Justin Trudeau hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I'll believe it when I see it.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The only reasonable response to "Stay Safe" is "Live Free or Die".

 

[dapaterson]

The full sentence is "Stay safe or pay child support for at least two decades".

 

[daftandbarmy]

The full sentence is "Stay safe or pay child support for at least two decades".

Unsafe behaviour...

 

[kev994]

Statistically the only way to truly stay safe is to lock yourself in your own house. Telling someone to ‘stay safe’ is the equivalent of doing your part for X cause that does absolutely nothing in larger terms, but it makes you feel better about yourself. Extra points if you post it to social media to validate yourself.

Have you not heard of radon gas? Your home could be a death-trap.

 

[Quirky]

That is a ridiculous reduction to the absurd...

"Stay safe" is no different than saying "drive safe" when someone heads out on a road trip... It's someone reminding you that a) they care b) they want you to make smart choices to protect yourself.

I get that politics can be all consuming, but this is the silliest thing I have read in a long time.

The stay safe and drive safe people are the same Karen’s who write policies that cater to the lowest common denominator instead of letting Darwinism cull the herd.

“Drive safe” is another stupid comment, like hearing that will make any difference in the outcome of anything. These safe sayings are on par with “are you having fun yet” or “sounds like you have the case of the Monday's.”

To get back on topic, no, Trudeau won’t be increasing spending. Why would he when Canadians don’t care?

 

[Furniture]

The stay safe and drive safe people are the same Karen’s who write policies that cater to the lowest common denominator instead of letting Darwinism cull the herd.

“Drive safe” is another stupid comment, like hearing that will make any difference in the outcome of anything. These safe sayings are on par with “are you having fun yet” or “sounds like you have the case of the Monday's.”

To get back on topic, no, Trudeau won’t be increasing spending. Why would he when Canadians don’t care?

The only thing colder than absolute zero, is internet cool dudes.

As I implied before, "stay safe" is no different than "have a good day". It's a simple, polite way to say "I hope your day goes well, and you enjoy good health". That you choose to read it as something else says a lot about you and your political obsessions, but says pretty much nothing about the person saying it.

 

[Kirkhill]

A Canadian home for Christmas from Ukraine - John Ivison

Ivison: Canadian on frontlines of Ukraine war saw most of his team killed. He's going back​

'Losing brothers is a tough thing to do - they were my family down there and it’s always going to be at the back of my mind. But I’ve got to keep moving forward'

John Ivison
Published Dec 16, 2022 • 3 minute read

PHOTO BY POSTMEDIA

​

This week, John Ivison is joined by Canadian Forces veteran, James Challice, who spent six months training troops and fighting on the frontline in Ukraine earlier this year. He’s spending Christmas with his sons and mother in Ontario but early in the New Year he is heading back to the brutal killing fields of eastern Ukraine.


The contrast with a cozy Canadian Christmas could not be more stark and the decision to return to the war-zone might seem inexplicable to many people.

Challice makes light of it: “Some people are cooks, some people are teachers, some work for the town. I just took it as a job…”

But it is clear that the fight in Ukraine is personal for the 42-year-old, Coburg native. “I left a lot of stuff on the table down there,” he said.

Challice trained 300 young Ukrainians, before leading a team of 15 in the southern Kherson region.

“We were really effective but we only had eight guys left out of 15 when I left for home. Unfortunately, two days after I stepped off the plane, they got sent into a trench and ended up getting hit. Only one guy was left from the team and he is in hospital.”

He said the remaining team member, who lost a hand, called him from hospital in tears, apologizing for the loss of his colleagues. “That’s one of the reasons I really want to go back,” said Challice, who admits he’s had some tough times since returning to Canada. “I’m OK. It took a while to piece everything together when I got home. Dragging dead bodies out of the frontline, one after the other, does get to you….It’s still there. Losing brothers is a tough thing to do — they were my family down there and it’s always going to be at the back of my mind. But I’ve got to keep moving forward.”

Challice said that the high casualty rate is the consequence of a Russian advantage in artillery coverage. “The way war works right now with drones, is that they (Ukrainian troops) get sent into spot A to draw fire from artillery and tanks, while other teams get into position to locate and destroy. So, you’ve got to give people to get into position. It’s unfortunate but it is the only logical way to push forward.

“With these drones, you can’t hide. There’s no cover, especially at this time of the year when there’s no tree cover and no heat thermal cover.”

He said he will be heading to the Donbas region to train fresh recruits on new weapons systems and reconnaissance, as well as accompanying them on missions.

“You’d be dumb not to be scared but it turns out to be a job after a while, so the fear kinda goes away, which is also dangerous.”

