Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee! Sort of.

Regarding Canada's navy, I'd give them a a fifty-fifty chance of stopping the Spanish Armada.



In the same tongue in cheek style I offer this.

 

For anyone who's interested, the Royal Canadian Naval Fleet is as follows:

12 Halifax Class Multi-Role Patrol Frigates
4 Victoria Class Long Range Patrol Submarines
An unknown (to me) number of CH-124 Sea King Anti-Submarine Warfare Helicopters
4 Iroquois Class Area Air Defence Destroyers
2 Protecteur Class Auxiliary Oil Replenishment Supply Ships
12 Kingston Class Coastal Defence Vessels
An unknown (to me) number of CP-140 Aurora Strategic Airborne Surface Surveillance Aircraft

Source: Department of National Defence

I'm quite proud of our Navy.

 

You are, after all, an Admiral!

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't those Sea Kings need 50h maintenance for every 1h in the air?

 

Canada's not even a country. The place is like a truck stop, full of generic yokels that you see in an old Burt Reynold's flick. (Yeah, I took a dump there once.)

I figure 7 or 8 New Yorkers would be able to take over the whole "country" in a matter of minutes.

Canada, meh.

 

ferelwookie, if your comments are serious, then they do not even deserve a response. If they are meant as a joke, they do not belong in the Senate.

ADMIRALSPUZZUM: Shhhhh! Quiet, you. Besides, they are scheduled to be upgraded anyway.

 

Lighten up.

I love those hockey-playing, beer swilling, bacon-eating morons just a much as the next guy!

(Whoooop! Whoooooop! ferelwookie is "attacking" the oppressed Canadian population again! Here comes the p.c. police!)

 

Bacon eating? Perhaps the rest, but not bacon eating... ?

 

Seriously though, who the hell is going to invade Canada anytime soon? Do they really see the citizens of Maine and Montana as such a threat to their soverignity?

 

Who said we did? ?

I've never been to Montana, is it nice?

 

It's pretty, but boring. It's a lot like Alberta, or Wyoming, or North Dakota, or South Dakota. The whole middle of the North American continent is waaaaaaay lame.

 

By the blood of our people are your lands kept safe.

not yet, no. you can say that after someone invades our neighbors to the north and we help out, but right now that's not true.

You can only keep a low profile because others refuse to.

that's not really true. Americans wouldn't have half the trouble we have now if we kept a lower profile and weren't so darned aggressive around the world. we have a lot of enemies because we do a lot of bad things around the world. Canada doesn't do a lot of bad things around the world, and hence, doesn't have a lot of enemies.

here's a question: do the British Commonwealth nations have any kind of mutual defense arrangements? if so, then looking at the military force of Canada alone may be a bit misleading. the British have a nice military.

 

I don't believe the Commonwealth has a mutual defense agreement. I think that only happens if your still a colony.

I could be wrong.

 

I find it hypocritical when people slam the US for spending so much money on defense, yet when asked what they would do if attacked say, "The US will help us".

 

Who's slaming the US for spending Defense Money?

 

They know who they are.

 

I'm the one who said the US would help us, and I havn't slammed the US for spending a lot of money on defence. I stay out of American internal politics. It's international politics that I concern myself with. Frankly, I couldn't care less what it says on the US budget.

 

Not only would the US help out in time of need, but Britian would be there without a doubt, along with the rest of the UN.

AT - I didn't know you were in the Militia. One of my best friends has been in it since 96. Actually, I think he's regular armed forces now.

Also, my dad's whole family has served in the navy. 2 of my uncles were career, and my dad servered for 1 term. I was thinking of joining this summer, but then I went and fell in love

 

I think there's more pride in being the peace leader of the world then being the military leader... Canada doesn't provoke other countries into war.

 

...There's more pride in being the peace leader of the world then being the military leader

I like that quote!

 

Just popped in here because I'm bored with Lit.

Third, even if someone did attack us, the United States would surely help. Why bother spending our money that could be spent elsewhere when our neighbour has the largest military in the world?

Because that's an immoral stance to take, that's why.

Why should Americans shed their blood for Canadians? Why should they want to? Why should we expect it? Americans WOULD do it, but not because Canada would expect it, but because it would be the right thing to do.

It does not change the fact that Canada as a nation should not only maintain it's NATO expectations, which it doesn't, but should properly clothe and pay it's soldiers, which it doesn't do either. Every sovereign nation has a right to defend itself within reason from external aggression. Which is why when American GIs start dying in Iraq, no one really has any right to say 'boo' about it, except those who didn't want them to invade in the first place.

Incidentally, Canada had the third largest navy in the world in WWII after the US and England. World power to the butt of the world, militarily speaking, in less than 60 years. You gotta try really hard to do that.

Admitedly, there are some reasons for Canada's lack of interest in its armed forces. Somalia is an excellent example. After a couple of Air Borne Regiment whack jobs murdered two Somalis, public opinion of the armed forces sank to an all time low. Plus, the Government's completely innept handly off the affair only worsened it. Still, after that we had high ranking corruption when spend-happy colonels and higher ranks were having their golf clubs flown to Spain in the drop tanks of CF-18s only compounded matters. Under paid soldiers having to take another job or visit a food bank just to feed their families- there is something seriously wrong with this.

I know of what I speak, as well. My father served in the Canadian Armed Forces for 27 years. He's been all over the world, and was stationed in Montreal during the October Crisis when Trudeau implemented the War Measures Act. He was standing on a street corner a few blocks away when an FLQ bomb exploded in a mail box. He was almost shot in Egypt, and served peace keeping duty in Cyrpus in the 1960s.

The point is, it's Canada's job to defend Canada, not the US, not England's. The fact that these nations and countless more would come to Canada's defense only goes to show the good relations that we have with them.

There is no excuse for the sorry state of the Canadian Armed Forces- Canada is a rich nation that can afford to equip and supply a moderately sized force, of say 100,000 men, with US and British equipment, and whatever we make (Bradly Fighting Vehicles, anyone?). That means small arms, vehicles, artillery, tanks, aircraft AND the ability to transport it wherever it is needed.

As for the Canada/US border being poorly defended, what do you expect? It's almost 5,000 km long and by 2012, Canada and US will have been at peace for 200 years. It's poorly defended because we're good neighbors, we don't need to defend against each other. We're friends.

If you want to know about tight boarder security, talk to someone who lived in Germany or France or Belgium in the 70s, when boarder guards openly carried automatic weapons and there were wanted posters of Badder Meinhoff and Red Beret members all over the place. Go there now and all of that IS GONE. The benefits of a slight peace dividend economy, no doubt.

The scary thing is, that diatribe was written by me, a peace mongering liberal.

 

Third largest navy?? Counting our commercials ships maybe.. don't forget Germany and Japan, I'm pretty sure they outnumbered our Fleet.

 

He probably meant 3rd largest on our side.

 

"Third largest navy?? Counting our commercials ships maybe.. don't forget Germany and Japan, I'm pretty sure they outnumbered our Fleet."

I've actually heard this statistic mentioned quite a few times (on the History Channel especially). As far as I know, there was a time when Canada did have the third largest navy in the world. But I believe (I could be wrong though) it was only after the conclusion of hostilities in WWII, after the remaining vessels of Kriegsmarine and the Japanese Imperial Fleet were handed over to the Allies and/or scuttled (I can't remember which).

 

Ah, Ok, if it was after the war, then it's possible.