We're seeing the first policy change of the new Canadian government, as Canada will pull its planes out of the anti-ISIS coalition. That is a better mesh for a Liberal vision of Canada as a good cop on the world stage, helping with humanitarian missions with a minimum of belligerency. It also helps to brand defeated PM Harper as the bad cop, the hawkish neocon out of step with that vision of a more peaceful Canada.
Shiny Pony (a Tory mockname for new PM Justin Trudeau) might well be right on this one. Even Liberal governments have been helpful militarily, being troopers in Afghanistan while passing on being part of things in Iraq. With 20/20 hindsight, the Bush-led takeover of Iraq wasn't all that great of a idea, creating a three-way civil war once the US left the scene, so steering clear of that mess might well have been wise.
Dealing with ISIS might well be a similar mess best avoided, especially when Russia has started bigfooting in Syria; another news item of the day has Syrian president Assad visiting his new BFF Pooty-Poot in Moscow. Syria is already a five-way hot mess with no good way forward and the Iraqi side of things isn't much easier.
Canada is something of a price-taker in international affairs, being able to pick sides but not able to "move the market" much. They'd rather be an effective humanitarian than an ineffective belligerent. Trudeau will get flak from the right for this, but it seems to be a prudent move as well as a politically beneficial one.
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