Recent content by Ostrozac

One interpretation of the Canadian Constitution is that it doesn’t matter what the UK does, the King of Canada is still the King unless the Canadian parliament and all 10 provinces make a change. (Section 41(a) of the Constitution Act 1982) Another interpretation is that the requirement for “a...

Maybe. Maybe not. Usually when a Westminster-style parliament switches to a republic, they directly replace the GG with a ceremonial President with similar costs. The President of India’s official residence is the same residence formerly used by the Governor-General, and before that the Viceroy...

The amendment formula for changing the monarchy requires unanimous consent of the Federal parliament and all 10 Provinces, which means, in practice, that the Canadian monarchy isn’t going anywhere unless we are completely backed into a corner. One potential forcing function would be if the UK...

8 out of 12. The founding members of NATO not covered in leftover rubble from WWII were Canada, the USA, Iceland (where no fighting occurred) and Portugal (which remained neutral).

Fixing the Signals Corps/Communications and Electronics Branch is absolutely critical, because the capbadge most implicated in army modernization is Signals. The modernization plan lays out a requirement for 7 Signals Regiments within the Manoeuvre Division, plus Signals Regiments for both the...

The IRU role of the CARB is the most challenging one, as the timelines are so unforgiving. It’s a quick flash to bang that the Reg battalions have sometimes struggled to meet. It clearly needs a full time commitment for at least the vanguard company role. It’s possible that there is indeed an...

Lots of people are posted OUTCAN with one HLTA a year, that they use at Christmas. The February to October window for this specific program is incompatible with that. So some people are going to have to take an extra trip home, out of their own pocket, if they want to comply with the law.

Not if they want to make it past Sergeant. If you’ve seen the new official languages directive it’s B/B/B for all Regular Warrant Officers and above, and all Regular Commissioned Officers, in all occupations, effective 2030.* That’s going to be a huge obstacle to attracting quality skilled...

Well, yeah, it’s a charge under Section 88, which requires “a purpose dangerous to the public peace or for the purpose of committing an offence” Baseline possession of prohibited devices, like collecting ninja weapons, that’s Section 91.

That doesn’t seem to match the actual reality of NATO — Luxembourg and Iceland were founding members, and both were utterly incapable of standing in isolation. No, NATO was, first and foremost, a collective organization presenting a united front, first against the Soviets, then against the...

It’s almost certainly the most expensive part, in terms of replacement cost. The recent Quebec City Armoury project cost was $104 million. There are 185 Army Reserve units. I haven’t been able to find an exact number of how many armouries we have — some units have multiple armouries and some...

The model of the courageous charismatic natural leader, who makes the decisions, supported by a trained educated staff, who actually understand the details, can work on occasion, but it breaks down when paired with an intricate model of high-level working groups and decision boards that tends to...

If we’re going to have somewhere between 1/3 and 1/5 of the fighting army deployed to Latvia for the long haul, then we’ve got to make troops want multiple tours, the way they craved time in Lahr and Baden. There has to be some way to make tax free service in Eastern Europe, with no one shooting...

AAR of the Canadian MQ-9 still isn’t a given. While air-to-air refuelling of Reapers has been done experimentally, by the US, it’s not (yet) a fully operational capability. Shows promise, though.

And sometimes that battalion was actually called a Commando from the Canadian Airborne Regiment. We have a rich tradition of unusual naming conventions — some of which make little sense. Even today, the term ‘Group’ is being used for formations in the joint world — but it isn’t an indication...