Is the promise of military icebreakers political theatre or sensible policy?

A former top naval commander and several defence experts have been left scratching their heads following the governing Liberals and Opposition Conservatives’ recent embrace of the notion of giving the Royal Canadian Navy heavy, armed icebreakers to defend the Arctic. They question the military sensibility of building — possibly at a cost of billions of dollars — one, two or even three 10,000-tonne or more polar-class icebreakers with guns and missiles, vessels with possibly limited usefulness that would be vulnerable to both air and submarine attack. “I’m puzzled, because I don’t know what it is we’re trying to achieve other…