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Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

This is about people being organized to do what they can when they can as johnny on the spot. Even if it is just forming bucket brigades until the professionals come to save them. With any luck they might have put the fire out before they get their.

And yes Denmark has professional Emergency Services as well.

But still people volunteer...

And others still join the army.

A bigger (per capita) and better equipped army than we provide.
Denmark has lots of people with a living connection to a time their country was occupied by a foreign invader, that tends to inspire people to care about defending their country in a way Canadians don't.

Sure, and I see it in video and stills every time there is some kind of emergency : locals (mostly) showing up and doing stuff. And then the army shows up and does the same stuff, which I'm not convinced is actually necessary except as a matter of reassuring those who need reassurance. The CAF brings useful skill sets, but mostly those are not the ones that are going to be taught to part-timers.

People showing up to learn stuff still costs money, and I'm unconvinced there's much return on investment if they don't actually show up for the real thing.

[Add: there is a potential positive point; if they show up at existing armouries then it will only be a matter of time before the idea of having a mess open on Home Guard Night occurs to someone. So it might improve mess revenues.]
The last thing the CAF needs is more people coming into the messes to drink, and misbehave.
 
Sure, and I see it in video and stills every time there is some kind of emergency : locals (mostly) showing up and doing stuff. And then the army shows up and does the same stuff, which I'm not convinced is actually necessary except as a matter of reassuring those who need reassurance. The CAF brings useful skill sets, but mostly those are not the ones that are going to be taught to part-timers.

This Home Guard organization is about exactly that. Organizing those people that would show up in any case and making them more useful.

And I agree that most of the time the Army's contribution is a photo-op rather than meaningfully changing the course of the event. That usually gets done locally. We agree.


People showing up to learn stuff still costs money, and I'm unconvinced there's much return on investment if they don't actually show up for the real thing.

Yes it does. We spend something like 215 million dollars annually doing exactly that for 60,000 13 to 18 year olds in the Cadets and Junior Rangers.

This programme in essence is continuation of the Cadet programme. Cadets, or as was said, Boy Scouts for adults. The Danes spend, in equivalent terms, 650 million dollars for 326,000 willing adults. We spend 1,500 million, 1.5 billion, on Canadian Heritage. Use some of that budget.

[Add: there is a potential positive point; if they show up at existing armouries then it will only be a matter of time before the idea of having a mess open on Home Guard Night occurs to someone. So it might improve mess revenues.]

Turn it into an Aussie Legion.
 
Continuing with my fascination on the subject of Denmark

We have 7x the population but only 5x the wealth. Rich Danish buggers.

With that I took a look at the kit the Danes have and multiplied it by 5.

We would end up with

95x Cesar 155mm SPH (Wheeled)
105x LAV mounted 120mm mortars
220x Leo2A7
220x CV9035
2200x LAVs
890x Armoured HMMWV
75x Jackal

The Navy would end up with

15x Iver Huitfeldt Air Defence Frigates (ABM/Tomahawk Capable)
10x Absalon ASW/Support Frigates (Tank Transport Capable)
20x Thetis Class Frigates
15x Knud Rasmussen Patrol Vessels

The Air Force would end up with

163x F16 (being phased out)
135x F35 (being phased in)
20x Challenger MPA
20x C130J
55x Fennec Helicopters
45x SH-60
70x Merlin/Cormorant

40x NASAMS AD Batteries with 240x launchers
30x Radar Stations

All with a budget of less than 2% of GDP. (1.6 to be precise)
Where the eff do they park them all, glorified City State
 
Agreed, in Alberta we need to provide 30 days written notice including date we leave and date we will return. Army changes course dates on you less than 30 days out? Well good luck to you cause bow your employer can just say no, and not keep your job.
On that point, an employer might be fine losing a volunteer FD employee for the afternoon. But I know that same employer isn’t so keen on losing a volunteer GSAR employee for a few days to look for a missing hiker/skier/hunter/mushroom picker.

