Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said the government was looking past the current war in Afghanistan and towards the future when it decided to purchase 100 mothballed tanks from the Netherlands.
Ottawa announced last week that it was getting 100 Leopard A6Ms from the Dutch and leasing 20 Leopard II tanks from Germany at a total cost of $650 million.
Speaking Sunday on CTV's Question Period, O'Connor said the government and military made the decision to acquire the tanks after considering Canada's future deployments to trouble spots around the globe.
"We see Afghanistan is the future. Afghanistan and these type of engagements are the future for 10, 15 years," said O'Connor.
"And we have to be prepared when governments, our government and future governments, commit soldiers to off-shore activities -- they're going to have to be equipped with armour to protect their lives."
O'Connor mentioned Somalia and Darfur as examples of conflict zones where Canada could possibly send troops.
Canada's new fleet of tanks will replace the small 1970s-era Leopards and will offer soldiers stronger firing capabilities, faster land speeds and more armour to protect against roadside bombs.
The defence minister reiterated that renewing the fleet doesn't mean extending Canada's mission in Afghanistan past the end of February 2009.
"Just to be clear, our commitment in Afghanistan militarily is to the end of February '09, ... and our aid commitment is to the year (2010-2011)," said O'Connor.
He pointed to the Afghanistan Compact, an aid framework for the next five years, which came about from consultations between the Afghanistan government, the United Nations and the international community.
Critics, meanwhile, are saying that the new tanks represent an escalation in Canada's military effort while aid and diplomacy efforts remain insufficient.
"We're pushing too much on the military operation and not enough on development, and clearly not enough at all on diplomacy," Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said on Question Period.
"It seems that the way Minister O'Connor is acting right now that the Conservative Government, the minority Conservative government, doesn't want to leave after February 2009."
O'Connor denied that extending the military mission is in the government's plan, and said that such an extension would have to first be discussed in cabinet, which he said won't happen until "sometime next year," and then passed in parliament.
He added that the new tanks will support troops in a "defensive role" and will not be used in the sense of "World War Two tank attacks."
"They will go into positions and defend the infantry where they're holding strong points, or lead convoys because they can withstand a lot of mines and things like that so these tanks are being used in a defensive role only."
"If the Taliban concentrate against us and start taking areas which are difficult for the infantry to get at, the tanks will go in and break down the walls and get at them -- certainly they will. But this still is a defensive mode."
In light of the recent deaths of Canadian soldiers in roadside bombs attacks, O'Connor said the increased attacks do not represent a "spring offensive" from the Taliban.
"This term, spring offensive, I don't know that there is ever going to be a spring offensive, certainly in Kandahar province," said O'Connor.
"What we're seeing in Kandahar province is increased activity of these people who have set IEDs. But we haven't noticed at this time, anyway, any large numbers of Taliban returning into our province."
