleets, and continue the improvements of the Forces' naval capabilities, including a massive provision for buying new submarines to finally replace the Oberons, which were in reduced status at this point. The plan was to buy four to six conventionally-fueled submarines to allow the three nuclear vessels to focus on escorting the ocean-going forces of the Canadian Forces. The requests for information for the submarines went out in July 2003, with responses pouring in through the year. Germany's Type 214, Britain's Upholder-class, the Franco-Spanish Scorpène-class and the Russian Project 1650 submarines were offered to Canada. The US offered to allow Canada to license-build the Barbel-class of submarines, and Japan offered the same with its Oyashio-class of submarines. The debates over this, or a potential home-built solution, raged through 2003 and well into 2004. Also in the plan was the decision to build an updated version of the Polar 8-class icebreakers first proposed by the Mulroney Government in 1985.

Domestically, SARS turned into the biggest news story of 2003. The scare stunned all of Canada and especially Toronto when it turned up in a substantial number in Toronto in March 2003, and prompted the World Health Organization to post a travel advisory on Toronto in April 2003, to the fury of Canadian officials. That decision hammered tourism in Toronto, though SARS was short-lived. Toronto mayor Mel Lastman, along with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and famed rock band The Rolling Stones, proposed a mega concert to try and help Toronto's economy recover from the problems created by SARS. That concert, which was officially known as Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto (though it was better known as Sarsstock) would be the largest outdoor concert in Canadian history. Needing a place to stage it, the CF offered CFB Downsview, an air base in North Central Toronto, as the venue. The concert was held on July 30th, and true to form drew over half a million visitors. But that was by no means the end of the story. One of the participants in the concert, Toronto rapper Kardinal Offishall, wanted to organize a second concert for 2004, and support for the idea in Toronto was substantial. The hope of Toronto becoming a major music capital, as Canada has already become for TV and movie programs, was too much for the city that had seen enough crap through 2003. Offishall's plans went into high gear as the summer of 2003 went on.

International relations for most of the world hit an high in 2003, with one of the most notable events happening in Canada. Hosting the G8 summit in Lake Louise, Alberta, in June, Foreign Minister Kim Campbell invited Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Canada, hoping to set up a meeting between him and American President Al Gore, which was successful. The meeting, held on June 12th, 2003, at Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta, to the surprise of the other members of the G8, who had not been notified of Khatami's visit. The visit turned out to be highly praised and well received. Gore and Khatami would spend most of the meeting working on ideas on how to improve relations between America and the Muslim world. Khatami made quite an impact on the G8 members. One of the requests made by Campbell was the release of Iranian-Canadian freelance journalist Zahra Kazemi in Iran, which Khatami had no problem doing as a goodwill gesture.

Perhaps the biggest result of the meeting came on September 12th, 2003, when Khatami opened Iran's borders to transits by the Canadian Forces and its supporters for supplies headed to Afghanistan. This break proved to be a big one, making the resupply of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan considerably easier. Canada took advantage of the offers, though the forces usually had only lightly armored units transiting, not wanting to get into any fights with Iranian authorities. Initially this courtesy was only extended to CF units, though it was soon extended to British, French, German and other Arab forces involved in the conflict in Afghanistan.

The Iranian transit opening made resupply of the Forces in Afghanistan considerably easier, and also spelt more trouble for the Canadian Forces. By now, most of the ISAF was taking the Canadian Forces' tactic of clearing the Taliban from an area, and then working to improve the lives of the local residents. The Afghans in many cases are the ones providing the ideas for the Forces' improvement projects. By the end of 2003, support for the Taliban is barely out of the single digits, and multiple attempts to cause problems in Afghanistan by the Taliban have failed. Their IED attacks are still a major problem, but between the good work done by the ISAF and multiple cases of Taliban brutality, the tide by the end of 2003 has decisively turned in the favor of the ISAF.

