Why on earth would we? Canada benefits from higher energy prices. Of course we would benefit far far more if foolish Liberals (and those who vote Liberal, Bloc, NDP, or Green) hadn't chosen to impede our oil and gas industry.
In fact, a few years of high prices might provide a good object lesson for many who need it.
Canadians don’t benefit from high energy prices. We are all paying more at the pump, and soon we’ll be paying more everywhere else as the cost of trucking goes up.
Some large corporations will make a killing, and presumably governments as well through royalties.
I don’t think wealth flowing from Canadians to corporations and governments is a good thing when we get nothing for it.
Canada is a net energy exporter. The country, therefore, on net, benefits from higher prices. As with any economic activity or transaction, the results are unevenly distributed. This kind of uneven distribution doesn't bother many Canadians when it comes to government spending.
I’m grateful for the high oil prices since they are the only offset to the Canadian dollar tanking relative to the $US. The Bank of Canada is keeping interest rates lower than they should be to prevent real estate values from dropping even more than they have been thereby pissing off home owning Liberal voters. In addition to the total lack of fiscal discipline which will lead to Canada swimming in the same financial toilet as Greece and Spain a few years ago
Tell that to the person on a fixed income having to pay more for absolutely everything that requires transport by truck, whether its fuel or food. High energy costs drive up inflation which hurts absolutely everyone. It does not benefit anyone except oil barons.
"Fixed income" pretty much means boomers, who have captured all the benefits of economic growth in Canada over the last several decades. They'll manage.
But, true, too much of the money just goes to oil companies and governments. A jump in oil prices should be creating jobs for young people. And would be, if the boomers hadn't voted Liberal.
The government could reduce their taxes on fuel with the windfall they are making on O&G taxes. But they won't.
Of course, these are the people who insisted that the carbon tax didn't increase inflation. (I guess we will find out the truth shortly. Inflation has been comparing no-carbon-tax to carbon-tax prices for the last year).
Except that then governments buy our votes with various programs, and our pension funds like CPP benefit from the solid returns in the companies they invest in.
The Liberal government benefits from high energy prices, as they rake in more tax revenue. More money for their friends, Ukraine, and all the NGOs so they can maintain a stranglehold on power in Canada.
A rock and a hard place: Is it better to mitigate the effects of Trump's disaster in Iran or to clean up his mess and free him up to wreck havoc in Cuba, Greenland, Panama, our north, and lord know what else over the next three years?
This was highly informative with a minimum level of anti-Trump, anti-American snark, thank you.
Was it ever acceptable for Iran to control the Strait? The 'world community' tolerated this so long as the oil kept flowing, but lived in constant fear of disruptions. This gave Iran, a county ruled by crazed theocrats intent on extinguishing the state of Israel (AKA murdering millions of Jews), free hand in the region. Say what you want about the Israeli/American actions, but those days are over.
So, deal with the situation as it is, not as we wish it to be. Take this opportunity to secure the Strait of Hormuz permanently. NATO and the UN countries should be exploiting this and taking action, and if Canada can contribute to a Strait security force, all the better.
Just as a point of clarification, Iran did not "control the strait" any more than the UAE, Saudi, Oman or Yemen controlled the Strait prior to the war. Iran chose to effectively take control of the Strait as a response to the war -- this has always been a known risk of military action in that region.
Very true, but I think the point is now that Iran has done it, you can’t leave the regime intact. They have to be eliminated in order to get it open and show any regime anywhere that there is a massive price to trade disruption. If you don’t, there is nothing stopping regimes from doing the same thing everywhere.
I’m not making an argument about what needs to be done next. I’m just pointing out that closing of the Straits was a very well-known risk; and the Trump admin was either unaware of that risk, or chose to ignore it. Not only has this created an immediate oil shock, these choices also risk a serious medium-term famine in many poorer countries dependent on now blocked fertilizer.
If you’re weighting the administration’s strategic capability when it tells you what it believes needs to be done next, your assessment needs to take facts like this into consideration. JG.
