Dougie93

Canada is not going to be taken seriously as a full spectrum high intensity warfighting military, because that's not what it is, and the Canadian public is not prepared to spend anywhere close to what it would cost to make them into one, so it's a question of what is realistic in the real world in terms of what the DND budget is actually going to be. None the less, the reality is, even World War Three is discretionary for Canada, as even in the event of World War Three, nobody is going to be invading Canada. The only country on earth capable of invading Canada in a logistical sense, is the Americans, and if it comes to that, F-35's aint gonna save you, the Americans have actually embedded software in the plane which allows to disable the aircraft, in case any of the customers ever went rogue and tried to turn them back on the Americans.

The thing to consider is what are Canada's actual military imperatives? They're not the same as the United States, for example it is not a Canadian military imperative to bomb Iran on behalf of Israel or whatever, Canadian military imperatives are much more modest and domestic, air policing, search and rescue, securing the maritime approaches, aid to the civil power etc The Canadian Armed Forces are basically an armed constabulary on steroids more than they are a full spectrum high intensity warfighting outfit. For me, the bigger concern is armoured vehicles with active defence systems, because its more likely Canada will deploy troops on some misguided overseas military adventure than we are to be in a major air war, and the vehicles we have now (Leo 2, LAV 6, TAPV) do not have ADS, and if you look at what the Saudis encountered in Yemen and the Turks encountered in northern Syria, to wit, insurgents with anti-tank guided weapons, anything without an ADS is getting slaughtered, so the vehicles we have now are death traps if the troops are ever dropped into something like that.

The other issue is that with the Super Hornet they have a very precise metric as to how much they would cost to operate and maintain long term, whereas with F-35 nobody knows, so it could end up the F-35 is so expensive to operate and maintain that it ends up consuming too much of the RCAF budget and then they will have to cut other things to pay for it, other things which they are likely to use far more often than fighter bombers.

See this is why the Liberals favour the Super Hornet, because with Boeing they know what they're going to get up front, 100% IRB offset, for every dollar Canada spends on the Super Hornet Boeing will be contractually bound to spend a dollar on some sort of Boeing work in Canada.

The real problem with F-35 vis a vis the Canadian government is that the government wants 100% Industrial benefit offset for any expensive military hardware they purchase, but under the F-35 program they would only have the right to bid on up to $12 billion dollars worth of industrial work, but the F-35s are going to cost more than that, and even then Canada has no guarantee they will get $12 billion worth, could end up getting much less. If the Americans were to guarantee Canada 100% offset industrial benefit for the F-35, then I think it would have been a done deal a long time ago.

Oh, I think they could get away with flying Super Hornets, we're talking about Canada here, we flew the CF-101 Voodoos right into the 1980's, and they were totally obslete when we bought them in the 60's. Bear in mind, I like the F-35, I understand the feature benefit of VLO and sensor fusion, but does Canada, which doesn't fly first night of war scenarios anyways, and is really just going to be sending token forces to fly flag, actually require it? The only non discretionary mission is NORAD, and as that is air policing/QRA against Russian strategic bombers, there's no requirement for stealth.

The huge number of Indians in jail would seem to indicate otherwise, the Mounties seem to be getting it done. In terms of RCMP costs, roughly $100 million per year is actually quite an austere budget, the Canadian military could blow that kind of dough in an afternoon.

Sorry, but I don't find fiat currency to be based on anything real and tangible.

That being said, I would submit, Canada plausibly has more leeway to buy its own bonds than Venezuela does, in the event of major financial crisis, and I think they would do that in the event of.

Fair enough, but as you say, the largest economy country on earth is doing pretty much whatever it pleases vis a vis its money supply, as I said, entirely political, based on nothing more than the vague assertion "Full Faith and Credit of the United States", although I didn't say Canada couldn't Venezuela itself by Quantitative Easing run amok.

