An honour guard carries casket of Corporal Albert Storm, draped in a Canadian flag, from the Lake Street Armoury in St. Catharines following a funeral service for the Fort Erie resident in December 2006. He died in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

All the major federal political parties seem to agree on one thing about Afghanistan: it's time for Canada to get its troops out of there.

But, true to politics, the announcement by Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently that Canada will indeed pull its troops out of the deeply troubled country by the end of 2011 without conditions has led to verbal sniping among the parties.

A parliamentary resolution already in place called for Canadian troops to be pulled out of the volatile Kandahar region by December 2011, but left open the possibility of redeployment elsewhere in Afghanistan, a well as renewing the mission through another resolution.

In September, Harper set a firm deadline for pulling troops out at the end of 2011, giving no conditions.

To Joyce Morocco, the Liberal candidate in the Niagara Falls riding, announcing the firm pullout during an election smacked of political opportunism. She said Harper had refused earlier calls from Liberal leader Stephane Dion to set a firm deadline.

"Mr. Harper said Canada should not set an arbitrary deadline," she said. "Now all of a sudden he's changed his time. (Is it) just to secure votes?"

She said Canada has done its job in Afghanistan, in a seven-year mission that has cost the lives of nearly 100 Canadian troops.

"It's time for them to come home safe and knowing they did a wonderful job."

Rick Dykstra, Conservative candidate for St. Catharines riding, said Harper was simply being true to the resolution agreed to by Dion, to pull out by the end of 2011. Any Liberal criticism would be two-faced, he said.

"It was exactly the same thing we voted on," he said. "Desperate Liberals say desperate things."

Retired Sgt. Michael Blais of Niagara Falls, who served with the Royal Canadian Regiment, said he was "shocked" to hear about the firm pullout of troops, saying it was a complete reversal of policy on the Afghan mission.

Blais said he was a good friend of Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Girouard, a Royal Canadian Regiment member who was killed along with Cpl. Albert Storm of Fort Erie during a raid by the Taliban in November, 2006.

In a statement released on their deaths, Harper said despite the tragedy, Canada was determined to achieve "irreversible success" on the Afghan mission. "Canada will not be deterred from the mission to assist the Afghan people achieve greater stability and security," he said.

Blais sees the pullout announcement as politically motivated.

"Our soldiers deserve better than to be political pawns of the Prime Minister's dream of a majority (government)," he said in a letter to Niagara This Week.

"Soldiers do not believe in cutting and running" before a mission's objectives have been attained, he said.

New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton also questioned Harper's motives for announcing the firm pullout date during an election campaign, and said Canadians shouldn't trust him.

In a speech at the University of Ottawa earlier this year, Layton blamed the former Liberal government for sending Canadian troops into Afghanistan six years ago "without a deadline, an exit strategy or any definition or measurement for success."

Layton said the NATO force Canadian troops are a part of should not be in charge of the mission to rebuild Afghanistan, that the number of insurgent and terrorist attacks are up in the country and that the mission has failed to build a vibrant democracy or security for the Afghan people.

The Green Party, likewise, says Canada's role in Afghanistan must shift dramatically away from unbalanced military involvement to a focus on development and greater diplomatic efforts in order to achieve dialogue and lasting peace. Party leader Elizabeth May has also called for a strategic plan to address Afghanistan's dependence on illicit opium production.