He said the biggest problem is that the Ukrainians don’t have enough artillery or armoured vehicles. He said he used to travel to the frontline in a Hyundai Sonata. “By the end of the tour, it was full of shrapnel and the glass was smashed out. But that thing saved my life a few times, believe it or not.”

He said Canada has not covered itself in glory when it comes to military aid, despite the commitment to send $500 million in equipment.

“I feel kinda ashamed to be Canadian. We have all these Coyotes (armoured vehicles) that are being decommissioned. As taxpayers, we paid for them to be built and now we’re paying to decommission them. They could have sent them down there.”

Is it fair to say that Canada delivers less than it promises? “Yes, I can honestly say that,” said Challice. “I know there is other equipment we could be sending. After seeing what they say on the news and then what we see down there, it’s kinda discouraging,” he said.

Ivison: Canadian on frontlines of Ukraine war saw most of his team killed. He's going back

Returning to a war-zone may seem inexplicable to many people, but it's clear the fight in Ukraine is personal for Coburg native James Challice

nationalpost.com

 

[Kirkhill]

Challice said that the high casualty rate is the consequence of a Russian advantage in artillery coverage. “The way war works right now with drones, is that they (Ukrainian troops) get sent into spot A to draw fire from artillery and tanks, while other teams get into position to locate and destroy. So, you’ve got to give people to get into position. It’s unfortunate but it is the only logical way to push forward.

“With these drones, you can’t hide. There’s no cover, especially at this time of the year when there’s no tree cover and no heat thermal cover.”

From the National Post article -

My observations.

It has been suggested in the past that the CAF doesn't play Football, it plays Rugby. If that is true then it seems to me that what Challice is saying about the impact of drones then the conflict has become more like a game. A game, in the sense that everybody can now see everything in real time just the same way players, managers, coaches and fans can observe every action on the field. Surprise is hard to come by. Feinting is possible but comes at a price.

Football, in my opinion, is going to become harder to play. With its set plays and long OODA loops that come from involving the management on the sidelines looking for planned solutions in the play book it is going to be hard to develop surprise and to get the other side off balance. The long OODA loop gives them time to recover and reset so every play is like a mini-game.

By contrast Rugby, if not easier to play, is better placed to exploit opportunities and openings as they develop on the field, and the on-field OODA loop, the on-field decision making by the players, both makes it harder for the opposition to guess what is coming next (unpredictable players making both good and bad decisions) and both sides constantly looking for, and creating, exploitable opportunities. Those opportunities can be both intentionally generated and by chance.

So...?

Low level management
Rapid pace
Dispersal
Opportunistic
On-Field Action setting the pace
Off-Field support responding to the needs of the field
A lot more concurrent activity and a lot less opportunity for planned sequential phasing.

Lives will be lost. The winner will be the commander that minimizes the lives lost by bringing the conflict to a close as quickly as possible.

 

[Kirkhill]

What Canada is missing ...

I want to be radical and deeply unfashionable by talking up a few things. We should be proud of the UK’s response.

I am grateful for bold action by ministers, a united parliament and responsible opposition politicians who have accepted briefings under Privy Council rules and abided by them.

The sense of unity and cohesion across the political spectrum is a source of strength at a time when our democratic values are being tested internationally.

The Government has made Ukraine a priority, in funds but also through National Security Council meetings, through Prime Ministerial time – with all three of them – and even some four or five dedicated Cabinet meetings at the outset.

Admiral Radakin UK CDS speaking at RUSI

Chief of the Defence Staff RUSI Lecture 2022

Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, at the RUSI Lecture 2022

www.gov.uk

And some other thoughts.

That attitude has been matched by our media: brave people going to the front line in the best traditions to tell astonishing stories. And we have all benefitted from the thoughtfulness of commentators, speed of analysis and the ubiquitous access to these views. Thank you, and especially to many of you here.

That backdrop has been further supplemented by our magnificent intelligence community. Defence Intelligence and GCHQ, alongside American NSA colleagues, cued us at the very beginning and provided remarkably accurate windows into plans and psyche all the way through.

People ask does it make a difference? Absolutely. And we have been able to spike guns, prepare plans and galvanise allies. Similarly, MI5 have been essential in keeping the home base safe at a point of tension. And, yes, MI6 do provide an astonishing array of insights and opportunities. Thank you to all in the UK Intelligence Community.

We should also be proud we were the first European country to supply lethal aid. We have gifted almost 200 armoured vehicles and more than 10,000 anti-tank missiles to Ukraine. Over a hundred thousand rounds of artillery ammunition.

Now, as the year ends, nearly 10,000 Ukrainian troops have been trained on British soil in an effort that includes Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand and, from next month, Australia.

This is significant. Ukraine’s fight is our fight. We support Ukraine because we share their belief in the rule of law and the simple conviction that aggression must not pay.

