Between 2001 and 2005 I was president of Canadians for Militarty Preparedness. I spent years travelling across the country giving speeches and lobbying members of Parliament to increase defence spending. At the time, Canada was spending just over 1% of GDP on the military – half of what their NATO commitment required.
Repeatedly
in my speeches I proclaimed that a well-funded military is not about fighting
wars. A well-funded military is about sovereignty: sovereignty not just over
our borders, but over our water and incredible resources, and more importantly,
sovereignty from U.S. foreign policy.
20 years later and Canada is still spending half of their NATO obligation of 2% of GDP on defence, and we find ourselves in deep doodoo, being held hostage by an increasingly imperialistic United States, who at will, could decimate our economy, and if they wanted, force us into becoming the 51st state. Canadians laugh at that - saying hell will freeze over before....but I am telling you, the current situation Canada finds itself in with our neighbour to the south is no laughing matter.
Donald Trump has made serious threats to our sovereignty, and if you are thinking that Canada, as a part of NATO, is safe because of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (which states that if one member state is attacked, all other members must assist), well, think again.
Here is a little perspective...the United States military has 13,209 combat aircraft. Without the U.S. aircraft, all of NATO combined (including Canada’s 375) has 7654 combat aircraft. If you look at Navy assets, the situation is even worse. The truth is, NATO would not stand a chance against the United States. The United States military dominates and as a result, the U.S. can do whatever the hell they want!
Canada has allowed itself to become nothing more than a vassal state, politically subordinate to
the United States. As a result, we have limited independence in reality. So,
Canadians can be all patriotic and say we will stand up against the United States,
we can shop local, and fight back with tariffs of our own, but at the end of
the day, we have neither the economic sovereignty, the military strength, nor
the population base to withstand any kind of attack, economic, military, or
otherwise from the United States.
Trump may
be crazy, but he is the most powerful man in the world in charge of the most
powerful military force in the world, and the threat he poses to Canada will
not be remedied by shopping local and boycotting U.S. products.
