Author Topic: Canada's New Foreign Policy  (Read 231 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline JMT

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3462
  • Location: Waterhen, Manitoba
Canada's New Foreign Policy
« on: June 06, 2017, 05:29:08 pm »
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/freeland-says-canada-needs-hard-power-to-support-global-order-1.3445788

Hard power?  From a Canadian Government?  A Liberal one, at that?  I'm intrigued by what tomorrow's defense policy review may bring.

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter


Offline Queefer Sutherland

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 10191
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #1 on: June 06, 2017, 06:59:50 pm »
Talk is cheap, let's see it.  Sounds like an excuse to spend more taxpayer money and blame the boogie man Mr Trump.
"Nipples is one of the great minds of our time!" - Bubbermiley

Offline JMT

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3462
  • Location: Waterhen, Manitoba
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2017, 09:51:05 am »
I was impressed with Canada's new defence policy.  It's not pie in the sky, and it's not something that can really be hacked or slashed in any big way.  Other than a small increase in troops and armed drones, it simply maintains our capabilities as they exist, and modernizes them.  It also (despite what you keep hearing in the media) pumps over $1.5B into the budget this year. 

guest4

  • Guest
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2017, 10:14:21 am »
I liked the indication of reducing our reliance on the States for trade.  Also could mean less reason to involve ourselves in American wars.

Offline wilber

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 9121
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2017, 11:55:43 am »
One can only hope but I'll believe it when I see it.
"Never trust a man without a single redeeming vice" WSC

Offline Super Colin Blow

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 587
  • Location: Ye Olde Province of Maryland
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2017, 09:46:00 pm »
dia, Canada didn't get involved in Iraq.  And the war in Afghanistan is NATO, not just American.  (I can see how you would say otherwise, though, because it was sparked by the attack on the United States.)
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Offline Michael Hardner

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12477
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2017, 06:53:34 am »
I liked the indication of reducing our reliance on the States for trade.  Also could mean less reason to involve ourselves in American wars.

It's an idea but not realistic, due to the cultural and physical proximity of the behemoth to the south.

Offline SirJohn

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5801
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2017, 10:12:14 am »
I liked the indication of reducing our reliance on the States for trade.  Also could mean less reason to involve ourselves in American wars.

Canada mostly exports raw materials because manufacturing goods is too expensive here in comparison to most other countries. The ongoing desperate belief among Canadian companies that they will ever be able to export significant amounts of goods to China, for example, is silly and pathetic.

Who we sell raw materials to is dependent on who wants it, and the competition. There's not much to choose from between wood from Canada and Brazil, oil from Canada and Nigeria. iron ore from Canada and Mexico, except cost. We can't export oil or gas, which is our major foreign export in value, to anywhere but the United States because the Lefties won't allow any pipelines to be built to the coasts. Most of our manufacturing, then, is by branch plants of American companies, as in the auto makers, Boeing, Magna (which sells to the American companies) several bus companies (which sell to America), etc. It is unrealistic to think they would be making goods cheap enough to sell to the third world - and most of Europe is locked behind a trade wall.

Military treaties are designed to share the costs. Countries which don't have them tend to spend vastly more on their military than Canada does on its, or simply... hope for the best. Ie., hope they never need their military (which is basically what we do).
"When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't do." David Frum

Offline SirJohn

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5801
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2017, 10:18:50 am »
I was impressed with Canada's new defence policy.  It's not pie in the sky, and it's not something that can really be hacked or slashed in any big way.  Other than a small increase in troops and armed drones, it simply maintains our capabilities as they exist, and modernizes them.  It also (despite what you keep hearing in the media) pumps over $1.5B into the budget this year.

Ah yes, it maintains our dilapidated military with its rusting, aging equipment. Because, after all rusting, aged equipment only gets better with more age. Our capabilities are basically minimal. We have no modern warships. We have no modern aircraft. We have no missiles. We have no more than seven or eight thousand people who can actually use a weapon, and a bunch of people in uniforms who are basically clerks, administrators, truck drivers, engineers, techies, etc. We are well supplied with generals, though most of them would likely be captains or majors in most other militaries.
"When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't do." David Frum

Offline JMT

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3462
  • Location: Waterhen, Manitoba
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2017, 10:26:13 am »
Ah yes, it maintains our dilapidated military with its rusting, aging equipment.

No, that's not what it does at all.  It replaces all of our current capabilities.  Other than fighters and a few more special forces and infantry soldiers, it doesn't expand them.  It also replaces some things that the last government let go of, such as ground based air defense.

Offline SirJohn

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5801
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #10 on: August 20, 2017, 10:46:12 am »
No, that's not what it does at all.  It replaces all of our current capabilities.  Other than fighters and a few more special forces and infantry soldiers, it doesn't expand them.  It also replaces some things that the last government let go of, such as ground based air defense.

Through magic! But no money. What did it say... I'm forgetting. We'll buy new equipment in the distant future? In the fullness of time. At the appropriate moment. Something like that.
"When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't do." David Frum

Offline JMT

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3462
  • Location: Waterhen, Manitoba
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2017, 12:33:57 pm »
Through magic! But no money. What did it say... I'm forgetting. We'll buy new equipment in the distant future? In the fullness of time. At the appropriate moment. Something like that.

There's additional money in the current budget year. The real problem is people to carry out procurements.  Money won't do anything.

Offline SirJohn

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5801
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #12 on: August 20, 2017, 04:04:28 pm »
There's additional money in the current budget year. The real problem is people to carry out procurements.  Money won't do anything.

Money will, in fact by anything, except happiness, I suppose, although give me a few hundred million and I could be at least content. I'm quite sure I could buy hundreds of those armored vehicles - you know, the ones we make and sell to Saudi Arabia, in about a week or so of discussions.
"When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't do." David Frum

Offline JMT

  • Administrator
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3462
  • Location: Waterhen, Manitoba
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #13 on: August 20, 2017, 06:19:57 pm »
You or I could do it.  Government?....I doubt it.

Offline SirJohn

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5801
Re: Canada's New Foreign Policy
« Reply #14 on: August 21, 2017, 11:23:18 am »
You or I could do it.  Government?....I doubt it.

Why is it you or I, who are not procurement experts (although I admit I did do procurement when I was with the government) capable of being so much more efficient and effective than departments filled with experts?

When the tories decided they wanted some C17s, how much time did it take to buy them? We're talking here about armored vehicles the army is already thoroughly familiar with and already operates. Just buy the damn things.
"When liberals insist that only fascists will defend borders then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals won't do." David Frum