In terms of new development, 2003 was the year of Canada's further-out territories getting the biggest development. The expansion of the JAGS McCartney airport in the Turks and Caicos islands is completed in September, in time for the first of what are generally known as the "Snowbirds", Canadians heading to warmer climates for the winter. They fill hotels and condominium units on the islands, leading to a major building boom on the islands as the demand for residences dramatically outstrips the supply on the islands. Through 2004 to 2007, the development of the islands accelerates at very rapid pace. In November 2003, CFB East Caicos was commissioned, with the base hosting HMCS Warrior at the commissioning. The Canuck carrier had spent most of 2003 on goodwill missions, visiting through 2003 Australia, South Africa, Brazil, India, Argentina, Venezuela, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and the United Kingdom, the last two twice. While the Navy base's drydock would not open until May 2004, the base's air facilities and naval docks were ready. The Turks and Caicos International Container Port is also being built during this time. The building boom further strains the resources of the islands, which results in thousands of workers flying into the islands from Canada to assist in the projects.

Part One
2004 would be opened up with a political earthquake in Ottawa. Despite the successes of 2003, political problems were brewing, which would begin the end of the dynasty of the Progressive Conservatives, who had lead the country since Robert Stanfield had defeated Pierre Trudeau in 1974. The issues had been less based on the ministers - most considered the Charest cabinet to be one of the most competent in Canadian history - but on the hopes for some changes. Charest, PM since June 1993, had grown to have detractors, particularly in the West. Western Conservative supporters were overwhelmingly supporters of Finance Minister Stephen Harper, whereas Ontario voters supported the Foreign and Defense Ministers, Kim Campbell and Peter MacKay respectively. Quebec voters - the federalist ones, anyways - were still strong supporters of Charest. Into this brewing problem came the Liberals and NDP. Liberal leader Brian Tobin was considered to be in much the same regard as Charest - mildly interesting, though highly intelligent and very competent. NDP leader Jack Layton, by contrast, was considered to be a loud, flamboyant politician, though no less well-suited for leadership than Charest or Tobin. These facts had been the reason why Charest, despite over a decade as PM, had held never held a majority government. But with the prosperity of the 1990s and 2000s working well for everybody involved and the economic growth that raised Canada's standards of living substantially during the time, rocking the apple cart had been a bad idea, part of the reason why for all the bluster, Ottawa politics didn't change much.

But in February 2004, that changed. It was exposed in the Liberal-friendly Toronto Star and Montreal Gazette that infamous German lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber had paid Charest a $50,000 sum during the battles over how to replace Canada's aerial tanker and transport aircraft in 1994, while he was a senior lobbyist for Airbus. With the contract having gone to Airbus for most of the project, the opposition cried foul in a big way, claiming that Charest had been paid off to buy the Airbus aircraft. Charest claimed that the money he had received had gone into the party coffers, which made the situation legal, and that it had been just $10,000, not $50,000.

While Charest had done nothing illegal, with support for the Forces being now near-universal, it looked horribly unseemly. Charest's dedicated attempted to defend his decisions didn't save him. By the end of March, he was facing an internal struggle after both Harper and MacKay began aiming to take Charest's job. Smelling the opportunity to take power, Tobin and Layton took the opportunity to bring down the government just eighteen months after the last election. An early big lead for Tobin started to fall when the Progressive Conservatives gathered their forces and began to fight back. By halfway through the campaign, the Liberal lead had sunk dramatically, but the scandal, along with the popular support for the ambitious infrastructure program proposed by the Liberals (which included a Windsor-Quebec City high-speed rail corridor, an expansion of the St. Lawrence Waterway and new programs to improve Canada's higher education systems and high-tech industries), made the Conservatives unable to close the gap.

The Liberal Party returned to power on April 28th, 2004, for the first time since 1974, but they did so with only a very small minority, 128 of 308 seats. The Conservatives grabbed 92, while the third-placed NDP picked up 52. The Bloc Quebecois and Reform Party picked up 22 and 10 seats, respectively, while the Green Party sent its new leader, Elizabeth May, to the House of Commons. Three independents also were elected, two in Quebec and the MP for the Northwest Territories, who had been elected on a promise to get an apology for the past conduct of Canada with regards to its native peoples. Less than 72 hours after the election, Charest resigned as the head of the Progressive Conservative party, setting the stage for a leadership battle on that side which would eclipse even the titanic 1997-98 struggle for the Liberal leadership.

