Who’s Guarding Canada?
From Canadian Bacon to the South Park movie, the prospect of the United States attacking Canada has kept film fans amused for years. Canada’s defenses, though, are no laughing matter, according to the recent report "Canada without Armed Forces?" by Ontario’s Queen’s University. If the Canadian government fails to significantly increase its defense budget immediately, ...
From Canadian Bacon to the South Park movie, the prospect of the United States attacking Canada has kept film fans amused for years. Canada's defenses, though, are no laughing matter, according to the recent report "Canada without Armed Forces?" by Ontario's Queen's University.
From Canadian Bacon to the South Park movie, the prospect of the United States attacking Canada has kept film fans amused for years. Canada’s defenses, though, are no laughing matter, according to the recent report "Canada without Armed Forces?" by Ontario’s Queen’s University.
If the Canadian government fails to significantly increase its defense budget immediately, "the air force will likely disappear through the 2008-2013 time-frame, and either the army or navy will disappear" over the same period, the report argues. It found that almost every core capability is failing in some respect, from personnel and unit training to equipment and maintenance. A striking example of Canada’s poor military preparedness came in the spring of 2003, when Canadian Defense Minister John McCallum conceded that it would be at least a year before the Navy could send a ship to join the NATO fleet supporting operations in Afghanistan.
Can a decaying Canadian military uphold the nation’s commitment to international peacekeeping? Today, almost 3,500 Canadian soldiers are stationed abroad on 13 separate missions, including operations in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and the Golan Heights. Canada has contributed more troops to U.N. peacekeeping missions than any other country — more than 125,000 soldiers since the United Nations first deployed peacekeepers in 1948. Senior Canadian military officials now acknowledge that they simply do not have the resources to commit to any new missions.
Canada spends just over 1 percent of gross domestic product on defense, or about U.S. $7.6 billion. (The United States spends more than $400 billion.) But, according to the report, Canada must spend $39 billion over the next 15 years simply on replacing obsolete military equipment. Even an immediate infusion of funding may be too late, though, to avoid a temporary shutdown. "The rate of erosion of some capabilities is now so steep and accelerating so quickly," the report posits, "that even if the government were to act immediately and aggressively to halt the decline, many defence capabilities cannot be recovered before they become militarily ineffective."
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