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Military concerned by Canada's absence from American-British-Australian security pact

Sound long term strategy. If indifference/neglect gets us disinvited from all the councils, the politicians can shrug and join us with the non-aligned bloc of nations and aspire to armed forces more like Costa Rica's. Saves money.
 
Sound long term strategy. If indifference/neglect gets us disinvited from all the councils, the politicians can shrug and join us with the non-aligned bloc of nations and aspire to armed forces more like Costa Rica's. Saves money.
That was, I believe, the crux of Pierre Trudeau's strategy when he came to power in 1968. I've been told by what I think is a very reliable source that in 1969, when PET slashed our NATO commitment, that his original intent was to disarm Canada - to, literally, make us a sort of frozen Costa Rica. There were few "militarists" in his cabinet but I heard that both Mitchell Sharp and Paul Martin Sr threatened to lead a cabinet and caucus revolt and throw him out of office and the Liberal Party if he went ahead with his plans.

PET didn't like the notion of the cold war with a US-led West facing off against the Soviet led Warsaw Pact. He had realized, in 1947, when he went to Paris, that he had, in the war years, put himself on the wrong side of history, but he also listened to e.g. Harold Laski, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet and decide that nationalism was the real threat to global peace and security. He reinvented himself as an anti-nationalist and as an early proponent of the "post-national state," whatever that is. One would think that multinational/super-national organs like the UN and NATO would appeal to Trudeau but that wasn't the case. He seemed to feel that alliances - entanglements or alignments - were dangerous and restrictive. His own strategic vision was for non-alignment, which he equated with strategic independence.

My 🪙🪙
 
Liberal tradition, for a century plus, is that the leadership alternates between a Franco (actually a Québécois) and an Anglo: Laurier, King, St Laurent, Pearson, Trudeau, Turner, Chrétien, Martin, Dion, Ignatieff, Trudeau, so Joly needs to wait until after the next Anglo.
Unfortunately the last 2 Anglo's they chose comprised a fellow who lived in Quebec (Paul Martin) and another fellow (Mikey Ignatieff) who had lived for long stretches outside of Canada and made his reputation outside of Canada and was completely out of touch with the Canada he came back to and was viewed by many as an outsider - which really turned out to be true when he left for Havard and then Europe a scant 18 months after the 2011 election and hasn't been back since.

The Lib's mantra of flipping from Anglo to Quebecer and back again has in reality failed them since no Anglo liberal leader has managed to win an election - either majority or minority - since Pearson winning a minority government in 1963 - that's 60yrs ago.....
 
It’ll come in handy to blame the Anglo LPC leader next who has to rebuild the LPC brand reputation after the Canadian electorate (eventual) tires of the current leader…

Sort of like how it wasn’t really Kim Campbell’s fault that Chretien won in ‘93.
 
Given our situation with China, and the fact that things tend to leak here (i.e. Canada's National Microbiology lab leak in 2019) would we really be a positive addition to this alliance? Not to mention the fact we don't have big toys, all those countries plan to field nuclear submarines, attack helicopters, lots of armour, the real stuff to fight a big enemy. It seem we're a small player and maybe even a potential liability with the current government...
 
It’ll come in handy to blame the Anglo LPC leader next who has to rebuild the LPC brand reputation after the Canadian electorate (eventual) tires of the current leader…

Sort of like how it wasn’t really Kim Campbell’s fault that Chretien won in ‘93.
Kim Campbell's head was NOT in the game at all, it was focused on her Russian boyfriend. Would she had been able to win against JC, nope but could she have help win alot more seats than 2, more than likely yes she could have.
 
Given our situation with China, and the fact that things tend to leak here (i.e. Canada's National Microbiology lab leak in 2019) would we really be a positive addition to this alliance? Not to mention the fact we don't have big toys, all those countries plan to field nuclear submarines, attack helicopters, lots of armour, the real stuff to fight a big enemy. It seem we're a small player and maybe even a potential liability with the current government...
100% a liability - just like that creppy Uncle that the younger girl family members steer clear at family gatherings, especially when he's just arriving at the door.....
 
Kim Campbell's head was NOT in the game at all, it was focused on her Russian boyfriend. Would she had been able to win against JC, nope but could she have help win alot more seats than 2, more than likely yes she could have.

I don't remember anything about a Russian boyfriend??
 
I don't remember anything about a Russian boyfriend??

Oh boy, are you ever going to enjoy reading about this then ;)

The Secret Mulroney Tapes


The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister is a biography of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, by writer and former Mulroney confidant Peter C. Newman.

The book was released by Random House Canada on September 12, 2005.

Mulroney describes his successor Kim Campbell as a "very vain person who blew the 1993 election because she was too busy screwing around with her Russian boyfriend" (Gregory Lekhtman), resulting in "the most incompetent campaign I've seen in my life."

Campbell responded to the news by saying that Mulroney just wanted a "scapegoat who would bear the burden of his unpopularity".

 
Oh boy, are you ever going to enjoy reading about this then ;)

The Secret Mulroney Tapes


The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister is a biography of former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, by writer and former Mulroney confidant Peter C. Newman.

The book was released by Random House Canada on September 12, 2005.

Mulroney describes his successor Kim Campbell as a "very vain person who blew the 1993 election because she was too busy screwing around with her Russian boyfriend" (Gregory Lekhtman), resulting in "the most incompetent campaign I've seen in my life."

Campbell responded to the news by saying that Mulroney just wanted a "scapegoat who would bear the burden of his unpopularity".

Back in early 90's, right up until I left at the end of Aug '93 to go to KU Leuven for my MA I was actively involved in the PC party. Spent time on Jean Charest's leadership bid against Campbell. Heard lots and lots of things that a young early 20 something really shouldn't have.
 
Gave the article another read, and I think the Admiral spoke well, but he also has no idea what we already do with all countries and our other allies of the material/technical side.

From what I understand, that agreement is very specific to the nuclear submarine, and there is only one way to get into it. There is zero government will to get into that game, last time we tried the US veto'd it anyway, and we already have enough trouble crewing conventional submarines.

Operating them is the easy part, the logistics, training and safety side of things is the hard part. Given how much we are struggling with conventional boats and surface ships, not optimistic we could handle it, and frankly we need to trim current output to something manageable with the people we have left.
 
Operating them is the easy part, the logistics, training and safety side of things is the hard part.

That's the key for any military/naval evolution.

But when only operators move into the big seats, what do you expect ?
 
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That's the key for any military/naval evolution.

But when only operators move into the big seats, what do you expect ?
Big announcements with churn but no progress.

Also a loss of focus on core things they should be doing.

It's like FELEX: combat systems are sexy, but the hull falling apart, pipes rusting out, no stores avail etc are all the unsexy things that will keep you alongside or stop you from having actual capabilities.

Usually pretty obvious when operators never due a tour on the material side when they get to GOFO. Usually the cross training only goes one way for tech/log folks.

Edit to add: Given this is an official interview, must have been approved by the DM/MND office, so this is weird messaging that is likely broadly approved by MNDO. The politics behind that are beyond me, but maybe there is genuine interest at the Cabinet level for nuke boats on the down low. 🤷‍♂️
 
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