The global security environment continues to deteriorate on an almost daily basis, and Canada, once again, is struggling to respond. Our leaders need to step up.
I would sincerely hope that our current government are thinking seriously about what a second Trump administration would mean for Canada. Years of hollowing out of senior foreign policy expertise at Global Affairs Canada in favour of administrative acumen means that we’re left with very few strong thinkers on FP issues. This was evident when Trump first came to power and the PMO and senior GAC officials couldn’t shake themselves from the fantasy that Trump was just another Republican who would respond to normal incentives. Trump 2.0 will be an autocrat actively hostile to Canada and I’m not confident that our leadership appreciates that or would have any idea how to deal with it.
A solid analysis by Vincent Rigby, with one exception.
The United States, regardless if Trump wins or not, from a national security standpoint, would be completely insane to allow Canada to fall into the hands of a power hostile to their own interests. That would quite literally be suicidal on their part.
The United States also would be insane to allow Canada to completely fall into the hands of a hostile world power due to our embarrassment of national resource riches, including mineral, forest, and (most importantly) fresh water resources.
The author is correct that Canadians are unbelievably smug and overwhelmingly complacent because of the reality of our US proximity and natural resource wealth, and it is our folly.
Canadians, despite their own baffling superiority complex, are also woefully ignorant of the rest of the world, and distressingly naive about real threats that exist as outlined in detail by Mr. Rigby.
This is why our largely urban electorate has been stupid enough to elect the fundamentally unserious clown politicians (from all parties).
Adults in this country better wake up soon, and stop voting in self-interested, immature, ignorant, and often deeply corrupt individuals to represent them.
We do have leadership in this country. We desperately need them to clean house of all the chaff (elected and beaureaucratic) that has built up in peacetime, before it's too late to do so.
Only then will we be able to focus bright minds on building up our national security and sound governance that Mr. Rigby correctly notes is currently nowhere to be seen.
A solid statement of the risks and stakes we face. But given the expertise and experience of the author, a bit more prescription or specifics on action needed, would make for more useful reading. Calling for leadership is something we are all doing all the time.
Canada couldn’t even handle a trucker convoy. Cops from other jurisdictions were flown in (probably commercially lol) to save Ottawa. Freeland & JT enacted the EMERGENCY ACT because omg Ottawans ‘felt threatened on sidewalks’ & the border at Windsor had trucks lined up. That’s all it takes to cripple our smug, virtue-preaching nation. And at the stupid inquiry that followed, every single political pundit fawned over how natural & articulate Trudeau was delivering THE explanation. (Insert eye-roll & throw up hands.) That is what this country is today.
In the mid 1990s I made the statement to a colleague the the internet would be the downfall of society as we know it. Here’s my next statement Canada will fall, immigrants will not fight for this country when the time comes instead Canada will be ripe for the picking because of our water, minerals and oil. If you do not control your boarders and protect your sovereignty future generations can blame the current citizens who voted for politicians based on celebrity not intelligence.
Sorry, this comment is a repeat of a comment I made on 'The Line: Dispatch from the Front Lines'. But Mr. Rigby asks what the strategy is and I wonder what the strategy would be if what occurred in Russia last night were to occur at the Pearson Airport in Toronto.
In Russia, a plane from Tel Aviv lands and is confronted by and angry crowd, mostly Muslim, who wanted to take jews off the plane. I suspect there will be more information later, but CNN verified the story. The crowd outside the airport held antisemitic signs that included slogans such as “We are against Jewish refugees,” and “There is no place for child-killers in Dagestan.”
Note, Dagestan is "Dagestan, officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. - Wikipedia'
Under the circumstances, Canada should have a plan in place to protect Jewish refugees and Jewish Canadians. I’m guessing there isn’t one.
This is yet another symptom of having a bipolar country with two different solitudes, cultures and expectations. How the French and the English see the world are very different and Ottawa, that city with one foot in both, can't seem to commit to anything because of this quandary.
I'm not sure how much longer the current Canada can survive like this.