Threatening the Strait has always been the blackmail Iran has used for 47 years. The difference now is the sense of international best interests that has deeply constrained US strategic interests is no longer the case. When it was the case, we saw how the Iran spread its malignant death cult fanaticism not only around the region but throughout the west. We see this not only on the streets of western capitals with supportive demonstrations of the IRGC but somewhere in majority range on western campuses. This 'fact' seems to have eluded the chattering classes when it comes to confronting its toxic influence and we see appeals to the negative effects of standing up to this totalitarian mass murdering terrorist enabling nuclear weapons seeking state. (This always seems to fall under, 'But think of the children' kind of mewling apologetics).
As history has shown repeatedly, misunderstanding US restrain with US weakness always seems to lead to a tipping point of armed conflict that the IRGC in Iran is now experiencing. Not pleasant and comes with negative consequences beyond the combatants. But basically this arrival at armed conflict is inevitable with expanding ideological doctrines that threaten US strategic interests and are confronted. Understood this way, calls for cease fire are identical to capitulation because the confrontation is the point.
Every person in the West has a stake in this confrontation (Iran being the Chinese proxy) being successful and, once again, the US is leading the charge on behalf of the entire and targeted western world. And, right on cue, apologists for anti-western sentiment come to the forefront and use 'But think of the children' to excuse their rationalized capitulation to this never-ending totalitarian aggression (in this case, fertilizer or helium or whatever being of more concern than the latest batch of thousands of Iranians including children murdered by this regime to maintain its power over them to export its death cult using Iran and its people, resources, and geography). We forget and/or ignore our duty to humanity itself when rationalize capitulating to such ideological forces in whatever modern guise its dresses itself.
This is a very roundabout way to justify Trump post hoc for launching a war without being aware of something you and I could have pointed out as an obvious risk 47 years ago. JG
The risk isn't to the US (threatening about 2.5% of US needs). It's showing that the US isn't withholding its strategic interests as it has done for the past 47 years because of the risk to others. Now it's up to others to step up and secure their own interests because that is what the US is going to do. You make it sound like the threat to the Strait was either an oversight or a surprise to the US. That's not an insightful framing; it's one that has already chosen a priori to hold a negative belief and base an evaluation on that belief. The strategy is, actually, quite clear except to those who don't want to see it. And the rest of the world better catch up with the changes if they wish to defend their interests. It should be noted for the slower of mind that being in alignment with the US' strategic interests makes this defense much, much easier and creates a much higher likelihood for recognized and demonstrated appreciation from the Administration. Or, as so many Canadians tend to believe, we can think Trump is a moron, the US is bad, feel righteous anti-American patriotism, and pretend China as a strategic partner is a Really Good Idea. I wonder what could possibly go wrong with this plan?
Trump knew exactly what would happen. It's part of his Green Plan. The planet is upset at energy costs and will therefore use less energy. This benefits the planet as less Carbon is being emitted. It works like a Carbon tax. You'd think everyone would be rejoicing. Gosh. Leave it closed.
I think the current administration made the same mistake that the Germans did in WW2 regarding Russia - they assumed that the regime was rotten to the core and they just needed to kick the door in.
That doesn’t mean that the military doesn’t have a plan. It is more that the administration doesn’t want to pay the price, especially with the midterms coming up.
But you can argue that by the world giving Iran free reign in the region, there was clearly an incentive on Iran's part to treat the strait as its own.
I assume you mean Iran, lol, thanks, yes I'm familiar with the Bibi/Likud talking points...
Thank goodness for being Canadian so we can make some popcorn, butter it up nice, and watch the orange mcdonald's garbage can self-destruct and take a few countries down with him. Self destruction (and general mayhem) has been his one competency. (He even sux at spending money... that ballroom is appalling.)
According to the byline, Philippe Lagassé is the author of this piece. Is his name and position a nom de plume, or does Jen Gerson speak for others now? I look forward to an acidic response.
No, it wasn’t. The title “AUTHOR” appears beside your name in the comment line, not “Line Editor”. I have been an editor; details are important if they could lead to misinterpretation.
I'll add to what the "crazed theocrats" will also continue to do.....make war (and way they can) against any form of governance dissimilar to theirs that isn't playing nice with them.
Trump is a senile lunatic and cannot be trusted. All the world is a reality show hosted by the reality show president. He has started a war. Doesn't know how to finish it without sending in the combat arms. Cleaning up American messes is our penance for having been too cheap to make the 2% GDP for NATO. (Even now the new 2% plan from Ottawa is a master class in creative accounting for stuff that has zero to do with winning the firefight.)
