Cdn Military Will Disappear

[August1991]

I don't have a single problem at all with Americans or trading with them, I'd just like to see increased trade with growing economies.

It's the"I'd just like to see" that I have a problem with. Should the Canadian government do anything to encourage Canadians to trade with non-Americans?

How is giving work to Canadians being a demagogue?

I am a taxpayer. I want a good military. I want to buy a wrench for the military. Should I buy the $18 Made in Canada wrench or the

$11 Made in Korea wrench? (Both wrenches identical quality.) If you were standing in Canadian Tire making the same choice for your home, what would you do?

Can you say that better than the Liberals? They're so good at it appears they've got you convinced. True, it's a hard argument to make - buy French, not Canadian. Clinton was a free trader, Bush not. But Clinton was a good speaker.

And like I said before, the French worker is not a Canadian voter, the French worker is not going to keep most of the money within Canada, the French worker is not going to buy with his wages goods and services off of other Canadians, and the French worker is not going to pay his taxes to the Canadian government.

What I meant was that the Liberals have been making these kinds of arguments for so long - hiring locally to produce expensive military stuff because it's good for the economy - you will never be able to beat them at their game. Mulroney and Clinton took another tack.

I agree. Pony up. How much? I'm serious. $2,000/year? Why not day care instead?

Yeah, that would be fine, that would be somewhere around a twenty billion dollar budget. I'd be fine with that.

How much is that smugness worth?

About 2.2% of our GDP.

Do you mean smugness - sending guys off to strange places - is more important to Canadians than day care? (BTW, $2000/year is more like 6% of GDP but I'll ignore that.)

And we still haven't discussed the main purpose of maintaining our military. I'm sure Trudeau and Mulroney understood this purpose when they both had need of the military at important moments.

[Stoker]

It's the"I'd just like to see" that I have a problem with. Should the Canadian government do anything to encourage Canadians to trade with non-Americans?

Yes.

I am a taxpayer. I want a good military. I want to buy a wrench for the military. Should I buy the $18 Made in Canada wrench or the

$11 Made in Korea wrench? (Both wrenches identical quality.) If you were standing in Canadian Tire making the same choice for your home, what would you do?

I'd still by and support Canadians first, but the only way that I'd buy a Korean wrench, is if they bought a Canadian made Hammer.

Do you mean smugness - sending guys off to strange places - is more important to Canadians than day care? (BTW, $2000/year is more like 6% of GDP but I'll ignore that.)

Not smugness, but self defence is more important then day care. Now if your day care workers can play a key role in carrying out our forgein policy and the self defence of Canada, then you may perk my intrest.......until that time.

And we still haven't discussed the main purpose of maintaining our military. I'm sure Trudeau and Mulroney understood this purpose when they both had need of the military at important moments.

And what would that be? I seem to think the main role of an armed forces is to carry out a countries foregin policy and self defence.

[August1991]

And what would that be? I seem to think the main role of an armed forces is to carry out a countries foregin policy and self defence.

I'll ignore the wrench and the day care. But this one, I can't avoid.

This thread's name is "Cdn Military Will Disappear". The suggestion is that our military is so small, our country so big, we cannot defend ourselves against foreign threat. So, we rely on the Americans to defend us. Conclusion? Why bother to have a military. Then there was this debate about peace-keeping, Canada's role in the world, and so on.

Except.

Not one of you English-Canadian posters ever stopped to think about how the Canadian military has been used in fact to defend federal Canadian interests.

In the past 30 years, the federal government, the Prime Minister to make it personal, had need of Canadian Armed Forces in two critical political situations. In 1970, Canadian troops were deployed throughout Quebec. I'm sure Pierre Trudeau was glad that he had the option of deploying these troops. In 1991, Brian Mulroney sent Canadian troops to Oka to control an uprising of native Indians. (Remember the famous photo - staring face to face?)

The Cdn military will not disappear. No Canadian PM would accept to govern without the insurance policy of a military force. And I don't mean peacekeeping or fighting foreigners or saving sailors.

Now, get my drift?

[Stoker]

The Cdn military will not disappear. No Canadian PM would accept to govern without the insurance policy of a military force. And I don't mean peacekeeping or fighting foreigners or saving sailors.

I think we are debating two different things here.

I two feel that the forces won't "go away", not just because of the reasons you suggested, but also because they are a good "tool" for a Prime Minister and his Cabinet to conduct forgein policy with.

Now what I've been saying since the start, is that I'm sure if we had a review of current spending habits within DND, we could find money that would solve alot of the problems that our armed forces face now.

Now after we get these current problems under control, then we should look at expanding the role of our armed forces for the reasons that I have stated.

Now I fail to see why it that you go off on a tangent about the FLQ and Oka, because it is this humble westerner's opinion, those two events that you bring up are no more relevent then the Manitoba floods, the Hurricanne on the east coast, the forest fires in BC, Peacekeeping in various trouble spots around the world, or our current role in the War on Terror.

Thats because they are all in the job discription of the Armed forces.

Do you git my drift?