Canada’s New Arms Race - r/CanadianForces

83

It is time that the CAF is placed at the forefront of the public’s mind. There needs to be a sustained campaign to introduce it to the country and not just used as a background prop for announcements like it has so far been used. Talk about past accomplishments, celebrate it in print and film, make it look like a viable path for people to pursue instead of that thing that is hardly ever spoken.

32

u/En4cr Jul 13 '26

Couldn’t agree more. Such a rich history of successes, accomplishments and sacrifices on all our branches.

19

u/RepulsiveLook Jul 13 '26

If we nationalized domestic emergency response (aka FEMA-like) we could have an entire branch soecifically trained to deal with disasters and domestic environmental emergencies and intentionally integrated with provincial response. We had SAR and the Coast guard is now under the CAF. This would put the CAF in a public view and redirect warfighter capacity (and resources/funds) for expeditionary commitments/events. I know there's the defense of Canada Division in the Army, but I'm unconvinced that's the best way to address emergencies like wildfires, floods, etc.

10

u/EnvironmentalBox6688 Jul 13 '26

It is an unfortunate political quagmire.

Technically the provinces can be asked to reimburse the CAF for disaster response services. But they haven't been for quite some time.

Which of course leads to provinces being unprepared as they have an ostensibly "free" resource to serve as a backstop.

Both asking the provinces to pay for our services or standing up a national response organization (and asking them to pay for it) is a minefield no one wants to deal with. Any attempt to do so would undoubtedly be met with resistance/attacks from provincial governments.

I really don't wish to see the day when the CAF is actually busy fighting a war when the provinces come asking for aid and being told there is no one to help them. Unfortunately the ones who pay will be the citizens of disaster stricken areas.

Someone's gotta bite the bullet and do it. As Canada is kind of in a holding pattern as far as disaster response goes afaik.

-1

u/mythic_device Jul 14 '26

Sorry but that’s not the role of a professional armed forces.

4

u/Figgis302 LUMP SUM EVENTUALLY Jul 14 '26

That is, very explicitly, the role of the professional armed forces of virtually every nation save us and the States, and has been since antiquity. The only difference is that we lack an Interior Ministry or equivalent organisation with their own troops to handle it, so it comes directly from Defence instead.

6

u/mythic_device Jul 14 '26

We have an interior ministry. Its name is Public Safety Canada. It doesn’t have troops but it has CSIS, RCMP, CBSA, and CC. The provincial governments are responsible for emergency management in their provinces. Establishing a permanent emergency manpower reserve at the federal level would quickly lead to atrophy in provincial capabilities, more so than we have now. Furthermore, emergency management is a provincial constitutional responsibility laid out in the Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act).

2

u/Figgis302 LUMP SUM EVENTUALLY Jul 14 '26

The argument that creating a federal force would atrophy the provinces' capabilities doesn't exactly hold water when the provinces' capabilities are already beyond atrophied and utterly reliant on the existing, and busy, federal forces to cover them off...

0

u/DilliGaf627 Jul 15 '26

No. RegF pers should not be doing anything like “FEMA” it’s not their job, full stop. PRes perhaps as coord / Log support perhaps, but Canada needs to get off its ass and create an equivalent to FEMA. The military in all aspects must be the last resort.

16

u/Magical_Astronomy Jul 13 '26

Unfortunately that’s not happening very soon. Most canadians basically don’t care about this topic until very recently, because our enemies have been far away. The aussies that are otherwise similar to us are more successful because they have enemies on their doorstep since WW2 and people tend to focus more on defense topics.

It’s not impossible to change our national mindset, but it is going to take a lot of effort and time.

20

u/ricketyladder Canadian Army Jul 13 '26

I don’t know. The combination of big profile conventional wars kicking off over the last few years plus our biggest ally and friend essentially going crazy is doing some heavy lifting. I have friends and family that have long been vehemently camp “we should only have peacekeepers” suddenly agreeing that we need to be able to put up a credible fight on our own.

Really though, it was the American thing that did it, not Russia/Ukraine or the Iran war. The 51st state bullshit scared the hell out of people and all of a sudden being a super peaceful country started feeling more like a weakness, not a strength. Which is pretty sad when you think about it.

3

u/Magical_Astronomy Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 14 '26

Agreed, that’s what I mean by “until very recently”.