It doesn't matter what we say or do, the man is a lunatic and the next three years are going to be unreal, messed up, dangerous, bewildering and more².
I agree, Trump is a senile lunatic. But he does have is access to the best intelligence in the world. There is a chance that he is doing what is best for Americans, but he always makes it sound dumb when he gets access to a microphone. Or a phone.
It’s well known that he ignores anything presented to him by the intelligence community and he has never done anything for the best interests of the American people. Only for him and people whose last name is Trump.
Trump is unlikely to matter. Unless a deus ex machina pulls off a miracle the USA and Israel have lost the war.
If we want to help with mine clearing, or whatever, we should be offering our help to the Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Or possibly to the Sultan of Oman since it seems that Iran and Oman are in talks about shared management of the Strait.
Do we have even have any mine sweepers? I cannot find any.
I have not even seen a reliable report that there are any mines. There seems to be no doubt that Iran can mine the Strait but has it
20% of the world's oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz. 7% of US oil uses that passage. It's time for "the world" to give up that free ride and assume some international maturity.
Hiding behind "The US started all this" ignores a nuclear-armed Islamist Iran. Hands up all who find that appealing.
The premise that Canada has the military capacity to 'clean up' any mess is ludicrous. If Guatemala invaded us tomorrow, we'd all need to learn Spanish.
The list of countries that could successfully invade, militarily defeat, and occupy Canada if they put their minds to it and the US didn't intervene, is probably embarrassingly and comically long.
755774 The reason Trump could not advise his NATO allies of his intentions in Iraq is because of people like you in government who can't be trusted to keep information confidential. You are like the home owner who has a known killer living on his street who has murdered his wife and children but you don't want the police to arrest him because if he is let out on bail he might come and burn your house down. Another usful Idiot.
This essay is a classic example of Canada's hermit-class thinking. No, neither the US nor Israel consulted us about this war.
Why would they?
Canada has made it clear to the Israelis that we're not on their side. That for the Liberal party, Muslim votes count for much more than piffles such as Israel's right to self-defence.
And what would Canada have brought to a war with Iran, a few frigates for the Iranians to sink? All we've got in the in the military cupboard are crates jammed full of expired moral self-congratulation.
Fact: Iran is attempting to produce nuclear bombs. It already has enough refined uranium for 11 of them.
Iran also has an advanced ballistic missile program. Everyone's (apparently) been surprised to discover that Iran can already launch a missile at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, which means that they can also land a missile in most of Western Europe.
But Iran also has a satellite program run by the revolutionary guard, who of course(!!!!) understand that their ability to launch a satellite into orbit will soon also give them the ability to land a bomb on Washington - or on Ottawa should they be bothered.
None of this concerns Ottawa's hermit class.
Iran's spent decades supporting terrorism, attempting to wipe Israel off the map, shooting down a civilian aircraft full of Canadian residents and citizens.
Iran's working toward the end of the world.
Pfft!
Please, we have other concerns - whether the CEO of Air Canada is able to mourn in French as well as English. Now that's important.
Iran, not Trump, started this conflict almost 50 years ago. Trump and Israel had the courage and resolve to end Iran's ever growing threat to the Western world that included the threat of a nuclear war. This author has, at best, a shallow knowledge of history.
I for one think Trump is doing an excellent job. I dont want Iran to have nuclear weapons or the means to drop them on us. Was JFK right when Russians were trying to deploy nuclear weapons to Cuba? I think JFK and Trump were both right.
"Unfortunately, cleaning up American-made messes might be our new shared reality"
...... yeaaahhh suuurrre, Canada as a compromised and corrupted proxy, (Markie Carnie the conman is seeing to that) under the red flag of the Chinese Communist Party would be a "welcome" member of that effort. I call bullshit.
A few years ago Biden’s State Dept asked if Canada might be able to assist in Haiti during its gang war and chaos. Canada said sorry, no can do. No, you could be of no help in the Stright of Hormuz. Stop deluding yourself.
What countries have the demining technology available? As I understand the US recently decommissioned its wooden hulled minesweapers, apparently underwater drones are the better way to demine waterways, so who has this technology?
