Canadian News report does a good job of highlighting the major areas where Arctic Warming is accelerating economic, and military, engagement in the Arctic.
No discussion here of the Idiot Elect’s recent dumbass saber rattling over Canadian and Arctic territory. Assumption seems to be that some sort of rational approach will prevail. We shall see.
The Canadian government under Trudeau II has said it will increase defence spending to 2% of GDP to meet its NATO commitment (this ‘announcement’ from one of the founding members that created the NATO alliance and the guidelines to maintain it)… by 2032. Let’s all applaud this extraordinary feat, shall we? This means increasing spending by about $58.87 billion. This is the ‘reference’ the CBC is using in the video as if Canada is committed to spending $60 billion on increasing defensive expenditures in the Arctic. It’s not.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Canadian Armed Forces is rotting. We have no blue water navy. Our air force has 40 year old planes. To give you some idea of meeting the problems from chronic underfunding that this increased money is supposed to address, there are growing (aka chronic) vacancies in the military running well above 10%, which is greater than there are combat deployable forces. It took about 10 years just to procure ‘new’ sidearm pistol… with ammunition.
To say Canada is committed to $60 billion (over decades) for Arctic security – as if this were in any way meaningful – is as ridiculous as it is laughable. Change in defence capabilities has ONLY come as part of the grievance from Trump that is justifying the 25% tariff threat that will render the Canadian dollar below 60% par with the US dollar, which is great for raw material exports but a recession-in-waiting for the rest of the economy. And the cost of such a recession would dwarf into insignificance this so-called $60 billion ‘investment’. But you sure won’t hear any of these brutal facts of abdicating national defence by consecutive Canadian governments of all political stripes from the CBC. You need to listen to real people on the ground and not the talking heads living in bubble worlds paid by legacy media.
“We?” You got a frog in your pocket, Rusky? Trying to convince us you’re Canuk?
“Change in defence capabilities has ONLY come as part of the grievance from Trump” These announcements came in April of 2024. I believe that was before the election.
To respond to your implication that increased spending in response to Trump’s tariffs is not the case, it will take more than a quick quip.
Yes, these latest military funding ‘announcements’ did come before the election but listening to people who attended the both the NATO conference (Montreal) and the Halifax International Security Forum this past October, we – meaning Canadians who pay attention to such things – understand only too well this ongoing failure by Canada to meet even base military funding is an equivalent and strong motivation – along with border security – for Trump to use as a bludgeon for his trade deals that start with massive tariffs. This has been known by the Canadian government since at least 2018. Trump made this perfectly clear at that time, which is also the year special tariffs were imposed by Trump on Canada in case anyone has forgotten. The equation has only gotten worse since then. Consistently worse.
But the lack of military funding for our all of our military commitments has been a long time criticism also held by all of our allies. This is why Canada is not involved in many of the Pacific defence pacts (I mean, it’s filled with ocean and we have no ocean-capable navy; we do have ships that can traverse oceans but no means to resupply them or maintain naval battle forces except through the kindness of our allies supplying us with such trivial things as ammunition and fuel.) We are an international joke when it comes to our national military capability that today virtually no one takes seriously except in our ongoing efforts to provide blankets, helmets, medical aid, and fresh water to whatever ‘victimized’ group makes the government look the best in photo shoots. The CAF is, however, gaining a reputation for failure to provide snow removal services, using soldiers to fight forest fires, and providing temporary care for the elderly in nursing homes. There’s no life like it!
Our small unit training program is widely respected as are our off grid sniper units. That’s it. Behind the scenes, we do have have capability in cyberwarfare, Signals, and drones, but little domestic support or even political will to act on intelligence gathered even against terrorist groups and large scale money laundering where Canada truly excels on the international stage. Very often it is our allies who let us know about ‘people’ living in Canada who are known security risks. Canada is a very unserious country very bad at ‘governmenting’.
Put another way, payments to First Nations and ever-increasing transfers of taxpayer money to tribal ‘authorities’ (whatever that means) exceeds defence spending in the yearly federal budget now. Yet it is out of the defence budget that pays for the First Canadian Ranger Patrol (about 2000 Inui ‘reservists’ for the 162,000 kilometres of coastline as well as 4 million square kilometers of the Canadian land mass).
So the point about increasing military spending aimed at better securing the northern border claimed by the CBC is typical yet gross misinformation that paints and frames in the best possible light wordy promises by government to rectify what they have left to crumble. Show me a Canadian or Danish military base in the Arctic that is capable of providing armed defence for meeting the changing security situation with both Russian and Chinese incursions and we can only then begin to refute Trump’s legitimate concern about alliance security in these areas.