Government hints at boosting Canada’s military spending

I have long said that you could fund the CAF to 4 percent of GDP, but we would still lag behind in NATO and be much the same where we are.

It's never the money, it's politics. It's procedures. It's the pork-barreling in our defence spending that makes us a paper tiger in NATO.

My only hope in all of this for the CAF and the GoC, whatever the political stripe that may be, is that it will rouse them out of the "Peace Dividend" slumber. The world has been unstable since 1945. We have used geography, proximity, and association as a Defence Policy ever since. ICBMs don't care how close to the U.S. or how far from Russia/China we are.

Don't give us a dime more, but let us spend money on defence like it matters. The fact we follow the same rules for purchasing a fighter aircraft as we do for buying office furniture for a Service Canada office is disgraceful. Don't treat defense procurement as a stimulus package for Canadian Industry. There I said it.

We spend so much money, time, and effort trying to get that money to stay in Canada; be it by awarding contracts to companies with no capability to produce items without first "retooling" and"developing the production lines", or by hamstringing perfectly competent and competitive bidders by forcing the project to be made in St. Margaret de Poutain de Champignon, QC because the ruling government either lost the seat in the election, or won it with promises.

We spend so much money and staff hours jumping through TBS regulations that are great for other departments, but are terrible for defence procurement. Some items you have to sole source, because there are technologies and capabilities no one else makes. By doing the bid process, you get companies clamoring for a project they can't deliver on, but because they tick the bright boxes on the score sheet....

I truly and honestly belief we need to split from PSPC and legislate that its not beholden to TBS, only to the PBO/PCO. The guiding principles of this new Defence Procurement department should be "Off the shelf, from somewhere else" if there isn't an industry in Canada.

BOOTFORGEN has demonstrated how well we do when we are able to actually get what we need, instead of lining the pockets of a Canadian company that got lucky.

That, but with tanks, fighters, ships, weapons systems....

 

[KevinB]

Quick search has 200 recorded incidents with the P320, with over 2.5 million units sold since 2014. That's an incident rate of 0.008% over all for the model. With that low of incident rate that's not even a QC failure. It's all about optics, is it bad or are enough people amplifying the incidents to give it a worse reputation then it is?

Those numbers are significantly lower than what I have seen.

 

[Underway]

In terms of the new BOREALIS, why not just expand DRDC?

Most successful defence export nations are underpinned by extensive domestic military expenditure on those very systems that are then exported. Is the LPC intent to massively expand the CAFs procurements and move towards a continuous production model vs boom and bust?

Because DRDC is defence focused and works with current technology usually on practical applications and evolutions of current technology. Example flight deck management system using simple computers and accelerometers, new ways to organize/make portable EW, heat vests to improve fine motor skills for cold weather medical care and other things like that.

BOREALIS would likely be "big ideas" focused, AI, quantum, other things like that. Maybs not defence focused even though those things have a lot of defence implications. Probably like DARPA or similar.

Its all imaginary right now, but yah overlap with DRDC could be an issue, so the mandates need to be clearly written out so they don't overlap.

Good question!

 

[MilEME09]

Those numbers are significantly lower than what I have seen.

Source:

More law enforcement agencies reconsider use of popular Sig Sauer P320 handgun • Stateline

As safety concerns over the Sig Sauer P320 handgun continue to mount, a growing number of police departments across the United States are rethinking their use of the popular semiautomatic firearm.

stateline.org

If you have better data I'd be happy to read it

 

[Blackadder1916]

Not my kids school. They all know about Vimy Ridge.

I think the problem isn't the schools, they cover the topics and provide the information. Kids that are interested grab onto it and do more research.
The problem is the US saturated culture, that doesn't tell Canadian stories. There is no real Canadian equivalent of Saving Private Ryan, The Pacific, Greyhound, Hurt Locker, Platoon, Midway, 1917, All Quiet on the Western Front, Dunkirk and the list goes on.

I was thinking about this quite a bit since the current troubles started. Not telling our own stories with big budgets and proper cinematic and/or international relases should be something we should aspire too.

Unfortunately, the best that Canadian cinema could come up with was Paul Gross's "Passchendaele" and "Hyena Road".

 

[Maxman1]

The Devil's Brigade was probably the closest we've gotten.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The Devil's Brigade was probably the closest we've gotten.

Shame on you... how could you forget our famous RCAF 'Scrounger' in the Great Escape?

 

[Blackadder1916]

Shame on you... how could you forget our famous RCAF 'Scrounger' in the Great Escape?

Nothing says RCAF like USA.

 

[lenaitch]

Oddly enough the thing I like the most about this (because we have to wait to see what happens) is the organizational names don't have Canada in the acronyms. Thank god! Why does everything have to have Canada in it. CRA, Canadian Space Agency, Health Canada etc...

To counter-balance everything in the US that has National in it?

The Devil's Brigade was probably the closest we've gotten.

Ah yes. That benchmark of accuracy that starts out with an American actor speaking some unknown accent after a long march in (from nowhere apparently) to pipes playing at about 120 BPM.

 

[Maxman1]

Ah yes. That benchmark of accuracy that starts out with an American actor speaking some unknown accent after a long march in (from nowhere apparently) to pipes playing at about 120 BPM.

And everyone wearing ties with Battledress, the OC in Tropical Service Dress, and claiming to be veterans of the Dunkirk evacuation.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Unfortunately, the best that Canadian cinema could come up with was Paul Gross's "Passchendaele" and "Hyena Road".

Canada has oodles of material to make a great war movie out of. Our problem is we expect other people to do it for us.