And this poses a series of questions which the IR Refresh will seek to answer:

• How do we manage a weaker but more vindictive Russia over the long term?
• Are we going to remain committed to a global outlook?
• And if so, how much do we invest?

These are serious questions. And I welcome the Government’s willingness and seriousness to undertake the answers.

One view for the IR Refresh is that we will draw on the tenets of our traditional way of warfare:

• The belief that Britain is an expeditionary rather than a continental power.
• That our interests are best served through the indirect application of power by, with, and through our partners.
• That our operational advantage comes not from the mass but through disproportionate effect.
• And that we do not shy away from our status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a nuclear power with global responsibilities and the 6th largest economy in the world.

There is something very British about our approach to having the bomb: almost mild embarrassment. And yet perhaps one of the starkest lessons of the past year has been our extended nuclear deterrence. It has protected us and our Allies, allowing us to resist coercion and continue to do what is right. A reminder that nuclear and conventional deterrence are linked.

And in the same way, the notion that you can separate security in Europe from security in the Pacific seems difficult - especially if you happen to be a global trading nation with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

 

[Kirkhill]

More from Radakin - the need for speed and flexibility

Canada makes Whitehall look like a an olympic athlete.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Apologies in advance for the typos. And this is another Geezer Eruption.

I know I'm repeating myself, but there is no point in dreaming about Canadian defence budget increases unless and until there is aa absolutely HUGE shift in Canadian public opinion.

In 1947, George Kennan, using there pseudonym X published a version of his now famous 'long telegram' in Foreign Affairs; also in 1947 Canadian Foreign Minister Louis St Laurent outlined his plan for Canada to be a leading middle power; in 1948 The USSR tried to seize Berlin by blockade, confirming Kennan's thesis; in 1949 the Soviet Union successfully exploded its own atomic bomb. All these events were widely reported in Canada's newspapers, on the radio (TV was in its infancy) and in movie theatres where "newsreels" were always shown and updated on a regular basis.

By the time North Korea invaded its southern neighbour in 1950, Canadians were:

• Well informed; and
• Very conscious of the price of being unprepared - 1939 was less than a dozen years and 40,000+ fresh margraves in the past.

Until Canadians are, once again, well informed and conscious of the need to be prepared for war the Canadian Armed Forces are worth little more than the Ceremonial Guard and the Snowbirds.

It is the job of politicians, the media and the "chattering classes" (I call them the commentariat) to sound the alarm as Churchill, aided by a handful of newspapers (notably the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express) did in the 1930s. Do we have a Churchill in Canada in the 2020s? It certainly doesn't seem, to me to be Pierre Poilievre. Is there even one modern Canadian equivalent to the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express? I don't see that sort of commentary in e.g. the Globe and Mail or the Sun chain of papers.

By 1968, only 20 years after St Laurent's Gray Lecture at the University of Toronto, Canadians were growing tired of paying the price of leadership. They could see the modern welfare state growing in America and Europe and when Pierre Trudeau rejected St Laurent's (and Diefenbaker's and Pearson's) vision and told us that the "Land is Strong" and could/would somehow look after us as we were entitled, a solid majority of us agreed. Pierre Trudeau had his own ax to grind with the Canadian military and the whole notion of a US-led West that relied upon military alliances but, mainly, he and his Liberal Party sold us on the notions that:

• The threat was NOT just Soviet communism; and
• We could and should do less to make the armed race a reality.

Nothing much changed in the intervening 50+ years since Trudeau's 'Foreign Policy for Canadians.'

Canadians remain:

• Suspicious of the USA;
• Attracted to socialist ideas; and
• Unwilling to spend on anything but their own entitlements.

They see no real threat, but ...

 

[Good2Golf]

Canadians remain:

• Suspicious of the USA;
• Attracted to socialist ideas; and
• Unwilling to spend on anything but their own entitlements.

They’ll only be suspicious for a bit longer until they realize that they are the first post-nation state that has handed itself over practically to a still-nation state…

 

[Kirkhill]

Apologies in advance for the typos. And this is another Geezer Eruption.

I know I'm repeating myself, but there is no point in dreaming about Canadian defence budget increases unless and until there is aa absolutely HUGE shift in Canadian public opinion.

In 1947, George Kennan, using there pseudonym X published a version of his now famous 'long telegram' in Foreign Affairs; also in 1947 Canadian Foreign Minister Louis St Laurent outlined his plan for Canada to be a leading middle power; in 1948 The USSR tried to seize Berlin by blockade, confirming Kennan's thesis; in 1949 the Soviet Union successfully exploded its own atomic bomb. All these events were widely reported in Canada's newspapers, on the radio (TV was in its infancy) and in movie theatres where "newsreels" were always shown and updated on a regular basis.