Add to that the calls usually come at 8 pm on a Sunday night, it’s hard to find and retain volunteers for anything because of life.
 
Where the eff do they park them all, glorified City State

In fairness, that is IF we bought at the same rate that they bought. Divide those numbers by find and park them in Nova Scotia and you aren't far off their reality.

We might have to encroach on New Brunswick
 
Continuing with my fascination on the subject of Denmark

We have 7x the population but only 5x the wealth. Rich Danish buggers.

With that I took a look at the kit the Danes have and multiplied it by 5.

We would end up with

95x Cesar 155mm SPH (Wheeled)
105x LAV mounted 120mm mortars
220x Leo2A7
220x CV9035
2200x LAVs
890x Armoured HMMWV
75x Jackal

The Navy would end up with

15x Iver Huitfeldt Air Defence Frigates (ABM/Tomahawk Capable)
10x Absalon ASW/Support Frigates (Tank Transport Capable)
20x Thetis Class Frigates
15x Knud Rasmussen Patrol Vessels

The Air Force would end up with

163x F16 (being phased out)
135x F35 (being phased in)
20x Challenger MPA
20x C130J
55x Fennec Helicopters
45x SH-60
70x Merlin/Cormorant

40x NASAMS AD Batteries with 240x launchers
30x Radar Stations

All with a budget of less than 2% of GDP. (1.6 to be precise)

Denmark is the cork in Russia's Baltic bottle, so no surprise really.
 
Denmark is the cork in Russia's Baltic bottle, so no surprise really.

The surprise is that they can get the job done for less than 2% of GDP.

We would end up with

95x Cesar 155mm SPH (Wheeled) - vs 37x M777
105x LAV mounted 120mm mortars - vs 0x
220x Leo2A7 - vs 80x various
220x CV9035 - vs 0x
2200x LAVs - vs 900x various
890x Armoured HMMWV - vs 500x TAPV
75x Jackal - ???

The Navy would end up with

15x Iver Huitfeldt Air Defence Frigates (ABM/Tomahawk Capable) - vs 12x CPF
10x Absalon ASW/Support Frigates (Tank Transport Capable) - vs 0x
20x Thetis Class Frigates - vs 0x
15x Knud Rasmussen Patrol Vessels - vs 14x AOPV/MCDV

The Air Force would end up with

163x F16 (being phased out) - vs 80?x F18
135x F35 (being phased in) - vs who knows what who knows when
20x Challenger MPA - vs 14?x CP140
20x C130J - vs 17x?
55x Fennec Helicopters vs 85x Griffon
45x SH-60 - vs 24x Cyclone
70x Merlin/Cormorant - vs 14x Cormorant

40x NASAMS AD Batteries with 240x launchers - vs 0x
30x Radar Stations

All with a budget of less than 2% of GDP. (1.6 to be precise)

To be fair we do have some C17s, CH47s, some tankers and 4 slightly used subs as well.
 
Problem is training courses aren't two weeks, hell mine were 3 months, had to switch jobs many tines because employeers didn't like playing ball, and it's not worth filing a complaint

Right.

Which is why those three full summers of PRes training during high school helped prepare for when full-time training was reduced to two weeks every summer.

That's why one should concentrate on students, and train the hell out of them for the full summers when they are looking for work anyway.

In three summers and two academic years (five summers and four years for officers and certain others) you should be able to get them BMQ, DP1 and 2 trained in whatever trade. After that you go on a reduced cycle of obligatory training which caters for outside work and the family.
 
Right.

Which is why those three full summers of PRes training during high school helped prepare for when training was reduced to two weeks every summer.
I remember back when I joined, we had QL2 and QL3. They’d run both courses essentially back to back during the summers, so a brand new recruit was an employable private by the time he/she went back to their unit.

I scratch my head at how long courses are now, and yet it still seems to take longer to bring a recruit up to basic qualified standard than it used to.

