This was in this morning's unlikable Toronto Star's report on PM Martin's trip to Washington:
Canada will stand up for itself and its own security interests in North America, Prime Minister Paul Martin is declaring as he walks into today's summit with U.S. President George W. Bush. "We're not looking to the Americans to defend the northern half of North America," Martin said yesterday, after a flurry of meetings with top congressional leaders in the United States. "We will defend ourselves and we're not going to ask anybody else to do it for us."I am not interested in putting down Martin, advocating peacenickery or slagging the USA - but is this proposition technically possible? We can't keep the Danes off our rocks right now. With a greater land mass than the United States and 10% of the population as well as a relatively small, under-funded and over-streched military, it would take a massive shift in policy and investment to actually defend ourselves. While Canada has contributed significantly throughout its history to its own existence, world peace and democracy, to our credit, we have never fought alone - always bolstering the Empire, the Allies, NORAD, NATO or the UN.
So when the Prime Minister says something like that...what can it possibly mean?
Comments
portland - April 30, 2004 11:58 am
i don't want to give away too much but, from my years on the inside, i know about a little something about thousands of trained bomb carrying beavers. it's coming. martin is right. nobody is going to fuck with canada in the future.
portland - April 30, 2004 11:58 am
i don't want to give away too much but, from my years on the inside, i know about a little something about thousands of trained bomb carrying beavers. it's coming. martin is right. nobody is going to fuck with canada in the future.
portland - April 30, 2004 12:00 pm
and when you're trying to keep things on the QT; say it twice. sorry about that al.
Wayne - April 30, 2004 12:15 pm
Martin knows how to talk to Americans...much better then the fellow called Rick Mercier who likes to consider himself a comedian.
Ben - April 30, 2004 12:33 pm
You saw what we did to the Norweigans. We can protect ourselves.
Alan - April 30, 2004 12:52 pm
What did we do the plucky Norway? Just because my family left in 1250 AD doesn't mean we haven't got a soft spot.
Ben - April 30, 2004 1:03 pm
Well according to the prime minister we stormed their beaches and gave them a good ol' Canadian whooping on D-Day.
portland - April 30, 2004 1:20 pm
eisenhower had shaky handwriting and we went right when we should have went left.
Alan - April 30, 2004 1:42 pm
That Norway thing slipped my mind. Didn't he say it a couple of times instead of The Netherlands? I miss Chretien so much.
Ben - April 30, 2004 4:07 pm
Normandy. He said it instead of Normandy while he was trumpeting his defense spending at CFB Gagetown about 2 weeks ago.
SayNay? - April 30, 2004 4:42 pm
The N.Y.P.D. alone has a force of over 38,000. The entire deployable personnel of the Canadian military amounts to just over 24,000 (excluding the trained beavers).
Wayne - May 1, 2004 9:07 am
But, we have SeaKings......
SayNay? - May 1, 2004 10:50 am
Ah yes, the Sea King! Flying in one gives proof to our beloved moniker that we are "Crazy Canucks"! What can you say about a 1963 heliciopter that has killed or injured over 120 people and takes 30 hours of maintenance for 1 hour of flight? "It's the Canadian Way"?
SayNay? - May 1, 2004 10:53 am
I suppose your point was, Wayne, that the fact we still fly in these things should scare the hell out of anybody who would wish us ill!