What a difference a day makes

“TORIES SAY BORDER GUARDS WILL GET HANDGUNS: Fleeing their post bad for our image” is the headline of the moment at Neale News that links to this Yahoo News report:

VANCOUVER (CP) - The Conservative justice critic says the party will stand behind its promise to give Canada's border guards guns, a day after two murder suspects from California made a run for the border before they were stopped in a shootout.

"It's simply a practical matter of how soon these officers can be trained and the firearms issued to them," said Vic Toews, the Conservative MP who served as justice critic in Opposition. "That's our commitment and I trust our minister will do exactly that."

Toews said in an interview Wednesday he did not relish the sight of Canadian border guards leaving their posts as the gunmen approached the border. "I think it does nothing for our national image. I find it very disturbing that our officers felt compelled to leave because of this threat to their personal safety," he said from his Manitoba riding of Provencher.

"I understand their concerns very well and don't fault them. What surprises me is that the former government refused to properly equip our officers." He said he doesn't know what the time line will be. The move would not require legislation. It would be done by an order in council, which the union representing the guards fully supports.

I can understand the fact that the border guards fled their post. They were not obviously trained for this kind of a scenario and they certainly weren’t equipped to deal with all the possible repercussions of it. But geez, it’s the border – you’d have thought that a Liberal government would have done something to rectify that shortcoming in the last 12 years or at least since 9/11 considering that border guards are in an enforcement position. Which leads me to another question; what exactly have those post 9/11 special airport security taxes been paying for exactly? Inquiring minds would dearly love to know.