How much closer can Canada get to the U.S.? How much more sovereignty will Canada cede?

Those questions were interesting ones before Sept. 11. They have now become urgent. Scarcely a week passes without Canada's running to catch up with post-Sept. 11 U.S. priorities.

Canada's vulnerability -- or closeness, if you prefer -- has never been more apparent. When a country does 85 per cent of its trade with another, when it has ceded continental defence policy, when it has become a pop cultural outpost, then that country scrambles to follow the priorities of the dominant one.

Some years hence, Canadians will face such issues as a common external tariff and use of the U.S. dollar, because the forces of economic integration, regardless of Sept. 11, are pushing us that way.

In the meantime, Sept. 11 has produced in Canada new anti-terrorism legislation, refugee-screening and border security measures, and military participation in the Afghan campaign.

Now, at the senior levels of the Chrétien government, the military wants even more integration. If the military prevails, the new policy will represent the most radical change in Canadian defence policy since the Second World War.

Two weeks ago, Defence Minister Art Eggleton hinted at these changes after meeting U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "We certainly should do a little updating in view of post-Sept. 11 and particularly how we would relate to them in terms of the defence of the continent and how they would relate to us."

What lay behind that rather anodyne comment was the Canadian military's desire to get fully into bed with its U.S. counterpart when the United States reorganizes its command structure for "homeland security."

Not content with ensuring that Canadian personnel and equipment can work seamlessly with the U.S. military -- what is called "interoperability" -- the military wants Canada fully integrated into U.S. defence structures for North America.

That kind of institutional integration is now restricted to the North American Aerospace Defence Command, the agency responsible for defending Canadian and U.S. airspace. Canada and the U.S. have dozens of agreements to co-operate; but only in NORAD is the command structure integrated so that Canadians are assigned military tasks for the entire continent.

NORAD is a binational institution based in the U.S. and largely controlled by the U.S. military. But there are a handful of senior Canadian officers there, including the No. 2 ranking officer.

The Americans will soon decide whether NORAD or some other command should take charge of "homeland defence," including ground and naval forces.

Either way, the Canadian military believes Canada would be better served by integrating its forces within these U.S. structures, the hope being that Canadian officers might have some influence on U.S. decisions. The change would mean moving from "interoperability" to full integration for all air, ground and sea forces involved in continental defence.

A meeting of Canadian and U.S. experts is scheduled for next week to discuss these ideas, showing how fast Sept. 11 is driving policy on both sides of the border.

The Canadian military is pressing forward with its desires despite concerns elsewhere in the Chrétien government about the wisdom of both the policy and the haste with which it is being pursued.

There are concerns about the loss of sovereignty and questions about how seriously Canadian views would be taken within integrated command structures overwhelmingly controlled by Americans.

The Canadian military says Canada must get inside whatever military tent the Americans are designing; critics say Canadian views will inevitably be subordinated within that tent to the tent's designers.

The Prime Minister and cabinet colleagues may yet knock Mr. Eggleton off course. The military's desire to be accepted as full players by the Americans may be deflected by the loss of sovereignty were Canadian personnel and equipment to be integrated into the U.S. command structure. Canada can fully co-operate in the defence of North America without taking the step desired by the Canadian military.

Then again, post-Sept. 11 has driven Canadian harmonization further and faster than anyone would have dreamed before the terrorist attacks. Perhaps the Canadian military will seize on this climate to get its way.
jsimpson@globeandmail.ca