The incoming Liberal government had very different views on many social issues, but in terms of economic and Canada's institutions had very similar goals to the Conservatives. Calling crown corporations like Petro-Canada, VIA Rail, Canadian National Railways and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation "national treasures, built through the hard work of Canadians", incoming Prime Minister Brian Tobin quickly made it clear that he felt that these companies would be preserved and protected. The Forces, Tobin said, were "Our Pride, our Strength and our way of Doing good in the World", and he would continue to work with them. With support for the CF at a very high level, attacking them had become politically troublesome. That being said, the men at the top of the Forces, especially incoming Defense Minister Romeo Dallaire - who was one of only 15 men to wear the Canadian Victoria Cross, awarded for personally leading missions in Rwanda in 1994 - took that respect seriously.

Early 2004 in the world focused the world's attention on Haiti. Haiti, by some margin the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, had been racked by many problems. A successful intervention in 1994 had been able to save the country from collapse, but Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had since then become a major problem, due to his increasingly dictatorial behavior. His demands for compensation by France in 2003 for the money paid to allow Haiti's independence two centuries before had caused a diplomatic row, made worse then Aristide argued that the "white nations" should be tossed out of their territories in the Caribbean. This angered many in Canada and lead to the Turks and Caicos MP, Derek Hugh Taylor, angrily demanding a retraction from Aristide.

On February 29th, 2004, after a full-blown rebellion that lasted some three weeks, Aristide left Haiti for Africa. He would later claim that he was kidnapped and flown out, charges denied by many. The violence caused many people to flee Haiti, fearing the return to power of the military who had caused so much grief under the leadership of the Duvalier family in the 1960s through 1980s. The UN mission to Haiti was formed up, and Canada offered to lead it. MINUSTAH, as the mission was known, arrived in Haiti in June 2004. This was the first active deployment since Afghanistan for Warrior, though landing dock Bluenose and brand-new sealift ship Terra Nova would be of more use delivering the men and equipment needed. It was also the first overseas deployment for Canada's fleet of CH-151 Vulcan helicopters, and CH-149 Cormorant search and rescue helicopters and CH-147 Chinook heavy lifters were also deployed to Haiti.

This mission, however, proved to be controversial. The NDP pointed out that Canadian journalists had printed stories about the Francophonie wanting regime change in Haiti, and writer Naomi Klein wrote that she had heard of the US demanding that Aristide sell-off Haiti's state-owned enterprises in return for help, and that if he didn't the US would seek his removal. Klein's comments caused a stir on both sides of the border. CARICOM asked for Canada to investigate the claims by Aristide and others about this being an enforced removal, as Canada was seen as being impartial. This was met with an angry demand for the investigation to be shut down by France through the Francophonie, something which drove the NDP and Bloc Quebecois up the wall.

The Forces, which normally stayed out of political debates, played a card to get the French off of Canada's back about Haiti in July 2004, saying that political concerns could determine the results of Canada's submarine acquisition program and other future programs. The decision, announced by Defense Minister Romeo Dallaire and with the full support of the CF, achieved its intended purpose. With Airbus smarting over the mess that brought down Charest and Boeing quite openly musing about new airliner orders and orders for gear from the Canadian Forces, France backed off, and on September 6th, 2004, allowed the investigation. France's government found itself facing protests over its actions with regards to Canada and the Caribbean. Canada's investigation, announced to CARICOM in August 2006, found that while the France had tried to influence Aristide, there was no legal wrongdoing. The election of Rene Preval to Haiti's presidency in 2006 also brought an end to the whole unhappy affair, and Aristide would eventually settle in the Turks and Caicos, arriving there in November 2006.

