Aidan Pryde

The idea that it was a certainty Western Allies could not have invaded Euriope without American help is simply not true. Most of the soldiers who invaded Normandy historically were British and Canadian not American. Most of the naval support came from Britain. If the Americans had not been in the war Britain and Canada would have simply allocated more troops to an invasion to make up for the lack of American troops. Also that Hitler could have defeated the Soviet Union without a Western Front to distract him isn't true, by the time a Western Front came into existence the Soviet Union had already won, by 1944 the Western Allies could have simply stopped fighting Germany and the Red Army would have defeated Germany. Without America Germany still would have been won no matter what. Without the Soviet Union there would have been no victory though.

The Industrial contribution of America to both lend lease and the war effort in general isn't as great as it's been made to seem. Lend Lease for example, most of the Lend Lease tanks sent to the Soviet Union in the crucial year of 1942 were not American but rather British and Canadian. American tanks didn't start arriving in large numbers until 1943 and 1944 when the Soviets were taking the offensive and none of the tanks supplied to the Soviets from America were heavy tanks, they were no match for the German tanks that the Soviet Union had to face. As for overall war production, let's compare tank production in the major powers. In 1944 the height of the war, Germany produced 17,800 tanks, America produced 17,500, Britain produced 5,000, and the Soviet Union produced 29,000 tanks. Furthermore almost all of the tanks produced by America were light and medium tanks while the Soviet Union built thousands of far larger and more powerful heavy tanks such as the IS-2s. The Soviet Union's tank production was effectively twice that of America's. It's no doubt that American contributed greatly to winning World War II but they did nowhere near as much as the Soviet Union to defeat Germany.

I think Harper with be quite like Regan in the sense that he'll amase more debt that any other leader in our history. Harper is promising massive tax cuts and massive increases in spending in areas like the military.

Well America showed it's true colours pretty quickly, it's pretty obvious they care nothing for the Iraqi people but are just gunning to turn Iraq into a puppet of American economic power.

I can only really speak for BC since I don't follow the trends in other parts of the country much, but if the merger doesn't go through the Alliance is going to take a big hit in BC. Their policies have been out of touch with British Columbians and I think their going to pay for that come election time. Depending on how the NDP does I think the Alliance is going to lose about half of their seats in BC. The Liberals will probably pick up most of the seats the Alliance lose and the NDP should pick up a few as well. If the merger goes through then the New conservative party should be able to hold their ground or at worst lose a few seats. PC support has never really been that high in BC but the effect of having a united conservative party might be enough to lure some of the more right-wing liberals voters to the party.

Perhaps if we cut back on our many foriegn deployments and isntead concentrating on simply defending Canada our military would be in better shape. After all we are the 16th largest military spender in the world but a lot of our budget seems to be sucked up but the logistical costs of our constant foreign deployments.

So on one hand you advocate Canada running a deficit and on the other you whine that if we didn't have such a large debt we could have a larger military. Do you even read what you type? Do you not see the contradiction? If we were the run a defecit now to add billions upon billions to our military now it would just ensure we would have to make even deeper cuts in the future when those debt payments catch up to us. Well if you want to live in a country that resembles the Soviet Union back during the cold war with massive amounts of wealth going towards a massive military be my guest. I prefer the high standard of living and lack of massive deficit that we enjoy todasy.

When it comes to military spending, percentage of GDP spent is not relevent. Total $ is what counts in the end. The fact is that Israel spends barely any more of defense than Canada and they are surrounded by hostile powers while Canada is bordered by ocean on three sides and a friendly nation on the fourth.

I think if any country got hit by a North Korean nuclear missile that you'd find increased security across the nation simply because of the fact that someone's starting launching nukes and no one is sure if it'll end at just one. I don't feel we should help defend another country simply because we have economic interests in that country. I think that civilian agencies like the RCMP and CSIS would be the ones fighting domestic terrorism not the military. And it's not like our military is immobile, we have bases near major cities. Most likely each individual unit would the city they're located in or close to.

Fastned, Well first of all if in 10 or 20 years North Korea were to actually build an missile capable of reaching the West Coast and a nuclear weapon to be delivered by the missle. Why would they go after BC instead of a target along the American coast? That would be like Nazi Germany developing a nuclear weapon during WWII and using it on Brazil. But if you really think that a North Korea nuclear missile is a threat to Canada then there really is no possible defense against it except our own nuclear arsenal. I don't really see the American missile shield as being much more than a modern version of the Maginot line. Krusty, I'm not disagreeing with you that Europe may need to stick together against a possible threat from the Arab nations to the south and south-east. But they don't really need our help do they? European NATO nations spend probably $250 billion on their militaries. I think they can handle any threats that comes their way.

The Cold War is over. If you honestly think that Europe needs our help to defend themselves anymore then you need to go back to school. If you really think we have a problem with defending our country then you should lobby to have our military callled back home instead of spread out around the world. Canada spends approximately C$12.5 billion on military while Israel spends around C$13.5 bllion. A difference of only a billion dollars. And those numbers don't inlucde the extra money recently spent on our military. That would seem to be an argument for less military spending. After all why do we need to spend as much as a nation surrounded by enemies when we have large oceans on three sides and a friendly neighbour on the fourth. I'm sorry if i disproved your careful little rightwing lies with my evil facts, so sorry.

It would seem you're getting incorrect numbers, I've checked with numerous sources from the OECD and Canadian and American goverment sites. All comes out with Canada having a GDP per capita of $29,300 in USD. And with America having a GDP per capita of $34,000 in USD. As a said before this doesn't take into account the massive wealth inaqualities of America.

Self defense from what? Last I checked the Cold War ended over a decade ago. There aren't any foreign powers that threaten Canada anymore. Our military nowadays seems to be for fighting other people's wars and battles. If you think we lack defense capabilities perhaps we should withdraw from any foreign commitments and keep our military in Canada. After all, we spend almost as much as Israel on our military and no one ever accused them of being soft on defense.

Actually Canada's GDP per capita in USD is $29.3k vs America's $34k. And that doesn't take into account the massive inaqualities in wealth distribution in America. Take away the top 10% and you'd likely find Canada's GDP per capita above that of America's

Nice lie, I never said that. Yet another lie, never said that either. I said my Great-uncle was an athiest and he died fighting in World War II. I don't know how you translated that into all Canadian soldiers who died were athiests. Do you deny that Athiests died fighting in the Canadian military during WWII? And btw, 37,000 Canadian soliders died in World War II not 100,000. You might want to do some research before spouting off incorrect facts and looking like a fool. Alliance, do you believe that corrupt police officers should be respected and tolerated? If you want the uniform of a police officer to carry respect perhaps you should start by making sure that only those who are worthy are wearing it. An interesting article, but I'd like to see some hard numbers. Organized crime has always been around but I haven't seen anything to indicate that there's been a large increase in it's activity.

Is it any wonder? I've lost count of how many times I seen a story in the paper or on the news about the VPD beating unarmed suspects or innocent people they've arrested. With such things going on, I'm not surprised that people and especially the youth no longer trust or respect the police.