 

[PrairieFella]

Canada has oodles of material to make a great war movie out of. Our problem is we expect other people to do it for us.

A Leo Major movie is criminally overdue.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Canada has oodles of material to make a great war movie out of. Our problem is we expect other people to do it for us.

The problem isn't that we don't have the tales of derring-do, it's that to have the quality of production that rivals the Hollywood versions takes money which would be expected to be recouped at the box office. And like having a homegrown armaments industry, the market for a Canadian story told by Canadians is hampered by limited demand in the international (especially the USA) marketplace. That's not to say there isn't the talent (creative and technical) in Canada. Just look at the number of American productions that are filmed in Canada. Over the past several decades, they've come North attracted by favourable exchange rates, lower wages and government tax credits and that has helped develop a Canadian film and TV industry. But it is an industry that, at present, is tied to the Americans just like auto manufacturing. I'm awaiting for the White House funny farm to come out with tariffs that will try to force more Hollywood and less Hollywood North.

 

[Halifax Tar]

A Leo Major movie is criminally overdue.

And Tommy Prince, and Hal Lawrence and Thomas Fuller... There are scores of folks we could use.

 

[Furniture]

The problem isn't that we don't have the tales of derring-do, it's that to have the quality of production that rivals the Hollywood versions takes money which would be expected to be recouped at the box office. And like having a homegrown armaments industry, the market for a Canadian story told by Canadians is hampered by limited demand in the international (especially the USA) marketplace. That's not to say there isn't the talent (creative and technical) in Canada. Just look at the number of American productions that are filmed in Canada. Over the past several decades, they've come North attracted by favourable exchange rates, lower wages and government tax credits and that has helped develop a Canadian film and TV industry. But it is an industry that, at present, is tied to the Americans just like auto manufacturing. I'm awaiting for the White House funny farm to come out with tariffs that will try to force more Hollywood and less Hollywood North.

I think beyond that, the culture of the arts in Canada(particularly public funded) has a very hard left stance on things like the military and war. Which would result in a Canadian movie about Canadian military actions being an anti-war, and anti-military movie.

 

[calculus]

Haven't heard much lately on the rumoured AEW purchase, but this is interesting, and bodes well for the GlobalEye program:

Denmark could purchase up to four S 106 GlobalEye early warning aircraft in a future deal with Sweden

Denmark could purchase up to four S 106 GlobalEye early warning aircraft in a future deal with Sweden to support coverage in the Arctic

www.armyrecognition.com

 

[lenaitch]

The problem isn't that we don't have the tales of derring-do, it's that to have the quality of production that rivals the Hollywood versions takes money which would be expected to be recouped at the box office. And like having a homegrown armaments industry, the market for a Canadian story told by Canadians is hampered by limited demand in the international (especially the USA) marketplace. That's not to say there isn't the talent (creative and technical) in Canada. Just look at the number of American productions that are filmed in Canada. Over the past several decades, they've come North attracted by favourable exchange rates, lower wages and government tax credits and that has helped develop a Canadian film and TV industry. But it is an industry that, at present, is tied to the Americans just like auto manufacturing. I'm awaiting for the White House funny farm to come out with tariffs that will try to force more Hollywood and less Hollywood North.

In order for a movie to be a financial success in the large US market, it needs to be a US story and/or contain known US actors.

Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk was, in my opinion, a damned fine movie by a known, established producer. It only got about 35% of its revenue from the US market. Not a US story and no US celebrities. Darkest Hour and Imitation Game were roughly the same.

 

[Underway]

The problem isn't that we don't have the tales of derring-do, it's that to have the quality of production that rivals the Hollywood versions takes money which would be expected to be recouped at the box office. And like having a homegrown armaments industry, the market for a Canadian story told by Canadians is hampered by limited demand in the international (especially the USA) marketplace. That's not to say there isn't the talent (creative and technical) in Canada. Just look at the number of American productions that are filmed in Canada. Over the past several decades, they've come North attracted by favourable exchange rates, lower wages and government tax credits and that has helped develop a Canadian film and TV industry. But it is an industry that, at present, is tied to the Americans just like auto manufacturing. I'm awaiting for the White House funny farm to come out with tariffs that will try to force more Hollywood and less Hollywood North.

I think the idea that Americans wouldn't watch it is a red herring. International audiences watched Dunkirk. And with online streaming lots of other countries stories are making it out to the world.

We have Letterkenny as our most recent success. I think there are some great Cdn directors out there that could make a movie like this work.

 

[McG]

I would not be surprised if there is a decline in interest for patriotic American hero movies across global markets. That could then create opportunities for other nations to get more screen time internationally for their national stories.

 

[IKnowNothing]

I think there are some great Cdn directors out there that could make a movie like this work.

Legend has it that if you stare at your TV and say "Paul Gross" three times he'll hand deliver a DVD copy of Passchendaele within the hour.

 

[FSTO]

LCdr John Stubbs and PO1 Max Bernays of HMCS Assiniboine fame .

Master tactician John Stubbs rammed German submarine with HMCS Assiniboine - Canada.ca

The destroyer’s bridge was “deluged with bullets”, but Stubbs “never took his eye off the U-boat and gave his orders as though he were talking to a friend at a garden party...” said G. N. Tucker, who witnessed the action.

www.canada.ca

Ryan Gosling Ryan Reynolds could play Stubbs


Any ideas who would play Bernays?

Stubbs was a rising star in the RCN but was killed during night actions prior to D-Day when Athabaskan was either torpedoed or struck a mine.

There could have been a hell of a yarn told about these two and their ships but sadly our nation is incapable of getting stories to the big screen