OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he wants a consensus among Canadians, not just parliamentarians, about the country's future role in Afghanistan.
At a news conference Friday, Harper hinted that a consensus might be possible if Canadian troops took on a different and perhaps less dangerous task should the current deployment be extended beyond the February 2009 deadline.
The prime minister also gave his strongest signal yet that he will seek all-party agreement in the House of Commons for any extension, saying he was looking for a "meeting of the minds'' not only with other political parties but among an increasingly restless public.
"I will want to see some degree of consensus among Canadians about how we move forward,'' he said.
"I would hope the view of Canadians is not simply to abandon Afghanistan. I think there is some expectation that there will be a new role after February 2009, but obviously those decisions have yet to be taken.''
Harper did not say how he would attempt to persuade Canadians that the country should remain involved.
His comments came the same day as two buses of antiwar demonstrators in Quebec City protested next month's deployment to Afghanistan of more than 2,000 members of the Royal 22nd Regiment, based in Valcartier, Que.
Recent public-opinion polls have also suggested a majority of Canadians want the troops to come home in 2009.
There was no hint as to what Canada's new role might be, but much of Harper's meeting this week with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer was taken up discussing how Canada can help expand training of the Afghan Army and national police force.
A defence analyst said Friday it's clear Harper wants to remain involved in Afghanistan, and that rotating troops to Kabul, where the majority of the training takes place, would give Canadian troops and the public a break after three years of heavy fighting and casualties.
"It appears now to me that that's the goal towards which the government is heading,'' said Alex Morrison, president of the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies.
"Canada could rightly say listen, we've done this combat role for X number of years, we've done the heavy-lifting, we've done our share in that area.''
The opposition parties have steadfastly opposed extending the war-fighting mission in Kandahar beyond its scheduled end, but the Liberals have left the door open to Canada remaining involved in Afghanistan in some undefined capacity.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion accused the prime minister of not being clear enough in Friday's statement.
"He is being irresponsible by being so ambiguous,'' Dion said, adding the combat mission should end on schedule because Canadians are needed elsewhere around the world.
Dion would not say whether he supported the idea of Canadian troops remaining in the country on a training mission, but left the door open for a compromise suggesting a move outside of Kandahar might be acceptable:
"If it's outside the combat zone, it will not be a combat mission.''
Dion repeated his demand that Canada immediately serve notice to NATO that it is pulling out of Kandahar in 2009 and to find another country to take on the difficult task of stamping out the Taliban insurgency in the region.
"To continue with these ambiguous statements from the prime minister is because he wants to stay,'' said Dion.
Since landing in Afghanistan in 2002 following the ouster of the Taliban regime, 60 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died. Roughly 2,500 Canadians troops have been deployed in Kandahar as part of NATO's international stabilization force since February 2006.
Currently, the Canadian army oversees the combined training exercises, where Afghan recruits, non-commissioned officers and officers conduct field exercises at the platoon, company and battalion levels. Canadian troops also mentor Afghan units in the field.
Roughly 50,000 Afghan troops have been trained since the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban, but desertion remains a problem and recruiting has been difficult.
Harper's comments Friday came after a plea by de Hoop Scheffer for Canada to remain with the fighting and reconstruction efforts in war-torn Afghanistan.
Scheffer was in Ottawa this week, where he told Harper and other officials that the country plays a "tremendously important role'' in the military alliance and the Afghan mission in particular.
