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Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

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Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#31

Post by busterarm »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #23
fidotron wrote: post #9

The most damning thing about this is the Canadian gov would struggle to find 300k people in the rest of the population that it would trust with skilling up in those ways. Federal public servants will be the last bastion of the values they try to force on everyone else. It is in the process of spending vast amounts of money to remove guns from legal gun owners that are subject to absolutely amazing amounts of oversigh…

HN seems to hate this but you're right. The type of people the military relies on are not in power in Canada and haven't been for some time.

Especially when most of them are in Western Canada, which keeps threatening to leave.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#32

Post by qball »

guyzero wrote: post #19
colechristensen wrote: post #3

[flagged]

It's a historic quirk that the US is a single country. It hardly feels like one most days.

The same is true of Canada, but to a far greater extent since Toronto/Ottawa/Montreal have a permanent veto on whatever the rest of the country wants. The US political system, for all its other faults, has successfully avoided this problem.

It is not a surprise that region can't find anyone else (in the rest of the economic zone over which it claims dominion) willing to die for its interests, especially when their interests have been revealed to be nothing but "loot the rest of the nation".

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#33

Post by vdupras »

guyzero wrote: post #19
colechristensen wrote: post #3

[flagged]

It's a historic quirk that the US is a single country. It hardly feels like one most days.

american: you're the historical quirk!

canadian: no, you're the historical quirk!

native american: you're both historical twerps.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#34

Post by incomingpain »

mmooss wrote: post #17
incomingpain wrote: post #10

Canada has been running about 1% of gdp military spending, despite obligation of 2%; with new promise to meet 5%. a 500% increase to the size of our military in short order is the promise. Our reserves are at about 40,000. They announced the plan to go to 400,000. 10x the size. It's not so much about any outside fears, it's just meeting our obligations.The fear about Russia or China is unfounded. The problem is that…

> The fear about Russia or China is unfounded. That dismisses the greatest security threats of the era with a word. Most people in that field think those threats are very well-founded. Should Canada take the risk that everything will be fine? I don't know much about Canada's current plans and how effective they would be.

Russia is weak, they cant even take ukraine. To think they'd have a shadow of a chance against NATO is a joke.

China is strong, their standing army is probably 300 million and if they invaded canada. Our >I don't know much about Canada's current plans and how effective they would be.

Ya that original comment about russia/china wasnt a significant part of my post anyway.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#35

Post by SirFatty »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #22
mmooss wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fear about Russia or China is unfounded. That dismisses the greatest security threats of the era with a word. Most people in that field think those threats are very well-founded. Should Canada take the risk that everything will be fine? I don't know much about Canada's current plans and how effective they would be.

Canada right now is trying to figure out if the greatest their to their security is China or the USA. They can tie their boat to either against the other, but they can't be allies with both.

"Canada right now is trying to figure out if the greatest their to their security is China or the USA."

I very much doubt that is true. Unless the Canadian government get's their information only from "truth" social.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#36

Post by goalieca »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #22
mmooss wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The fear about Russia or China is unfounded. That dismisses the greatest security threats of the era with a word. Most people in that field think those threats are very well-founded. Should Canada take the risk that everything will be fine? I don't know much about Canada's current plans and how effective they would be.

Canada right now is trying to figure out if the greatest their to their security is China or the USA. They can tie their boat to either against the other, but they can't be allies with both.

The USA is a fantastic ally! When a small aircraft was recently hijacked from Vancouver international airport, guess which Air Force came to our rescue? Thank you!!

While there’s a lot of news and media about trade wars with the USA, the vast majority 85% of it remains under the free trade agreement. China does not even come close to a free and open market for us and their state sponsored corporate espionage is a real and growing danger.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#37

Post by Maxatar »

_verandaguy wrote: post #4
colechristensen wrote: post #3

[flagged]

I resent the implication that us being separate countries is a "historical quirk." It's condescending at best and exemplifies why we feel increasingly distant from the US. It's like saying that Belgium and the Netherlands, or Spain and Portugal, or Germany and Switzerland are one historical quirk away from being the same countries.

>It's condescending at best and exemplifies why we feel increasingly distant from the US.

As a Canadian, why would it be condescending to suggest that at some point in the distant past, Canada and the U.S. could have been a single country had history played out slightly differently? There is nothing offensive about it, if anything the fact that it's a claim about a historical matter only highlights how the two countries have evolved separately and independently.

Furthermore your other points are kind of bizzare. Spain and Portugal could absolutely have been a single country, and in fact they were under the Iberian Union. There are numerous other instances where the two countries came close to unifying.

The historical possibility of a unified Belgium and the Netherlands is even stronger since those two countries had been unified twice.

Germany and Switzerland however is a long shot, but at any rate I don't think anyone from Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain or Portugal would take offense or find it condescending that some historical event could have gone differently and reshaped all of Europe... taking offense to that suggestion as a Canadian, even during these times seems overly insecure and I don't think it's a sentiment shared by most of us.

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#38

Post by [deleted] »

mmooss wrote: post #27
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canada right now is trying to figure out if the greatest their to their security is China or the USA. They can tie their boat to either against the other, but they can't be allies with both.

Can they be allies with neither? They are trying to improve relations with the EU and, most importantly, are members of NATO (where the US is also a member).

[deleted]

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#39

Post by ferguess_k »

incomingpain wrote: post #10

Canada has been running about 1% of gdp military spending, despite obligation of 2%; with new promise to meet 5%. a 500% increase to the size of our military in short order is the promise. Our reserves are at about 40,000. They announced the plan to go to 400,000. 10x the size. It's not so much about any outside fears, it's just meeting our obligations.The fear about Russia or China is unfounded. The problem is that…

Why don't they offer to all PRs and citizens? I'd like to learn those skills...

Re: Canadian military will rely on public servants to boost its ranks by 300k

#40

Post by [deleted] »

mmooss wrote: post #20
_verandaguy wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I resent the implication that us being separate countries is a "historical quirk." It's condescending at best and exemplifies why we feel increasingly distant from the US. It's like saying that Belgium and the Netherlands, or Spain and Portugal, or Germany and Switzerland are one historical quirk away from being the same countries.

It also reprises one of Russia's claims to Ukraine, and that of many other expansionist dictators through history. Maybe the US should be part of Canada?

[deleted]
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