With Canada now a real Caribbean player and its prestige having been increased by the Forces effectively standing up for Canada's investigations in the Caribbean, the Canadian flag began flying a lot more frequently in the region. Canada would hold the leadership of MINUSTAH until handing it off to Brazil in June 2007, and the prestige gained there also had the desired commercial effect. From 2004 onward, Canadian trade and business spread through the Caribbean, with Canadian tourists also following. This led to be a revival of Canada's Merchant Marine, with Canada Steamship Lines ordering four Panamax-size container vessels and two ro-ro vehicle cargo ships for use in the Caribbean. These vessels, ordered in April 2004, would be built at shipyards on Canada's East Coast, provided much-needed employment in a part of the country racked with high unemployment and economic problems. Canadian firms - from Bombardier, Air Canada and Canada Steamship Lines to Research in Motion, Rogers Communications and Petro-Canada - soon spread through the Caribbean and into the United States.

Part Two
Afghanistan in 2004 was the last blast for Taliban. Two and a half years after the initial invasion, the Taliban in Afghanistan were clearly in trouble. American, British, Canadian, Australian, Dutch, Emirati and South Korean troops patrolled the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the Pakistani army on its side of the border. And while the Taliban were still a major problem in Pakistan, Afghanistan was starting to become stable, for the first time since the 1970s.

On May 20th, 2004, that stability was all but guaranteed by two actions that were unrelated, but both had major effects. The first was the announcement that Iran would join the ISAF effort, offering 5,500 troops to the forces in Afghanistan, much to the shock of the ISAF troops there. But on the recommendation of the Europeans and Canada, Iran's forces were accepted and asked to support the multinational force in the once-stronghold Kandahar region. The second was some thirteen hours later, when French Air Force Mirage F1 fighters conducted a raid on a known Taliban stronghold southwest of Kandahar. Several hours After the raid, on the morning of May 21st, South Korean troops found the body of Mullah Mohammed Omar, the infamous Taliban leader, among the wreckage.

Through 2004 after Omar's death, the Taliban began to fade, though they became an increasingly large problem for Pakistan, though that was not within the ISAF's purview. After the shootout that killed two Canadians and two Americans in 2002, few had much in the way of sympathy for the Pakistani Army or its intelligence services, who were widely rumored (accurately as it turned out), that the Pakistani ISI were in large part responsible for the Taliban's creation. While the idea of Islamic fundamentalism was by no means dead, between the now-improving situation between Iran and the West and the defeat of the Taliban, the problem of Islamic terrorism was falling. This was despite the terrible bombings in Madrid on March 11th, 2004, which claimed the lives of some 195 people, including four Canadians. After Madrid, however, the Canadian government began to looking for ways to find legal authority to prosecute those who had attacked Canadians abroad. Remembering the dead Canadians from 9/11 and the Bali bombings in Indonesia in October 2002, this idea had support from everyone, though the legal challenges to it were immense. It did, however, get the attention of Australia and the United Kingdom. Australia had seen 88 of its citizens die in the Bali bombings, and Australian PM John Howard held much of the same views as the Canadians did. Through 2004, the debate on what to do about the problems of prosecuting those who had killed Canadians abroad was investigated in depth.

The Forces spent 2004 destroying the Taliban's remnants and trying to help the chaotic situation in Haiti, as well as working on its future plans. At the top of the list in 2004 is the submarine project and the Polar 8 project and planned upgrades for the Hornet, Tomcat and Corsair fleets. For the last of those, the Corsair upgrades, which involved mild aerodynamic changes but more powerful engines, new avionics and additional hardpoints, was by the end of 2004 largely complete. As with the Hornet and Tomcat upgrade programs, the Canadian projects were sped along by not-built US variants, in the case of the Corsair II based on the Vought YA-7F proposal, which was sold to Bombardier by General Dynamics, which had bought Vought's aerospace division. In 2004, the next stage of the program - this one to upgrade the CF-184 Tomcats, began. The plan there was to go with the modifications proposed by Grumman to the USN in 1994, but also including 21st Century electronics and engines upgrades. The first of these heavily revised Tomcats, labeled the CF-184C "Supercat", rolled out of the Bombardier plant in Downsview, Ontario, on October 14th, 2004.

