Schilly

It's because of the natural law silly!

I really wonder sometimes with the attitudes on this board. I'm assuming I know the way the results will unfold already with this. Nonetheless I think it'd be interesting to see. Please choose honestly (I know the Natural Law party is is all fine and dandy but...).

A good "if/then" argument I might say.

Certainly a loaded question, really couldn't put it any better. I agree with the responses given so far.

I want to know where the "sepertists" are in the first place, seeing as how I live fairly close to Vancouver and the attitude overall is more of a federal neglect than anything, pardon me, "Western Alienation."

^agreed, a huge increase in military spending should be expected from the next PM if he wants to do the right things...

I'm trying to hit up that local reserve this weekend.

I don't know if I want to move to the States to get a Green Card however.

I'll definitely look into it. Balancing that with classes, a part-time job and such will also be tough. No social life at all, though hey I've become accustomed to it already lol.

This one in question is the Royal Westminster Regiment, located in Aldergrove, BC. here

The local reserves are only a 20 min drive away or so...one of the numerous things I've toiled over.

I've looked into the US Military actually, even to the extremities of the Marines and the Navy Seals (though the later don't accept non-US citizens). There's something about Canada's neglect to ours which doesn't make it as appealing as the US. I know it's pretty much well a polar opposite as far as funding is concerned. Maybe its still my youthful side that may be more inclined to want to be a part of something that does stuff quite often, or at least more often. I mean for Canada to serve in Afghanistan we're stretching it there with 1900 troops approximately and we don't even get involved much elsewhere (I can think of Bosnia off the top for current peacekeeping missions at the moment though there have been more in the past). I asked a friend of mine about my consideration of joining the military, and the US one to boot, she responded "would you enjoy killing people and destroying cultures around the world?" She wondered how I could find the possibility "fun" at all to be involved. I didn't know what to say to that, except I shot back with the possibility of peacekeeping and things of that nature and not doing it entirely for the reasons of killing people. What I meant about the idea of removing my head from my ass since I grad'ed from highschool is that before I was convinced I was going to be an English teacher, now that is far from the case. You're looking at a person who couldn't really give a shit about the world and on the advent of his graduating year, as cliche as it sounds, a week in a couple planes hit some famous buildings in the states which suddenly had me interested in the state of the world. Yet I don't think we're all that politically contrived at that age. How does this tie in to me considering the military? Well it's to with what I want out of life. Since the aforementioned slap in the face to the reality I've been quite interested in any and all knowledge I can consume (mostly being politics and world affairs). Right now in school I'm pretty interested in my political science courses and if I were to pursue a career with that in mind I'd want to take it far (I'm talking into Parliament down the road). I'm finishing up general studies requirements before having to make the choice to ladder into a degree, drop the program, or move on to something else completely. Nonetheless, I look at that too and wonder if I'd be wasting myself as being young and athletic then confining my existence to an office job of sorts. People tell me the choice will hit me one day out of the blue and not to make any hasty decisions.

All I want to say, even though I didn't read more than a few posts in this topic, is that you have a country before you have anything else and as Canada is one of the G8 nations this should matter.

I want to hear what everyone has to say and the reasons for it. I myself am still young, currently in my second year of college and looking at a variety of options. Call the post-highschool experience the metaphorical "head from ass" removal if you will. Either way the military is one of the things I've thought about.

I agree that Canada is too socially liberal and I'd like to speak on that in terms of our military. If I heard correctly one afternoon while watching CBC shortly after our recent ISAF deaths in Afghanistan, there was a general speaking about our forces. He went on to say something to the extent of "sixty thousand members of the armed forces may seem like a lot..." No, no it doesn't sorry. Now someone correct me if I'm wrong (for the numbers of our forces) but being a G7 Nation we shouldn't have the 37th largest military in the world and that cannot be denied in any way. More liberal thought has to do with this. The passion to defend Canada left with the money that was put into our military so it's the fault of the people and the government in the end. Though you know more importantly what I believe a lot of the problem is? Advertising. By comparison with the US (yeah it's drastic but bare with me) our advertising for our armed forces is pathetic. In the States they make super appealing promotions for their forces. People are proud to want to enter the forces there in the States (this shouldn't have anything to do with our reputation as 'peacekeepers'). I'm not saying we have to fund our military ridiculously; neverless, more financing is in order indeed and a lot of this has to go toward advertising. It's not about going on some warpath, it's about checking if our collective balls are still there as Canadians. We have a country before we have anything else. People just don't care about it as much as they used to. So what if we'd be easily defended by the States, standing up for ourselves should be done. All I'm saying is a move toward miltaristic respectability should be made because around the time of WW2 we were at 6th largest in the world.