Also why are the Gulf states, whose Navies are designed for that water, not being pressured to assist? Its literally in their backyard.
If we've moved onto the whole "spheres of influence" thing there are a lot of Nations that ought to step up, on this particular naval exercise, before Canada.
You probably don't have an answer, I'm just curious if advancements in underwater drone demining technology means that mines can be taken out, even in hostile waters, without risking naval vessels.
Someone who I follow (but can't necessarily vouch for) states that there is quite a bit of unmanned capacity in the Gulf. The Remus 300, a UUV which locates sea mines and the SeaFox-C EMDV which destroys them (both UUVs, Unmanned Underwater Vehicle).
Then there are also three Littoral Combat Ships (a.k.a. the Little Crappy Ships) that are essentially just minesweepers at this point which have Knifefish UUVs and unmanned influence sweep systems (essentially an unmanned boat). So this paragraph is a bit off your question.
We can take a peacekeeping role...when there is a peace to keep. The US and Israel buggered this up. It's on them to solve it. Solving it doesn't involve more bombs.
The middle east is a quagmire we should stay away from. God knows what that madman South of the border could drag us into. Sending our questionably equipped navy there is simply unwise.
Why on earth would we? Canada benefits from higher energy prices. Of course we would benefit far far more if foolish Liberals (and those who vote Liberal, Bloc, NDP, or Green) hadn't chosen to impede our oil and gas industry.
In fact, a few years of high prices might provide a good object lesson for many who need it.
Canadians don’t benefit from high energy prices. We are all paying more at the pump, and soon we’ll be paying more everywhere else as the cost of trucking goes up.
Some large corporations will make a killing, and presumably governments as well through royalties.
I don’t think wealth flowing from Canadians to corporations and governments is a good thing when we get nothing for it.
Canada is a net energy exporter. The country, therefore, on net, benefits from higher prices. As with any economic activity or transaction, the results are unevenly distributed. This kind of uneven distribution doesn't bother many Canadians when it comes to government spending.
I’m grateful for the high oil prices since they are the only offset to the Canadian dollar tanking relative to the $US. The Bank of Canada is keeping interest rates lower than they should be to prevent real estate values from dropping even more than they have been thereby pissing off home owning Liberal voters. In addition to the total lack of fiscal discipline which will lead to Canada swimming in the same financial toilet as Greece and Spain a few years ago
Tell that to the person on a fixed income having to pay more for absolutely everything that requires transport by truck, whether its fuel or food. High energy costs drive up inflation which hurts absolutely everyone. It does not benefit anyone except oil barons.
"Fixed income" pretty much means boomers, who have captured all the benefits of economic growth in Canada over the last several decades. They'll manage.
But, true, too much of the money just goes to oil companies and governments. A jump in oil prices should be creating jobs for young people. And would be, if the boomers hadn't voted Liberal.
The government could reduce their taxes on fuel with the windfall they are making on O&G taxes. But they won't.
Of course, these are the people who insisted that the carbon tax didn't increase inflation. (I guess we will find out the truth shortly. Inflation has been comparing no-carbon-tax to carbon-tax prices for the last year).
Speak for yourself. This war can drag on for years and we'll be better for it.
But your Liberals all tell us that 0 dollars inflate trucking costs?
Except that then governments buy our votes with various programs, and our pension funds like CPP benefit from the solid returns in the companies they invest in.
The Liberal government benefits from high energy prices, as they rake in more tax revenue. More money for their friends, Ukraine, and all the NGOs so they can maintain a stranglehold on power in Canada.
A rock and a hard place: Is it better to mitigate the effects of Trump's disaster in Iran or to clean up his mess and free him up to wreck havoc in Cuba, Greenland, Panama, our north, and lord know what else over the next three years?
This was highly informative with a minimum level of anti-Trump, anti-American snark, thank you.
Was it ever acceptable for Iran to control the Strait? The 'world community' tolerated this so long as the oil kept flowing, but lived in constant fear of disruptions. This gave Iran, a county ruled by crazed theocrats intent on extinguishing the state of Israel (AKA murdering millions of Jews), free hand in the region. Say what you want about the Israeli/American actions, but those days are over.