Well, I'm certainly prepared to accept the United States governments assertion that AQ and associated splinter groups are a legitimate national security threat subject to application of military force, but when it comes to counterterrorism, you have to be precise, under international law and laws of armed conflict, the legal definition is called Direct Participant in Hostilities (DPH) and in the case of Kadr specifically, they've failed to convince me that Kadr was in fact a DPH prior to him being swept up in a raid, and of course it doesn't lend them credibility when they have extracted confessions by torture, at that point I was pretty much forced to throw their case out of my court, prima facie.

According to whom? The United States government? Please.

Oh, and as for the genocidal war, you invoked that not I, that being said, I was an infantryman by trade, and as such state sanctioned mass murder on behalf of the British Crown was technically my job description, but as I say, I don't foresee genocidal war, as that is prohibited by national and international law and the laws of armed conflict, but, if they do decide to go Oka all over again, that's a dangerous game which I would caution them against. Go to that well too many times, some people gonna get shot eventually. It is what it is, but that's how it is, realpolitik.

Once my taxes are paid, my obligation to the state, short of national security issues, is fulfilled. "You" can do whatever "you" want with that money, but the government ain't gonna be giving much to the Indians, if the government was the answer to the Indians problems, they wouldn't have any after 150 years. After 150 years of being treated as wards of the state, you'd think the Indians would be wary of entering into these sorts of arrangements. For over 150 years, the people of Canada has decided that Indians ain't that high on their list of priorities, if you and the Indians think that's going to change, you and them are typically deluded Cantards. It's really only you tho, the Indians aren't so naive. In terms of equal rights, they actually have their own sovereign governments as per the treaties, the agreement therein includes the agreement for me not to tell them how to run their governments for them nor tell them what their rights are on their land. Again, I'm not a paternalistic do gooder, as the road to hell is paved with good intentions, particularly where the British Crown is concerned. The Indians know.

Bear in mind, this does not mean I am opposed to honoring the treaty obligations of the British Crown, I advocate for returning vast tracks of Crown land to the Indians as per the standing agreements. But that land doesn't come with a big NDP boondoggle government hand out festival on top. They get the land, and anything else they are entitled to as per the treaty, but so far as I know, the British Crown never signed a treaty guaranteeing them government jobs for life.

If someone is in immediate distress, medical emergency, being victimized by thuggery, what have you; acute, incidental, emerging situation, I will render aid to a Canadian, or anybody else, foreigners too., but in terms of political "prioritization"? Nah, fuck that,, I don't do that. I am autonomous from the state, free man in a free country, I am not the keeper of Canadian sob story cases. Moreover, everybody in Canada has a sob story, and their hand out for taxpayer funded largess therein. Like I said, that's the Canadian scam, people in this country have been indoctrinated to think that the government is responsible for everybody all the time, particularly as to their "jobs, jobs jobs." But as this not a Communist country quite yet, that ain't actually so, the role of government is not actually to be the job mommie for every sob story case that comes along. Lots of people need something to build on, but it's not actually my job, nor the role of the state, never mind that its a fools errand, even I wanted the government to continue the over 150 years of paternalistic treatment of the Indians as helpless children, which is very reason they are dysfunctional now, it doesn't work, the Indians aren't going to get anywhere waiting for that, been a 150 years, time to stop the misguided Victorian era do gooderism, its actually done the the Indians grave harm at the strategic level. And yet the white guilt Lefty nonsense blubberers cant seem to stop themselves. Now, as to killing them all? Well, if it was a binary choice, you and your ilk keep scamming me? Robbing me to pay Indian Paul on the Res? I don't think mass murder is warranted, none the less, you and the Indians you claim to represent will be making an enemy of me and millions like me, and if it ever came violent conflict, I could see some indians getting shot in that paradigm.