An excellent overview of the current government’s ostrich-like foreign policy. Of course it’s easy to rely on big brother to the south to make the baddies go away - Fort Drum in NY state has 15000 ACTIVE troops just a 2 hour drive from Ottawa ready to be called upon to deal with pesky misguided libertarian Canadians like freedom of speech loving truckers or First Nationals should the need arise. As someone pointed out in a previous comment things might be different under a 2025-2028 Trump administration which seems more likely every week. The obvious tempting alternative is to copy Mexico’s defense policy and bar the armed forces from engaging outside the country- Canada would then have a decent National Guard for natural emergencies, population control and palace guard duties. Canada could use its free trade negotiation skills to come up with a suitable fee to the US for its protection.
I have to agree that mentioning the Trucker Convoy in an a piece about global leadership and a lack of defence and security policy proved to be a flash point. Our internal federal system failed horribly in the case of the convoy but an absent Ontario government and OPP along with the Ottawa police were the problem. The federal government was forced to act by the ineptitude of other levels of government. Yes we need leadership, clear articulated policy statements on national defence, foreign policy, immigration policy and national security. The federal government doesn’t appear to be capable of pulling it all together despite all the resources at its disposal.
Excuse me sir but conflating the Freedom Convoy.....a noisy but necessary expression of anger at the arbitrary and punishing covid lockdown rules, with Chinese interference in Canada's electoral process is simply tone deaf and worse. It is definitely reflective of the Laurentian elitism that views Western Canadians as turnips that fell off the truck and it exposes your utter contempt for freedom of expression. There are more than enough Trudeau inspired scandals for you to reference. As for Canada's supposed role in the wider world, well, Trudeau spent 54 million dollars on the Arrive Can app which had an original estimated cost of 50 thousand.....that sort of corporate/govt backslapping goes by another word......fascism......lets stamp that out here before sending another billion to Ukraine.
But Canadians seem unable to agree on even the most basic priorities--and are plagued by a decline in the quality and coherence of public discourse (most notably in Canada's disintegrating news media sector, but also in academia). Present company excepted, of course.
For what it's worth, I'm not sure that the Conservatives would manage things better. Like the Liberals, the Conservatives are too fixated on the "fun and games" of attack politics and "gotcha" games to offer up much that is strategic and long-term in nature.
I would sincerely hope that our current government are thinking seriously about what a second Trump administration would mean for Canada. Years of hollowing out of senior foreign policy expertise at Global Affairs Canada in favour of administrative acumen means that we’re left with very few strong thinkers on FP issues. This was evident when Trump first came to power and the PMO and senior GAC officials couldn’t shake themselves from the fantasy that Trump was just another Republican who would respond to normal incentives. Trump 2.0 will be an autocrat actively hostile to Canada and I’m not confident that our leadership appreciates that or would have any idea how to deal with it.
A solid analysis by Vincent Rigby, with one exception.
The United States, regardless if Trump wins or not, from a national security standpoint, would be completely insane to allow Canada to fall into the hands of a power hostile to their own interests. That would quite literally be suicidal on their part.
The United States also would be insane to allow Canada to completely fall into the hands of a hostile world power due to our embarrassment of national resource riches, including mineral, forest, and (most importantly) fresh water resources.
The author is correct that Canadians are unbelievably smug and overwhelmingly complacent because of the reality of our US proximity and natural resource wealth, and it is our folly.
Canadians, despite their own baffling superiority complex, are also woefully ignorant of the rest of the world, and distressingly naive about real threats that exist as outlined in detail by Mr. Rigby.
This is why our largely urban electorate has been stupid enough to elect the fundamentally unserious clown politicians (from all parties).
Adults in this country better wake up soon, and stop voting in self-interested, immature, ignorant, and often deeply corrupt individuals to represent them.
We do have leadership in this country. We desperately need them to clean house of all the chaff (elected and beaureaucratic) that has built up in peacetime, before it's too late to do so.
Only then will we be able to focus bright minds on building up our national security and sound governance that Mr. Rigby correctly notes is currently nowhere to be seen.
A solid statement of the risks and stakes we face. But given the expertise and experience of the author, a bit more prescription or specifics on action needed, would make for more useful reading. Calling for leadership is something we are all doing all the time.
