Comment 52643

By Shempatolla (registered) - website | Posted December 03, 2010 at 21:00:04

Ryan. Pure dollars is the most misleading form of representation of defence spending. The more telling figure is a percentage of GDP. In Gross dollars in 2009 Canada spent 20,564,000 on national defence which placed us 13th overall in spending. But as a percentage of GDP we only spend 1.3 per cent which puts us well down the list both in NATO and globally. These figures are from SIPRI the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

While the defence budget grew by 50% since 2003 that was out of necessity after decades of neglect by successive Liberal governments which cancelled program after program and allowed are Air Force, Army and Navy to approach rust out and suffer a huge degradation of capability. The bulk of those increases in spending were covered by only a few major programs. C-17 airlifters, C-130 J tactical airlifters, CH-147 Chinook heavy lift helicopters. Immediate operational requirement purchases for Afghanistan were necessitated by the fact that another Liberal government committed our army to a combat mission on the ground without the proper equipment to do the job. In eight years that equipment is now mostly worn out and needs to be replace again.

The figures you cite are also scewed by the fact that Canada occupies the second largest national land mass in the world. It costs more money for us to ensure and enforce our sovereignty and security simply because of scale. Our aircraft and ships burn more fuel, have to travel farther, and in more inhospitable conditions than most other nations.

Until we reach and sustain 2% of GDP on defence spending, arrive at a more rational, timely and efficient procurement system and recruit, train and retain personnel at sufficient numbers to do the jobs we require of them, we will not be in a position as a country to pass judgement on the country that provides us with the security we enjoy.

I will be the first one to criticize elements of US diplomacy and foreign policy when we do so. But I am not going to suck and blow at the same time when I know full well our neighbour is watching out for us.

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