3 full summers? I don’t even know if many would still be motivated. I don’t think I would be.

Same with recruiting.
 
Comparing a Danish-type Home Guard with some kind of pan-Canadian national volunteer force strikes me as a bit problematic. We don't have the history that inspired their creation of their Home Guard. What is being exampled for our volunteer forces sounds like it would include few if any skills that would be useful to a military service should the need arise.

The numbers quoted for volunteerism is Canada is impressive, but it is such a broad category. Elderly retirees helping out at a blood clinic are difficult to compare with a volunteer firefighter if, for no other reason, there are provincial standards for fire services. Even at that, Ontario is proposing a system of certification for VFFs, which departments are concerned will crater their staff. In our area, fire services are having difficulty in attracting volunteers. It seems most local employers are pretty good about it, but unless you are employed locally, you're not much help. Many folks in rural areas travel a lot farther for work now and many rural areas are 'graying-out'. Response time is important. It's one thing to organize a bag-filling team for tomorrow than it is to staff a truck to head to a burning house RFN.

For such a volunteer force, what is the hook? Helping your community? You need to be lot more specific because things like training, risk and personal interest are important. Someone interested in GSAR might not want to pull mangled bodies out of a car wreck. Someone willing to fill sandbags might not be physically able to stomp through the bush. Someone willing to show up and help shelter evacuees probably isn't at risk of hurting themselves or others.

I have been both a volunteer and 'managed' volunteers (term used very loosely - it's often like herding cats). If the goal is to fill sandbags, the person who hasn't shown for training in a year but seems to know which end of a shovel to hold will probably work, but I wouldn't send them into a burning house or drop them in the deep bush with a pump. Sometimes good intentions are all you need - sometimes not.

I just don't see how some all-singin'all-dansin' highly-trained-but-still-generalist group of domestic volunteers would somehow adequately address our domestic emergency needs and still somehow be an adjunct to the military. Although I don't know much about them, are even the Canadian Rangers trained in some level of military tactical skills, other than perhaps some range work with their finally-new rifles?
 
3 full summers? I don’t even know if many would still be motivated. I don’t think I would be.

High school students can join PRes when 16 ( with parental consent ), as I and others did.

After that you go on a reduced cycle of obligatory training which caters for outside work and the family.

Or, wait to join the PRes until after graduation, and hope your employer is agreeable to giving you time off for your part-time job.

From this super-thread, and others like it, YMMV from employer to employer.


Some reservists I knew were marginally employed, so time off worked out ok for them.
 
Comparing a Danish-type Home Guard with some kind of pan-Canadian national volunteer force strikes me as a bit problematic. We don't have the history that inspired their creation of their Home Guard. What is being exampled for our volunteer forces sounds like it would include few if any skills that would be useful to a military service should the need arise.

I've worked with the Danish Home Guard, and the Norwegian equivalent, on various NATO exercises.

There is no way that they are anything like our reservists, who are trained to the same standards - ish as the Reg F to facilitate augmentation etc.

They are good at what they are intended to do: fight a defensive battle - within about 1 km of their homes - for key points like bridges etc. as a delaying tactic to enable mobilization to successfully take place before the Russians roll through.

We can see some of this playing out in the Ukraine right now, I believe, with their Home Guard equivalent.

A nation without the same threats of invasion and occupation by an overwhelmingly powerful and aggressive neighbour, that happens to have armoured divisions a mere couple of hour's drive from their capital, has no need for such a force.
 
A nation without the same threats of invasion and occupation by an overwhelmingly powerful and aggressive neighbor, that happens to have armored, Light and Medium divisions a mere couple of hour's drive from their capital, has no need for such a force.
Fixed the spelling of neighbor, and for our Armored Divs and added some of the other forces ;)
 
Fixed the spelling of neighbor, and for our Armored Divs and added some of the other forces ;)

Thank you! And as for the source of the colors of your flag, you're welcome ;)

Union Jack Uk GIF
 
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