Recently The British PM The Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer sated: “My first duty as Prime Minister is to keep the British people safe.” Several people have lauded the PM’s comment and wondered aloud why we never hear something like that from a Canadian PM. All I can say is, “thank goodness we never hear a Canadian PM say something like that.” Safety is NOT the mission or duty of the PM. Leading the government is.

We are all familiar with what is commonly called the Law of Unintended Consequences. And the history of warfare is replete with examples of such consequences. Every decision inevitably causes something to happen that we had either not considered or did not intend. But there is a more fundamental “law” that often is overlooked. It is also a principle of war:

In the US it’s called Principle of the Objective: Every military action should be directed towards a clear, achievable goal that contributes to the overall strategic objective. A solitary, unambiguous aim is the keystone of successful military operations. This statement is regarded as the master principle of war.

In Canada it’s called Selection and Maintenance of the Aim.

(An aside — this has always bothered me because this bifurcation means that this principle is actually two principles since selection and maintenance are separate issues, but I digress …)

In simple English: “What is the Aim?” For a PM, “What is your job?”

This may seem absurdly simplistic, but in reality, the aim is often presumed, and as a result it is just as often incorrect.

For several years I had the great pleasure to lead a hand-picked team of retired senior military officers as we travelled to non-NATO countries and conducted one-week Senior Officers’ Strategic Studies Seminars for senior military and civil service officers. It was always fascinating to sit with syndicates of men and women from places as distant and diverse as Mongolia, Peru, Argentina, Botswana, Mexico, Morocco and more. As facilitators, we always emphasized that we were not instructors; and the proof of that was that we learned as much from our “students” as they learned from us — often we learned more. And that is what brings me to my topic for this week.

One of our sessions was always Forms of Government. During the discussion, I made it a habit to ask the members of the group, what they thought the purpose of a national government was. Not surprisingly, each country’s unique culture imbued in its officers varying beliefs. But fundamentally, the choices could be separated into two broad categories:

Security or Wellbeing.

Without ignoring the many, many variations open to either of these aims, it is clear that although they are not mutually exclusive, they are most certainly divergent, if not in theory, then at least in practice. Those countries that focused on security tended to have strong militaries whereas those that focused on wellbeing tended not to be major military powers. This simple choice, security or wellbeing, quite literally shaped the societies in which they lived.

Consider Canada. Our great nation was founded with the aim of “Peace, Order, and Good Government” a phrase used in Section 91 of the British North America Act (subsequently renamed the Constitution Act) of 1867. It has shaped our country and its unique culture. It is not that we have not had strong militaries for we have and clearly need to strengthen what we currently maintain. But the fact that the military is not the major expenditure in our national budget says much about what we want our country to be.

Do not misunderstand me. I am no pacifist, and it pains me that we have let our armed forces become so small and in such need of rebuilding. In our desire for wellbeing, we have collectively — whether intentionally or not — forgotten the law of unintended consequences and arguably improperly understood what the aim of our elected government should be. Wellbeing does not obviate the need to stand ready to enforce our desires at home and also honour our responsibilities in the community of nations.

As the old axiom warns: Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it.

The wisdom here is that unless you’re very wise, what you’re hoping for might have unintended consequences that you don’t like. Lots of leaders promise security, but what they inevitably deliver is tyranny. We need noy look far, the US is only a short drive from 90% of the Canadian population …