The submarine deal was inevitably influenced by France's angry demands over the Haiti affair, which seriously offended the NDP, to the point that NDP leader Jack Layton said that he would not under any circumstances support buying the French submarines. Germany's high-tech Type 214 was the early front-runner, but with Canada's substantial shipbuilding industry agitating, the Forces asked that any vessels be built in Canada. This was no issue for the Germans originally, but it massively raised the costs, and Germany still insisted on manufacturing the AIP systems themselves, a demand that forced other hands. Canadian Submarine Corporation, which had built the three nuclear subs operated by the Maritime Command, proposed buying an existing design and making its own propulsion system. But that got a curveball thrown in 2004, and this time by Australia.

Australian PM John Howard made a visit to Canada in June 2004, which was very well received by both nations - Canada had become a large investor in Australia, and the two nations were comrades in Arms in Haiti and Afghanistan, as they had been in South Africa, the Balkans and East Timor. During his visit, Howard offered the Canadian Forces the Collins-class submarine design to make if they wished, with the only two caveats being if Canada wanted to export them they needed Australian permission and had to pay a license fee, and any improvements the Canucks made could be adopted by Australia if they wished. Australia had its own reasons for this - the cost of developing the class had been high, and they had numerous technical problems, as well as persistent problems with finding the manpower to crew the six Collins-class subs that had been built. But the Forces were intrigued by the idea, as it would give them a big head start on the design. CSC proposed a variant using a Ballard Technologies fuel cell system and the electronics of the Lake Superior-class nuclear submarines, to both improve the capability and reduce costs. General Motors Canada and Research in Motion proposed building a specialized "submarine" version of its new Model 265 four-stroke turbodiesel engine, with fully electronic controls and direct-cylinder fuel injection, thus improving fuel economy, reducing noise and improving the maximum power of the design, while Westwood Engineering in Alberta showed off a brushless electric motor design, improving reliability and power.

On September 28th, 2004, the decision was made to go with the CSC proposal. The design would be based on the Collins-class, but with the Hedemora diesel engines replaced by the General Motors 265-S units, and a hull stretch to accommodate the Ballard fuel-cell air-independent propulsion system. The changes would increase the size to 4,100 tons submerged, though the Canadian Collins-class would be four knots faster than the Australian variants, and the vessel would also have a substantially longer maximum range, up to some 13,500 nautical miles (or 25,002 kilometers), easily enough to handle any Arctic patrol duties. Six units were ordered by Ottawa on October 11th, 2004, and they were to be called the Victoria-class, with the first scheduled for a late 2007/early 2008 delivery. At a cost of $380 million a unit, the subs were not cheap, but the subs were expected to be highly effective. The Canuck sub repute was added to at RIMPAC in 2004, when Lake Superior had, on her own, taken down American attack subs Houston and Seawolf, the latter being more than a little embarrassing for the USN as it had considered the Seawolf-class to be the world's best nuclear attack submarines. The Americans, who had long since thought of nuclear subs as the kings of the undersea ocean, had been shaken by the performance of HMAS Waller, which had been the first to drop a US nuclear sub in a 2003 exercise. But by the time of the first Victoria class entering service, they had come to the point of leasing two of the Collins- class to test them out for themselves in 2006. By the time the first two of the Victoria class headed out to RIMPAC in 2008, Canadian and Australian companies were looking at the Americans as rivals in the wargame, but also potential customers for their vessels.