So, deal with the situation as it is, not as we wish it to be. Take this opportunity to secure the Strait of Hormuz permanently. NATO and the UN countries should be exploiting this and taking action, and if Canada can contribute to a Strait security force, all the better.
Just as a point of clarification, Iran did not "control the strait" any more than the UAE, Saudi, Oman or Yemen controlled the Strait prior to the war. Iran chose to effectively take control of the Strait as a response to the war -- this has always been a known risk of military action in that region.
Very true, but I think the point is now that Iran has done it, you can’t leave the regime intact. They have to be eliminated in order to get it open and show any regime anywhere that there is a massive price to trade disruption. If you don’t, there is nothing stopping regimes from doing the same thing everywhere.
I’m not making an argument about what needs to be done next. I’m just pointing out that closing of the Straits was a very well-known risk; and the Trump admin was either unaware of that risk, or chose to ignore it. Not only has this created an immediate oil shock, these choices also risk a serious medium-term famine in many poorer countries dependent on now blocked fertilizer.
If you’re weighting the administration’s strategic capability when it tells you what it believes needs to be done next, your assessment needs to take facts like this into consideration. JG.
Threatening the Strait has always been the blackmail Iran has used for 47 years. The difference now is the sense of international best interests that has deeply constrained US strategic interests is no longer the case. When it was the case, we saw how the Iran spread its malignant death cult fanaticism not only around the region but throughout the west. We see this not only on the streets of western capitals with supportive demonstrations of the IRGC but somewhere in majority range on western campuses. This 'fact' seems to have eluded the chattering classes when it comes to confronting its toxic influence and we see appeals to the negative effects of standing up to this totalitarian mass murdering terrorist enabling nuclear weapons seeking state. (This always seems to fall under, 'But think of the children' kind of mewling apologetics).
As history has shown repeatedly, misunderstanding US restrain with US weakness always seems to lead to a tipping point of armed conflict that the IRGC in Iran is now experiencing. Not pleasant and comes with negative consequences beyond the combatants. But basically this arrival at armed conflict is inevitable with expanding ideological doctrines that threaten US strategic interests and are confronted. Understood this way, calls for cease fire are identical to capitulation because the confrontation is the point.
Every person in the West has a stake in this confrontation (Iran being the Chinese proxy) being successful and, once again, the US is leading the charge on behalf of the entire and targeted western world. And, right on cue, apologists for anti-western sentiment come to the forefront and use 'But think of the children' to excuse their rationalized capitulation to this never-ending totalitarian aggression (in this case, fertilizer or helium or whatever being of more concern than the latest batch of thousands of Iranians including children murdered by this regime to maintain its power over them to export its death cult using Iran and its people, resources, and geography). We forget and/or ignore our duty to humanity itself when rationalize capitulating to such ideological forces in whatever modern guise its dresses itself.
This is a very roundabout way to justify Trump post hoc for launching a war without being aware of something you and I could have pointed out as an obvious risk 47 years ago. JG
The risk isn't to the US (threatening about 2.5% of US needs). It's showing that the US isn't withholding its strategic interests as it has done for the past 47 years because of the risk to others. Now it's up to others to step up and secure their own interests because that is what the US is going to do. You make it sound like the threat to the Strait was either an oversight or a surprise to the US. That's not an insightful framing; it's one that has already chosen a priori to hold a negative belief and base an evaluation on that belief. The strategy is, actually, quite clear except to those who don't want to see it. And the rest of the world better catch up with the changes if they wish to defend their interests. It should be noted for the slower of mind that being in alignment with the US' strategic interests makes this defense much, much easier and creates a much higher likelihood for recognized and demonstrated appreciation from the Administration. Or, as so many Canadians tend to believe, we can think Trump is a moron, the US is bad, feel righteous anti-American patriotism, and pretend China as a strategic partner is a Really Good Idea. I wonder what could possibly go wrong with this plan?
Trump knew exactly what would happen. It's part of his Green Plan. The planet is upset at energy costs and will therefore use less energy. This benefits the planet as less Carbon is being emitted. It works like a Carbon tax. You'd think everyone would be rejoicing. Gosh. Leave it closed.
😆 😆 😆👏
Excellent.
I think the current administration made the same mistake that the Germans did in WW2 regarding Russia - they assumed that the regime was rotten to the core and they just needed to kick the door in.
