Category: Military

Ready For What? Defeat?

Canada’s top general might want to start a new career in standup comedy. She’s got a few one-liners that are guaranteed to get some laughs.

And like all the militaries in the world … especially when we’re looking at our allies, we’re going to be ready to go as-is.

All of our services right now are crafting and positioning themselves to be able to take the additional number of people coming in. …Everybody is all-hands-on-deck in doing that. It’s quite exciting, I have to say.

Thank You For Your Attention To This Matter

“President Donald Trump revealed the Trump-class battleships Monday at his Palm Beach estate, joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Navy Secretary John Phelan, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. These 30,000-ton vessels upgrade from current destroyers with more missile tubes, space for hypersonics, railguns, and lasers, aiming to build two initially and scale to 20-25 amid China’s naval growth. The White House calls it a Golden Age for defense to modernize the aging 287-ship fleet, though critics like former Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery question the $5 billion-plus designs’ focus on aesthetics over lethality against China.” – Grok AI

More at Naval News. John Konrad reacts.

Reporter: “What are you doing with the [Venezeulan] oil you seized?”

“We’re going to keep it.”

Related.

Rearranging The Deck Chairs

Blacklock’s- McGuinty Takes Coast Guard

Cabinet yesterday transferred control of the Canadian Coast Guard to the defence department under Minister David McGuinty. It followed a 2024 audit that complained the maritime service fell into disrepair when managed by the Department of Fisheries.

The transfer followed a 2024 Evaluation Of Fleet Procurement And Maintenance that rated the Coast Guard obsolete. “The Canadian Coast Guard fleet is aging as vessels approach and exceed their intended end of service life,” said the report. “Across the fleet 30 percent of vessels have less than five years left until they reach their end of service life.”

Toronto Star- Federal government begins to transfer Coast Guard to National Defence

The Future Is Now

The concept of troops going to the battlefield in armored vehicles may well be a thing of the past, if this YouTube video is any indication.  In the Ukraine today, supplies going to the front have to be transported not by vehicle but by drone. It’s simply impossible to get supplies there by any other means, given the nearly impossible task of running a gauntlet of drone swarms. This ought to serve as a lesson to those in charge of determining defense spending priorities.

Kabuki Theater

Blacklock’s- Suspensions Were Symbolic

The Department of Foreign Affairs says last year it suspended 34 permits to ship military goods to Israel. Reminded of its repeated statements that Canada never exported “lethal items” to Israel, a department spokesperson confirmed the suspensions were largely symbolic.

Cabinet has repeatedly stated no Canadian weaponry has been shipped to Israel in decades. “We haven’t exported arms to Israel in 30 years,” International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen told reporters in 2024.

New Governor, Same As The Old Governor

Those procurement contracts don’t write themselves. It takes time for Carney insiders to set up their phony baloney numbered companies.

Ain’t Gonna Happen

Despite all the promises to increase defense spending to not only replace what was shipped off to the Ukraine but to meet the new GDP targets, expect one of two outcomes: either the targets will be perpetually postponed or the definition of “defense spending” will be stretched to include funding for sewage treatment plants and community centers and anything else you might imagine.

In a new analysis released Thursday, the think tank said it expects Canada’s deficit to top $92 billion this fiscal year, given Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to meet NATO’s defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.

C.D. Howe expects deficit growth to slow after this year but predicts deficits will still average around $78 billion annually over four years — more than double the level forecast by the parliamentary budget officer before the spring federal election.

 

New Governor, Same As The Old Governor

Michael Taube;

It never made sense that Trudeau, a classic tax-and-spend Liberal who wasted hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on pet projects, couldn’t meet the NATO defence-spending target.

After the previous Liberal government doubled the national debt in a few short years, one would have hoped that Carney would have taken steps to get federal spending under control, especially while looking to increase defence spending by a whopping $9.3 billion this year.

Yet his massive spending plan, detailed in the government’s main estimates, which were tabled late last month, shows he plans on spending at least $486.9 billion — more than Trudeau spent in his final year. And that number will likely increase when it’s updated to include the $24 billion worth of spending promises Carney made during the election.

Making matter worse, Carney told an audience at Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs that, “We will ensure every dollar is invested wisely, including by prioritizing made-in-Canada manufacturing and supply chains,” and that, “We should no longer send three-quarters of our defence capital spending to America.”

While the Liberal Kool-Aid drinkers will lap up this political rhetoric, his strategy will only serve to increase costs and ensure we get less bang for our buck. After all, the U.S. is far more advanced militarily, and its defence industries have significant economies of scale.

And fewer opportunities for graft.

Update, complete with body language tells: Watch Mark Carney not answer the question regarding if Canadians will see tax increases to cover his excessive spending.

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