The Polar Class 8 Icebreaker project had a much lower profile than the submarine project, but most of that was due to the fact that the design had already been well-developed, though the 2003-04 plans included a modifications to allow for full hangars for the helicopters and a larger superstructure to allow a second helicopter deck and the carrying of hovercraft. The vessels would use giant Wartsila diesel engines and geared electric motors, providing a full 105,000 horsepower, and a range of over 8,000 nautical miles (14,816 kilometers). Weighing in at nearly 45,000 tons displacement, the ship gained headlines for that reason alone - it would dwarf the current icebreakers operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, and would be by some margin the largest such vessels on the planet. Two vessels, to be named John G. Diefenbaker and Roald Amundsen, would be built, each costing nearly a billion dollars.

That didn't end the debate on that front. The newer regiments of the Canadian Forces in Nunavut and the plans to expand the Canadian Rangers made some ask about a third vessel, this one commissioned into the Maritime Command and be armed, with the goal of supporting the regiments in the cold Canadian north, where Canadian naval ships had serious difficulties reaching. This idea would bounce for years.

Part Three
As 2004 went on, the year had already seen more than its fair share of news, and yet more was to come. A lot more was to come, as it would turn out.

In the United States, 2004 was, of course, an election year, and the election was expected to be hard-fought. Gore and Wellstone easily were renominated for re-election. On the Republican side, however, the fight was much more protracted and bitter. The fight eventually narrowed down to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Governor George W. Bush of Texas and four-star general Colin Powell. Powell eventually won out, and he chose Maine Senator Susan Collins to be his running mate.

The election was hard-fought, and for reasons few expected. The Republicans, realizing that the center-right was working for Gore and the far right would alienate many of the independents that Powell and Collins would need to have any hope of winning, the Republicans decided to look at copying the strategies employed by center-right politicians in other countries, looking especially hard at what success had been had by Jean Charest in Canada and John Howard in Australia. Among the GOP's plans were a wholesale rebuild of much of America's infrastructure, with Powell saying that "Without the systems we built to move power, people, water and goods across the nation, our country would cease to function." Powell also played the usual GOP lines of lower taxes and less government regulation, something which Gore paid little attention to.

Gore and Wellstone by contrast played more to the center-left, while still holding a major independent streak. Wellstone said in a August 2004 speech that if re-elected, he would look into the prospects for dramatically reforming the American healthcare system. Remembering Clinton's spectacular failure trying to do the same thing in 1993, Gore was somewhat weary of such ideas - but Wellstone's ideas resonating dramatically with the American people, and by mid-September, Gore was running on the idea.

The election went in Gore's favor, but not by much, claiming 298 electoral votes to Powell's 240. The votes were not fully counted until late in the day on November 2nd, and Powell did not concede victory until the next day. Gore's re-election stunned the GOP, which would spend much of 2005 fighting amongst itself.

Canadian Conservatives found themselves with the same problems in much of 2004. Charest's resignation as Conservative leader had set off a massive power struggle within the party. The furthest right in this debate were Ontario Premier Mike Harris and ex-Finance Minister Stephen Harper, while in the middle were ex-Defense Minister Peter MacKay, ex-Foreign Minister Kim Campbell, Joe Clark (another former finance minister) and Alberta premier Ralph Klein. Openly gay MP Scott Brison and Newfoundland politician Danny Williams had the left side of the debate well covered.

MacKay and Harper were in front from the get-go, but Campbell, Harris and Williams all had their bases of support. Harris got himself in trouble when he derisively referred to the native protesters at Oka in 1990 and Ipperwash Park in 1995 as "arrogant hooligans" who need to be "hauled away." Brison's open homosexuality drew fire from the religious conservative portions of the party, while Clark's serious charisma deficiency cost him points. Coming into the party's convention in December 2004, only Harper and MacKay could possibly win, though Campbell, Harris and Williams were still in it. Harris tossed in first at the convention, with his guys almost to a man supporting Harper. Williams also threw in the towel, his votes going mostly to MacKay. The final votes put MacKay on top. Harper conceded on December 13th, 2004, and congratulated Peter Mackay on his win. Mackay took over the position as leader of the opposition on December 17th, 2004.