That doesn’t mean that the military doesn’t have a plan. It is more that the administration doesn’t want to pay the price, especially with the midterms coming up.
But you can argue that by the world giving Iran free reign in the region, there was clearly an incentive on Iran's part to treat the strait as its own.
Hypothetical and pointless.
But for U.S./Likud adventures, we wouldn't have this problem in the strait. No amount of awkward after-the-fact justification changes that.
I see your point: let's just ignore the world's number sponsor of world wide terrorizm...🙄🙄
I assume you mean Iran, lol, thanks, yes I'm familiar with the Bibi/Likud talking points...
Thank goodness for being Canadian so we can make some popcorn, butter it up nice, and watch the orange mcdonald's garbage can self-destruct and take a few countries down with him. Self destruction (and general mayhem) has been his one competency. (He even sux at spending money... that ballroom is appalling.)
According to the byline, Philippe Lagassé is the author of this piece. Is his name and position a nom de plume, or does Jen Gerson speak for others now? I look forward to an acidic response.
Philippe is the author. Is this not clear? I am merely clarifying a point made in the comments section. JG
No, it wasn’t. The title “AUTHOR” appears beside your name in the comment line, not “Line Editor”. I have been an editor; details are important if they could lead to misinterpretation.
I guess they do control the Strait now :-)
I'll add to what the "crazed theocrats" will also continue to do.....make war (and way they can) against any form of governance dissimilar to theirs that isn't playing nice with them.
Trump is a senile lunatic and cannot be trusted. All the world is a reality show hosted by the reality show president. He has started a war. Doesn't know how to finish it without sending in the combat arms. Cleaning up American messes is our penance for having been too cheap to make the 2% GDP for NATO. (Even now the new 2% plan from Ottawa is a master class in creative accounting for stuff that has zero to do with winning the firefight.)
It doesn't matter what we say or do, the man is a lunatic and the next three years are going to be unreal, messed up, dangerous, bewildering and more².
I agree, Trump is a senile lunatic. But he does have is access to the best intelligence in the world. There is a chance that he is doing what is best for Americans, but he always makes it sound dumb when he gets access to a microphone. Or a phone.
It’s well known that he ignores anything presented to him by the intelligence community and he has never done anything for the best interests of the American people. Only for him and people whose last name is Trump.
I find it hard to believe that Trump is a geopolitical genius who independently figured out that:
- Iran is working on nuclear weapons
- Maduro was trafficking drugs
- Venezuela has oil
- the Panama Canal, Canada's Arctic and Greenland are important chokepoints for Atlantic defense
- there are looming demographic problems in Europe
- Canada is transshipping Chinese imports into the US
- the NATO allies weren't contributing enough to their own defense
- China is about to invade Taiwan
Trump is unlikely to matter. Unless a deus ex machina pulls off a miracle the USA and Israel have lost the war.
If we want to help with mine clearing, or whatever, we should be offering our help to the Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Or possibly to the Sultan of Oman since it seems that Iran and Oman are in talks about shared management of the Strait.
Do we have even have any mine sweepers? I cannot find any.
I have not even seen a reliable report that there are any mines. There seems to be no doubt that Iran can mine the Strait but has it
Yeah but he's a part of the regime that killed upwards of 36,000 of its own citizens.
/sarc
20% of the world's oil supply goes through the Strait of Hormuz. 7% of US oil uses that passage. It's time for "the world" to give up that free ride and assume some international maturity.
Hiding behind "The US started all this" ignores a nuclear-armed Islamist Iran. Hands up all who find that appealing.
The premise that Canada has the military capacity to 'clean up' any mess is ludicrous. If Guatemala invaded us tomorrow, we'd all need to learn Spanish.
The list of countries that could successfully invade, militarily defeat, and occupy Canada if they put their minds to it and the US didn't intervene, is probably embarrassingly and comically long.
755774 The reason Trump could not advise his NATO allies of his intentions in Iraq is because of people like you in government who can't be trusted to keep information confidential. You are like the home owner who has a known killer living on his street who has murdered his wife and children but you don't want the police to arrest him because if he is let out on bail he might come and burn your house down. Another usful Idiot.
What in the actual bleep are you talking about?
This essay is a classic example of Canada's hermit-class thinking. No, neither the US nor Israel consulted us about this war.
