Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from May 2006

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from May 2006

The use of resources: a teacher of our acquaintance once asked: "Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, our school got all the textbooks we asked for and the army had to have a bake sale to raise the money to buy a tank?(failing states)
May 1, 2006... Canada is blessed with peace and security within its borders, and, there is virtually no chance, in the foreseeable future, of it being invaded by a hostile nation. That doesn't mean there aren't threats out there that we have to be careful...

Government default: in 1996, Canada's then-top military leader, General Jean Boyle, said the country's army was unfit to fight in a serious war and the rank-and-file had justifiable doubts about the quality of the high command.(DEFENCE--NEGLECT)
May 1, 2006... During their first tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2002, Canadian soldiers wore forest-green camouflage, making them stand out in the largely treeless country. This wasn't a bureaucratic error, it was because our military couldn't afford to buy...

While some say there's never enough, others say there's too much: in the fall of 2005, a Senate report called for a doubling of the Defence Department's budget from $14 billion and increasing enlistment from 60,000 to 90,000.(DEFENCE--SPENDING)
May 1, 2006... The International Institute of Strategic Studies points out that Canada has boosted defence spending in recent years: by $800 million in 2003, to $12.2 billion, after raising it by $300 million the previous year. Spending rose again in 2004 to...

Is peacekeeping a relic? Once known as peacekeepers, Canada's military has changed quite dramatically into a more robust force capable of fighting. The transition is not complete and there appears to be some disagreement as to which way to go now.
May 1, 2006... Historian Jack Granatstein says that peacekeeping came to an end as a concept in the Balkans in the early 1990s. Today, "we might call it peace support or peace enforcement. Our grandfathers would have called it war." A University, of...

Why are we there? With almost no public debate, Canada has deployed the bulk of its available troops to a dangerous mission in a country with which it has almost no traditional ties.
May 1, 2006... They know a lot about war in Afghanistan. As far back as 4,000 years ago waves of Indo-Europeans are believed to have invaded what is today known as Afghanistan. In the 6th century BCE, the Persian Empire moved in. Alexander the Great briefly...

Marching together: after many years of keeping a distance between Canadian and U.S. defence relations, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is moving towards closer cooperation.
May 1, 2006... Paul Cellucci was the U.S. Ambassador to Canada from 2001 to 2005. Ambassadors are not supposed to ruffle the feathers of their host nation. But, Mr. Cellucci appears not to have read that part of the diplomat's training manual. He was often...

The business of war: Canada has a sizeable arms industry that is joined at the hip to the huge military production system in the United States.
May 1, 2006... The Avro Arrow (pictured below) was a marvel of Canadian engineering. The military interceptor aircraft first flew in 1958. Faster and more advanced than any warplane flying or under design at the time, the Avro Arrow was years ahead of its...

Quote ... unquote.(peacekeeping of Canada )
May 1, 2006... "But for a few special cases, Canadian peacekeeping has been relegated to the history books since the end of the Cold War... Canadian soldiers are rightly offended when they are portrayed as social workers with guns." Major-General (retired)...