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If our friends in Australia have any advice on how to change our entire cultural perspective on this matter, I hope they don’t keep it a secret. And our politicians will continue to treat the military like an afterthought for as long as there’s no public demand for better. Military procurement debacles would be public scandals, not fodder for mostly ignored auditors-general reports and the odd oped or column, a distressing proportion of which are written by Fisher and me, along with a few other colleagues.īut we don’t. Recruitment shortfalls would be big news. If Canadians had more exposure to the Armed Forces, if they felt more of a sense of understanding and ownership of the military, and the incredible role it plays at home and abroad, we wouldn’t let the politicians get away with the shameful neglect that has been the reality of governments Liberal and Conservative. I was amazed to actually see a soldier, a real one, in public, in Toronto’s suburbs. I was probably 13 or 14 years old, and it was one poor guy walking home from a bus depot, hauling a gigantic backpack through frigid winter cold. Indeed, I recall the first time I ever saw a Canadian soldier in real life. And because our military has been very small since the end of the Second World War, there are many Canadians, including generations who came here after the 1940s, who may not have a single serving member or veteran in their families. We don’t have officer training programs on post-secondary campuses, where students could get some exposure to the military and the kind of people who choose to serve in it (though some associates of mine are working to change that). We barely teach history at all in the schools, and what we do teach downplays our military conflicts. With the exception of small arsenals, most of the military’s real estate in the big cities was sold off years ago. But it’s not a top of mind issue because the Armed Forces are generally tucked out of the way in remote areas of the country, far from our major population (and cultural) centres. They admire the military and respect the courage of our armed forces personnel. It’s out of sight and largely out of mind. It’s not entirely separate from having our big, heavily armed brother next door, but it’s distinct enough to note on its own: Canadians don’t understand the military because, in general, we don’t see it. In in other words, when it comes to defence matters, Australia is a grown-up country.īut there’s another issue at play here. But you admittedly can’t make a case for a larger, more capable Canadian military force on the basis of literal need. We should, because that’s what sovereign countries and reliable allies do, and it would allow us to be a much greater force for good in a world that could indeed use more Canada. We don’t have to think about national defence, or invest heavily in it, so we don’t. Our closest ally and primary military partner is literally next door, and would protect us because our stability and sovereignty are essential to its own security.
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That’s the easy explanation, granted, and probably not the full one, but it’s actually probably true enough.Ĭanada, of course, is in the opposite position. commitment, but not enough to win a war). Marines is always in Australia, as a tangible sign of U.S. units in the Pacific at all times, of course, and a contingent of U.S.
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If Australia was suddenly threatened by one of its neighbours, even if its allies came rushing with aid, it could still take weeks or months to rally a major force (there are some U.S. It’s an entirely predictable and understandable, if unacceptable, byproduct of the Canadian public’s low literacy on military matters.Īs Fisher notes in his column, the easy explanation for Australia’s comparative maturity is that it is isolated and alone, in a rough neighbourhood, far from its major Anglosphere allies. But I do know that in Canada, our political immaturity isn’t a glitch or anomaly. In Australia, I don’t know what came first: the chicken of political maturity or the egg of public expectations of same. But the problem, as I see it, is more public than political. Article contentįisher is right to note that Australia’s political culture is simply more advanced on these matters than ours. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.