Canada moves to 2% GDP end of FY25/26 - PMMC

[dangerboy]

In some Scottish units the kilt and accessories such as the sporran are issued to the member by the unit RQ.

 

[Underway]

Europe is where 95% of our lads are buried. We should never forgive Europe for that, never mind who started it and who dragged us in and whatever the arrangement in Europe are right now. It's their fault for letting things get to that point, and it always will be. We should never let them off the hook for that.

All of Canada's wars post confederation were voluntary. We could have said no. We didn't. If anything we should be mad at the UK for dragging us in at least in WW1. Not Europe. We made a choice to fight.

I want our vaunted PM and Defence Minister to publicly make that clear, because if they do not then you know exactly who will. If he does not, it just looks like Europe is extorting money to be part of a club and that's no different behaviour than Trumps tariffs.

As a business deal, we need the numbers. That's important for us as voters to decide if paying for access was worth it. Of course that will mean we likely need to make a lot of sales or perhaps save a lot of money with the interest rates. So the payoff might be many years into the future.

And they should always pay their respects and grant us extra consideration. No pushback, no talk back, no smug European BS. They should feel an obligation to open the door and forget the door charge. For once we need them, and it looks like they they want to charge a a multi billion dollar access fee that our government won't even admit of it's existence. It's complete BS, even the CBC has picked up on that.

As far as "they should always pay their respects" what is this? You think we're ENTITLED to something because grandpa fought in Europe 80 years ago? We essentially abandoned our NATO obligations for the last 50 years. You earn respect every day, and once you lose it, you have to work to get it back. We, three generations removed from the one that fought, have no entitlement to anything our grandparents did, we literally have wasted the family fortune of goodwill with 60 years of neglect.

The fact that we signed this deal before the UK, and the fact they let us join at all, says a lot about what we are to many people in Europe, otherwise we wouldn't be able to join in the first place. So there is still goodwill.

As far as need them? No, I think we're equal partners here. We don't really need them, but getting access the EU military spending is potentially a big deal.