Why would they?
Canada has made it clear to the Israelis that we're not on their side. That for the Liberal party, Muslim votes count for much more than piffles such as Israel's right to self-defence.
And what would Canada have brought to a war with Iran, a few frigates for the Iranians to sink? All we've got in the in the military cupboard are crates jammed full of expired moral self-congratulation.
Fact: Iran is attempting to produce nuclear bombs. It already has enough refined uranium for 11 of them.
Iran also has an advanced ballistic missile program. Everyone's (apparently) been surprised to discover that Iran can already launch a missile at the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, which means that they can also land a missile in most of Western Europe.
But Iran also has a satellite program run by the revolutionary guard, who of course(!!!!) understand that their ability to launch a satellite into orbit will soon also give them the ability to land a bomb on Washington - or on Ottawa should they be bothered.
None of this concerns Ottawa's hermit class.
Iran's spent decades supporting terrorism, attempting to wipe Israel off the map, shooting down a civilian aircraft full of Canadian residents and citizens.
Iran's working toward the end of the world.
Pfft!
Please, we have other concerns - whether the CEO of Air Canada is able to mourn in French as well as English. Now that's important.
Canada's Inability to intervene even in Haiti, highlights Canada’s international irrelevance
https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/inability-to-intervene-in-haiti-highlights-canadas-international-irrelevance-richard-shimooka-in-the-hub/
Iran, not Trump, started this conflict almost 50 years ago. Trump and Israel had the courage and resolve to end Iran's ever growing threat to the Western world that included the threat of a nuclear war. This author has, at best, a shallow knowledge of history.
strange comment
I for one think Trump is doing an excellent job. I dont want Iran to have nuclear weapons or the means to drop them on us. Was JFK right when Russians were trying to deploy nuclear weapons to Cuba? I think JFK and Trump were both right.
"Unfortunately, cleaning up American-made messes might be our new shared reality"
...... yeaaahhh suuurrre, Canada as a compromised and corrupted proxy, (Markie Carnie the conman is seeing to that) under the red flag of the Chinese Communist Party would be a "welcome" member of that effort. I call bullshit.
A few years ago Biden’s State Dept asked if Canada might be able to assist in Haiti during its gang war and chaos. Canada said sorry, no can do. No, you could be of no help in the Stright of Hormuz. Stop deluding yourself.
Lest we forget - https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/inability-to-intervene-in-haiti-highlights-canadas-international-irrelevance-richard-shimooka-in-the-hub/
What countries have the demining technology available? As I understand the US recently decommissioned its wooden hulled minesweapers, apparently underwater drones are the better way to demine waterways, so who has this technology?
Also why are the Gulf states, whose Navies are designed for that water, not being pressured to assist? Its literally in their backyard.
If we've moved onto the whole "spheres of influence" thing there are a lot of Nations that ought to step up, on this particular naval exercise, before Canada.
We still have four Kingston-class ships left and they can do minesweeping, but you wouldn't want them there in the middle of an active warzone.
You probably don't have an answer, I'm just curious if advancements in underwater drone demining technology means that mines can be taken out, even in hostile waters, without risking naval vessels.
Someone who I follow (but can't necessarily vouch for) states that there is quite a bit of unmanned capacity in the Gulf. The Remus 300, a UUV which locates sea mines and the SeaFox-C EMDV which destroys them (both UUVs, Unmanned Underwater Vehicle).
Then there are also three Littoral Combat Ships (a.k.a. the Little Crappy Ships) that are essentially just minesweepers at this point which have Knifefish UUVs and unmanned influence sweep systems (essentially an unmanned boat). So this paragraph is a bit off your question.
We can take a peacekeeping role...when there is a peace to keep. The US and Israel buggered this up. It's on them to solve it. Solving it doesn't involve more bombs.
"... while waiting for new capabilities that have been contracted to be delivered" is A fancy way of saying will never happen.
The middle east is a quagmire we should stay away from. God knows what that madman South of the border could drag us into. Sending our questionably equipped navy there is simply unwise.
Yet no one questions why our ships are "questionably equipped"...
Years of neglect
Ever seen any national figure question this?
Me neither. Canada isn't a serious country, so we shouldn't be expected to be taken seriously.