Which might make logical sense if the Indians were little children and the government was their mommie, but since they're not little children and the government is not their mommie, let them work it out like every other adult in this land does all day everyday, I don't get a handout job from the government , don't see why the Indians are entitled to one. Paternalistic white guilt blubbering about the Indians; the original Canadian scam. Want an education and a job from the government? Join the army. Otherwise, fuck off.

1. Wait, what? Why is that, again? I'm not the keeper of the Indians, fuck the Indians, they're not my problem. 2. They seem to making their own decisions just fine, and the ones who are deciding to commit crimes are ending up in jail, no interference from me at all. There ya go, done and done. Indians being prioritized by the state for taking the decision to commit crimes of their own free will. Problem solved.

I fail to see how this is my problem. Lawless indians running amok? Isn't that what Mounties are for?

Nah, I'll pay, I can afford $3 a liter, bring it on, side benefit; runaway socialist intervention to drive the prices of everything through the roof in the name of Cultural Marxist Malthusian Doomsday is an excellent way of bringing Confederation down to break up the country. Then you would be free of me, and I would be free of you. You could move to the Peoples Republic of British Columbia and I would be free to take a giant dump on the environment back here in the east. Compromise!

As I have come to favour the non violent dissolution of Canadian Confederation by sheer government ineptitude and associated insolvency, I too would like to see a referendum on this. In fact, the government should hold a referendum at the end of every week, lets have a referendum on everything, let the delusional quasi Bolshevist Canadian public decide, Canada would be bankrupt and I would be freed of this abominable Federal Government in a matter of months! Referendums all round! God save the Queen, death to Confederation!

Pretty simple, the oil from Alberta is not the oil we put in our cars. The oil we put in our cars comes from Saudi Arabia and then gets refined in New Brunswick, so that oil is not subsidized. The oil from Alberta is for export, so that domestic oil industry is being subsidized for said purpose. Not that I'm advocating for corporate welfare mind you, but Canadians in general insist on it, so the government is simply bending to the will of the electorate, which, according to the constitution, is their job. /shrugs

Yes they do. Money is entirely political, the Bank of Canada can "print" as much money as they see fit. Money is just an IOU, they can issue as many IOU's as they please.

Not to mention that, even if Omar Kadr threw a hand grenade at American pers in the act of launching a no warning no notice raid on an objective in Afghanistan, which is an unproven allegation, that doesn't actually amount to terrorism. Everyone has the fundamental right to individual and collective self defense, even civilians. When you launch a raid like that, the onus is entirely on the raiding force to avoid such confliction. Under national and international law and the laws of armed conflict, the Americans assumed all the liability by launching the raid. You're actually bound to give warning and allow non combatants to flee the area. If you don't, that's not a crime, but if a civilian shoots you because you kicked his door down, no notice, no warning, that's your problem, it's not on the non combatants to figure out who you are when you breach. If you're going around foreign countries lighting the civilians up as all being "terrorists" by default, that's actually Nazi Germany's definition of "terrorism", to wit, anybody behind the lines who we light up and fights back as a result, is a "Terrorist" said Adolf Hitler on 22 June 1941

If you are bitter about Omar Kadr being compensated by the Canadian government, you should direct your anger at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. They were well aware that the Americans were committing technical war crimes in running an extra judicial concentration camp outside the bounds of national and international law and the laws of armed conflict, and as such they shouldn't have touched it with a ten foot pole. Instead they went down there and made the Crown of Canada complicit in said crimes, wherein we the Canadian taxpayers were implicated by default. If they had just stayed away, then we the Canadian taxpayers would be off the hook, but because they had to stick their noses into America's crimes, and we didn't stop them, we're on the hook, and rightly so. The price of total Canadian apathy vis a vis national security and what it being done in our name. As to why they gave him $10 million? They asked the lawyers, the lawyers told them they were busted, dead to rights war crimes committed by the Crown of Canada, and as such he was going to win, and since he was suing for $20 million, that was what he was going to get, so they settled for $10 million to cut their losses and make it all go away. /shrugs