Canada couldn’t even handle a trucker convoy. Cops from other jurisdictions were flown in (probably commercially lol) to save Ottawa. Freeland & JT enacted the EMERGENCY ACT because omg Ottawans ‘felt threatened on sidewalks’ & the border at Windsor had trucks lined up. That’s all it takes to cripple our smug, virtue-preaching nation. And at the stupid inquiry that followed, every single political pundit fawned over how natural & articulate Trudeau was delivering THE explanation. (Insert eye-roll & throw up hands.) That is what this country is today.
In the mid 1990s I made the statement to a colleague the the internet would be the downfall of society as we know it. Here’s my next statement Canada will fall, immigrants will not fight for this country when the time comes instead Canada will be ripe for the picking because of our water, minerals and oil. If you do not control your boarders and protect your sovereignty future generations can blame the current citizens who voted for politicians based on celebrity not intelligence.
Sorry, this comment is a repeat of a comment I made on 'The Line: Dispatch from the Front Lines'. But Mr. Rigby asks what the strategy is and I wonder what the strategy would be if what occurred in Russia last night were to occur at the Pearson Airport in Toronto.
In Russia, a plane from Tel Aviv lands and is confronted by and angry crowd, mostly Muslim, who wanted to take jews off the plane. I suspect there will be more information later, but CNN verified the story. The crowd outside the airport held antisemitic signs that included slogans such as “We are against Jewish refugees,” and “There is no place for child-killers in Dagestan.”
Note, Dagestan is "Dagestan, officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. - Wikipedia'
Under the circumstances, Canada should have a plan in place to protect Jewish refugees and Jewish Canadians. I’m guessing there isn’t one.
This is yet another symptom of having a bipolar country with two different solitudes, cultures and expectations. How the French and the English see the world are very different and Ottawa, that city with one foot in both, can't seem to commit to anything because of this quandary.
I'm not sure how much longer the current Canada can survive like this.
An excellent overview of the current government’s ostrich-like foreign policy. Of course it’s easy to rely on big brother to the south to make the baddies go away - Fort Drum in NY state has 15000 ACTIVE troops just a 2 hour drive from Ottawa ready to be called upon to deal with pesky misguided libertarian Canadians like freedom of speech loving truckers or First Nationals should the need arise. As someone pointed out in a previous comment things might be different under a 2025-2028 Trump administration which seems more likely every week. The obvious tempting alternative is to copy Mexico’s defense policy and bar the armed forces from engaging outside the country- Canada would then have a decent National Guard for natural emergencies, population control and palace guard duties. Canada could use its free trade negotiation skills to come up with a suitable fee to the US for its protection.
I have to agree that mentioning the Trucker Convoy in an a piece about global leadership and a lack of defence and security policy proved to be a flash point. Our internal federal system failed horribly in the case of the convoy but an absent Ontario government and OPP along with the Ottawa police were the problem. The federal government was forced to act by the ineptitude of other levels of government. Yes we need leadership, clear articulated policy statements on national defence, foreign policy, immigration policy and national security. The federal government doesn’t appear to be capable of pulling it all together despite all the resources at its disposal.
Excuse me sir but conflating the Freedom Convoy.....a noisy but necessary expression of anger at the arbitrary and punishing covid lockdown rules, with Chinese interference in Canada's electoral process is simply tone deaf and worse. It is definitely reflective of the Laurentian elitism that views Western Canadians as turnips that fell off the truck and it exposes your utter contempt for freedom of expression. There are more than enough Trudeau inspired scandals for you to reference. As for Canada's supposed role in the wider world, well, Trudeau spent 54 million dollars on the Arrive Can app which had an original estimated cost of 50 thousand.....that sort of corporate/govt backslapping goes by another word......fascism......lets stamp that out here before sending another billion to Ukraine.
Yes, all true.
But Canadians seem unable to agree on even the most basic priorities--and are plagued by a decline in the quality and coherence of public discourse (most notably in Canada's disintegrating news media sector, but also in academia). Present company excepted, of course.
For what it's worth, I'm not sure that the Conservatives would manage things better. Like the Liberals, the Conservatives are too fixated on the "fun and games" of attack politics and "gotcha" games to offer up much that is strategic and long-term in nature.