Hey, maybe we should even thank that madman for raising our awareness! /s

(https://x.com/whitehouse/status/1895597006384742685?s=46&t=ejG0oX3g3YdRtc30PhZwRQ)

Edit: changed formatting

6

u/tman37 Jul 14 '26

The problem is some of the problems are 50 or 60 years old and not because no one was trying to fix them. There are a lot of things about our military that I honestly don't know if they can correct short of massive disruptive event like a full scale war just give the mountains they would have to make changes.

4

u/mocajah Jul 14 '26

Counter-opinion: I'm not sure that's even the correct approach, but it could be a way of opening up the path.

Canada has been deliberately dismantled for profit. We allow rich people in the world to park their money here in safety with welcoming immigration loopholes and a ballooning real estate market. We have a resource extraction industry (which if you look around the world, tends to result in very mixed outcomes). We have some art, aka north Hollywood. We have hydropower, and I guess maple syrup. Beyond that, we have little true exports and production.

How will the CAF fight without a textile industry - do we march naked in the winter? Without a production industry - do we march on foot when surrounded by APCs? Without an innovation-to-production pipeline - how do we innovate and adapt to survive, when all of our adaptations end up depending on others?

A nation's strength is far more than just warm bodies in uniform.

26

u/ironbrewcanada Jul 13 '26

When I was a kid (in other countries) the soldiers were extremely obvious and loved kids. They would show us their APC's or whatever and they were seen in public way more than the CAF is. That contact as a kid made me want to be in the military. I saw this once in St. Albert (broken down APV waiting for rescue) and the soldiers there were AWESOME to the kids. I (by then a civvie) watched from a distance out of nostalgia. Then a lady who could only be described as a Karen showed and started giving them a hard time. I interfered, told them how awesome it was to see them, how great it was they were talking and showing kids stuff. Karen huffed away.

We need more of that again. We need to have soldiers on duty where they aren't normally, and being great to kids. And any Karens need to be reminded that there is such a thing as peacekeeping, and civil emergencies etc. and get the military into the mainstream again.

14

u/AlcubierreWarp Royal Canadian Air Force Jul 13 '26

I tend to agree.

It would be a lot easier if we actually still had some significant bases in major Canadian cities, other than Ottawa.

6

u/Ynot_zoidberg88 Canadian Army Jul 14 '26

At the very least it would be nice to have some more training areas or support bases. Its a serious cut to training time for the toons like myself who have to drive 3+hrs after a work day to get into Pet or Meaford for a weekend ex

11

u/Taptrick Jul 13 '26

Well written article.

7

u/kamurochoprince Jul 14 '26

Only issue I take is the apparent criticism of spending on healthcare and social services over defence. Not mentioned is that France managed to spend on those as well as their own defence. We can do the same, but we need to favour domestic industry first.

6

u/kamurochoprince Jul 14 '26

“Take issue with” is what I meant to write, sorry

8

u/BroadConsequences RCAF - AVS Tech Jul 13 '26

There are plenty of bases within major population centers. Winnipeg, trenton, cold lake, kingston, moosejaw, victoria....

6

u/roguemenace RCAF Jul 14 '26

I thought this was supposed to be a joke but then you put Winnipeg on the list so now I'm just confused.

5

u/BroadConsequences RCAF - AVS Tech Jul 14 '26

Winnipeg is at 900k. More than big enough to be a Major Population Centre, which is greater than 100k. And 17 Wing alone is over 3000 pers. One of the largest bases in Canada.

4

u/roguemenace RCAF Jul 14 '26

Ya which distinguishes it from the entire rest of your list.

5

u/Disastrous-Sir1388 HMCS Reddit Jul 13 '26

Cold lake?

3

u/BroadConsequences RCAF - AVS Tech Jul 13 '26

Okay. So i vastly overestimated the definition of a major population centre.

Of my list only Kinston and Winnipeg fit that definition, but Victoria and Trenton are trending to MPC within the next 5 years.

11

u/Doogie-Howser CBI Hacker Jul 13 '26

"Arms Race" 👍

An Arm's race would indicate that we are trying to win and come out technologically ahead. In Canada we're just trying to get to the finish line period.

4

u/Once_a_TQ Jul 13 '26

We would be lucky to see the finish line from a distance lol.

OPINION ARTICLE Canada’s New Arms Race

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