By the time North Korea invaded its southern neighbour in 1950, Canadians were:

• Well informed; and
• Very conscious of the price of being unprepared - 1939 was less than a dozen years and 40,000+ fresh margraves in the past.

Until Canadians are, once again, well informed and conscious of the need to be prepared for war the Canadian Armed Forces are worth little more than the Ceremonial Guard and the Snowbirds.

It is the job of politicians, the media and the "chattering classes" (I call them the commentariat) to sound the alarm as Churchill, aided by a handful of newspapers (notably the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express) did in the 1930s. Do we have a Churchill in Canada in the 2020s? It certainly doesn't seem, to me to be Pierre Poilievre. Is there even one modern Canadian equivalent to the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express? I don't see that sort of commentary in e.g. the Globe and Mail or the Sun chain of papers.

By 1968, only 20 years after St Laurent's Gray Lecture at the University of Toronto, Canadians were growing tired of paying the price of leadership. They could see the modern welfare state growing in America and Europe and when Pierre Trudeau rejected St Laurent's (and Diefenbaker's and Pearson's) vision and told us that the "Land is Strong" and could/would somehow look after us as we were entitled, a solid majority of us agreed. Pierre Trudeau had his own ax to grind with the Canadian military and the whole notion of a US-led West that relied upon military alliances but, mainly, he and his Liberal Party sold us on the notions that:

• The threat was NOT just Soviet communism; and
• We could and should do less to make the armed race a reality.

Nothing much changed in the intervening 50+ years since Trudeau's 'Foreign Policy for Canadians.'

Canadians remain:

• Suspicious of the USA;
• Attracted to socialist ideas; and
• Unwilling to spend on anything but their own entitlements.

They see no real threat, but ...

The sine qua non - a united parliament and responsible opposition politicians who have accepted briefings under Privy Council rules and abided by them.

Until that then there will be no change.

 

[dimsum]

They’ll only be suspicious for a bit longer until they realize that they are the first post-nation state that has handed itself over practically to a still-nation state…

Let's be serious - until they notice* that the country's approaches are protected by American flags, they won't be suspicious at all.

* and let's be serious (again), it would take a "Rotational Force - Canada" like what the USMC is doing in Darwin, Australia to make most people wonder why the US has a "base" here.

 

[Good2Golf]

Let's be serious - until they notice* that the country's approaches are protected by American flags, they won't be suspicious at all.

* and let's be serious (again), it would take a "Rotational Force - Canada" like what the USMC is doing in Darwin, Australia to make most people wonder why the US has a "base" here.

So America can operate in stealth mode for the next 200 years…

 

[Brad Sallows]

Canada has become the political equivalent of an overbearing mother-in-law, smugly telling people how they ought to live. Her likes are mandatory; her dislikes are forbidden. There cannot be social peace in a country while a bare majority or mere plurality directs a substantial but smaller fraction to change to suit the former. Tolerance means putting up with sh!t. Progressives are intolerant.

 

[daftandbarmy]

An unimpressive performance by MND today on the West Block.

Starting at about 11.45....

The West Block – Episode 14, Season 12 - National | Globalnews.ca

Watch the full episode of The West Block with host Mercedes Stephenson – December 18, 2022

globalnews.ca

 

[OldSolduer]

Canada has become the political equivalent of an overbearing mother-in-law, smugly telling people how they ought to live. Her likes are mandatory; her dislikes are forbidden. There cannot be social peace in a country while a bare majority or mere plurality directs a substantial but smaller fraction to change to suit the former. Tolerance means putting up with sh!t. Progressives are intolerant.

Paul Martin said “the minority shall not be dictated to by the majority “.

For all his faults he was a far better PM Than the current one.

Progressives want everything done yesterday.

And most Canadians would rather watch Survivor or some trash about a family who revels in excess and whose only claim to fame is that Daddy was an attorney for OJ Simpson

 

[dapaterson]

Interestingly, MND signalled in her year end interview with Global that the F35 contract is a near term thing, with deliveries to be sequenced with availability of trained crew and secure infrastructure.

Might be a good time to be a construction company with secret cleared staff in Cold Lake or Bagotville.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Canada has become the political equivalent of an overbearing mother-in-law, smugly telling people how they ought to live. Her likes are mandatory; her dislikes are forbidden. There cannot be social peace in a country while a bare majority or mere plurality directs a substantial but smaller fraction to change to suit the former. Tolerance means putting up with sh!t. Progressives are intolerant.

But it's not new. Back in the late a940s/early '50s the US Secretary of State Dean Acheson complained about Canadian diplomats being like "the stern daughters of the voice of God" (a reference to an 18th century hymn by Wordsworth) as they castigated America and Britain for not being as "nice" as th Canadians thought possible. (I'm away, but the anecdote is in his book "Present at the Creation".)