Hardly had Mackay taken his seat and Christmas having passed came one of the greatest natural disasters in history. A giant magnitude 9.3 earthquake erupted off of the cost of Indonesia, causing a vast tsunami which spread across the Indian Ocean, causing damage and loss of life as far away as Mogadishu in Somalia, Port Roberts in South Africa and Darwin in Australia. India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Myanmar are hardest hit, though over a dozen other countries are hit. The death toll from the disaster soared into the hundreds of thousands.

The disaster found HMCS Warrior in the Pacific, making a visit in Perth, Australia. Warrior roared up the Indian Ocean to the area, escorted by its own group as well as many vessels of the Royal Australian Navy. She was beaten there by American carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which had begun operations within hours of the disaster. DART was immediately called up and deployed, with Canada's five C-17 Globemaster III airlifters quickly soaring to Sri Lanka, while a separate branch of DART headed to the Maldives. The team quickly got to work trying to make a dent in the vast devastation, but as that proved insufficient, more needed to be done.

On the advice of Defense Minister Dallaire, PM Tobin asked for Air Canada and anything the Canadian Forces could scrounge to fly gear and skilled people to the area, and asked for volunteers. Over 10,000 people responded to Tobin's call, and between December 29th and January 6th, these volunteers were flown to the area to assist. The entire Canadian Pacific fleet was also sent out, and recently-retired supply ship HMCS Preserver was hurriedly reactivated and sent out. All in all, some twenty-one CF Maritime Command vessels were sent to the area. HMCS Terra Nova, which had been docked in Kingston, Jamaica, on a visit, transited the Panama Canal and refueled in Panama, before beginning its record-setting speed run to the Indian Ocean. Stopping at Pearl Harbor and Port Moresby, Terra Nova stormed some 15,050 kilometers at an average speed of a whopping 31.1 knots (57.6 km/h), blasting across the Pacific Ocean in just eleven days, arriving on station on January 9th. The massive effort was assisted by many other nations and billions in donations from governments, companies and individuals. Canada suffered twenty-six lives lost in the disaster, half of them at the Thai resort town of Phuket, which was hammered by the tsunami.

The rescue workers and volunteers from Canada worked miracles in many cases, simply trying to save as many people as they could. Every helicopter in the fleet at the area, from the biggest CH-147 Chinooks to the much smaller CH-146 Griffon and CH-151 Vulcan utility choppers, was pressed into service for rescue and food/water delivery duties. The USAF did the Canadians a favor during this time, using their C-5 Galaxy airlifter fleet to airlift another sixteen CF helicopters to the area. The overall effort was massive, and drew nothing but praise.

Seven Cross of Valour awards were awarded to Canadians for bravery during the response to the tsunami. The most notable of these went to City TV Toronto journalist Gord Martineau, who flew to the area at his own expense and joined a CF helicopter crew trying to rescue people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In the middle of this, Martineau jumped off of the CH-146 helicopter and grabbed a mother and her two children out of the water and onto a flooded house, where the chopper crew picked him up. One other Cross of Valour was awarded to Montreal cop Blake Raisen, who had been in the Maldives at the time of the tsunami and had helped evacuate people to safety, and then after the tsunami had gone out to attempt to rescue people who had been injured, himself being injured when a tree fell on him. One of the people he had helped save, as it turned out later, was the daughter of Chinese action movie star Jet Li, something which was not forgotten by the Chinese star.

On January 11th, 2005, Tobin himself went to the area to see the Canadians involved in the relief effort. Joined by US President Gore, Australian PM John Howard and British PM Tony Blair, he praised the immense efforts made by the rescuers. Gore awarded Canadian vessels Warrior and Terra Nova with Presidential Unit Citations for their work, and in Terra Nova's case for her storming across the Pacific to help. One American rescuer, US Navy Medical Corpsman Josh Hanett, was awarded the Medal of Honor after staying behind in a flooded zone while his helicopter took injured people away. Hanett had nearly drowned as a result, but he had been found by a Royal Australian Navy rescue crew and eventually recovered from his injuries. The whole event went down as another of the proud moments of the Canadian Forces.