https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/first-reading-buckle-up-for-a-canadian-defence-spending-splurge
PHOTO BY PHOTO BY TOMS NORDE / AFP
Defence Minister Anita Anand said this week that she will be tabling “aggressive” options to significantly boost Canada’s rate of defence spending once the cabinet starts planning its spring budget. Depending on how it goes, this could spell the biggest surge in Canadian defence spending in more than 50 years.
Canada, of course, has one of the most lacklustre defence spending records in NATO. While members of the alliance are expected to spend 2 per cent of national GDP on defence, Canada only spends about 1.4 per cent. Speaking to CBC this week, Anand said she was drafting proposals under which Canada could hit or exceed the 2 per cent baseline. That would be roughly an extra $10 billion to spend on the military each year.
So, about five stealth bombers’ worth. Although Ottawa will probably opt for something cheaper.
PHOTO BY PHOTO BY ETHAN MILLER/GETTY IMAGES
Pessimists, however, will argue that the Canadian Armed Forces’ problem is not merely one of spending, given that it can’t seem to spend the money it already has. Last year, for instance, the Department of Defence failed to spend $1.2 billion of its allocated budget, continuing a trend of lapsed defence spending that has been occurring quite regularly since the government of Stephen Harper.
The Canadian military also has a penchant to make procurement far more expensive and painful than it needs to be. We’ve brought this up before, but when the British Army replaced its standard-issue pistols in 2010, it took them three years and $14.5 million. For the Canadian Army, replacing the exact same pistol has required 15 years and more than $100 million.
We also happen to have one of the most top-heavy militaries in NATO. Despite an ever-shrinking pool of enlisted personnel, Canada retains about as many generals and admirals as at the height of the Cold War.
After the Russian Federation asked the U.N. Security Council for a resolution backing humanitarian relief for Ukraine, the Canadian delegation took the liberty of “editing” their request and posting it online.
PHOTO BY CANADIAN MISSION TO THE UNITED NATIONS
WAR IN UKRAINE
In late February, two RCAF C-130s were sent to Europe to help ferry Canadian guns, bullets and rocket launchers into an undisclosed NATO airfield in Eastern Europe, where the weapons are then moved into Ukraine. But the National Post’s John Ivison felt he should remind us that this is a recent development for the Canadian government, who has thus far made it a habit to strenuously ignore Ukrainian requests for lethal aid. Virtually until the moment that Russian warplanes began to bomb Kyiv, Canada refused to send guns to Ukraine, demanded that its aid not be used for weapons and even gave the Ukrainians a hard time when they tried to buy Canadian-made arms with their own money.
As of this week, 3,368 Ukrainians have been able to make it to Canada as refugees since their country was invaded by Russia. Canada is accepting as many Ukrainian refugees who will come, although the influx is necessarily going to be constricted by how many can afford to come here. A recent Angus Reid Institute survey found that as many as 80 per cent of Canadians support Ottawa’s pledge for an “unlimited” Ukrainian refugee policy.
Remember Michael Ignatieff? After his not tremendously successful bid to become prime minister, he took a job as rector of Hungary’s Central European University, which is only about a three hour drive from the Ukrainian border. Ignatieff also has an interesting family history with Russia; his grandfather fled Tsarist Russia after the 1917 Revolution, and his father George was a Canadian diplomat who served time in the Soviet Union. In a recent video, Ignatieff laid out the historic background to the current war, and forecast that “it will be a long time until the (Russian) regime cracks under the weight of sanctions.”
Canada has found more names to add to its list of individuals we are personally sanctioning due to their involvement with the invasion of Ukraine. This latest batch of 22 are from Belarus, the autocratic state to Ukraine’s north which is a close ally of Russia.
Three years ago, Canadian art historian Maya Asha McDonald agreed to attend a black-tie dinner in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Speaking to the National Post’s Tom Blackwell, she said the experience gave her a chilling sense of the 19th century-style imperialism that seemed to animate the Russian leader. “It was so possessive the way he talked about (Russian art), it really felt unhealthy … that word ‘greatness’ came up multiple times … The hairs on the back of my head stood up,” she said. McDonald added that she suspects Putin’s forces are already looting Ukraine of art treasures that they deem to be representations of Russian culture.
Recommend this post and follow
Sputnik's Orbit
Posted by spendthrift Chuck
No comments:
Post a Comment