The bulk of Canada's troops in Afghanistan will not remain there past a 2011 pullout date set earlier this year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Wednesday.
Canadians have no appetite for keeping their soldiers in the war-torn country past the date Parliament set in March, Harper told reporters at a breakfast briefing.
"You have to put an end date on these things," Harper was quoted as saying by broadcasters CBC and CTV.
Ten years of war was enough the prime minister said, in remarks which came four days after he called a snap general election, to be held October 14, for Canada's 308-seat parliament.
"By 2011, we will (also) have been in Kandahar, which is probably the toughest province in the country, for six years."
"Not only have we done our bit at that point, I think our goal has to be after six years to see the government of Afghanistan able to carry the lion's share of responsibility for its own security."
"At that point, the mission, as we've known it, we intend to end," Harper said in his clearest statement yet on Canada's combat mission, adding a handful of military advisers could still remain.
Canada maintains 2,500 soldiers in the Kandahar region as part a NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
Since the start of the mission in 2002, 97 of its troops have died in roadside blasts and in melees with insurgents. Two Canadian aid workers and a senior diplomat were also killed.
In March, Parliament approved a two-year mission extension to 2011.
But Canadians remain split on the decision, with 56 percent disapproving of Canada's deployment in Afghanistan.
Harper's Conservatives' main election rival party, the Liberals, support a 2011 withdrawal. Both the New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois want an immediate exit.
