A poll showing most Canadians oppose sending troops to Afghanistan reflects Ottawa's failure to explain why Canada has a military mission in the war-torn country, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said on Friday according to Reuters. Canada contributed 2,000 troops to a NATO-run force in Kabul in the wake of the Sept. 11 suicide attacks. By next month it will have 2,300 troops in the volatile southern city of Kandahar as part of another NATO mission. Canadian troops in Kandahar are already coming under frequent attack. Canada is due to take over command of multinational forces in the region next month. The decision to boost troop levels and take part in the new NATO mission was taken by the previous Liberal government with little publicity or discussion in Parliament The Liberals lost to the Conservatives in the Jan. 23 election. A Strategic Counsel poll in Friday's Globe and Mail showed 62 percent of Canadians were against sending troops to Afghanistan while 73 percent wanted Parliament to have an opportunity to vote on deployments. "Part of the problem is that ... the previous government -- I'm not in petty terms criticizing them -- didn't really explain very well to the population why we're in Afghanistan," O'Connor told Reuters in an interview. --More 20 14 Local Time 17 14 GMT
