The discussion going on about whether Canada could or should get involved in the war launched against Iran by the United States and Israel is becoming laughable.
We’ve had Prime Minister Mark Carney say that Canada wasn’t consulted nor asked to participate in the strikes last week.
Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada landed in Japan on Friday as part of a 10-day tour that also included Australia. All three countries share at least one major concern: how to adapt now that President Trump has made it clear that they will need to look after their own security.
After Mr. Carney met with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of Japan, the two leaders provided something of an answer — try to do more together.
“First, most importantly and fundamentally, we are enhancing our security and defense cooperation,” Mr. Carney said after a brief signing ceremony.
OTTAWA—While Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he can’t “categorically” rule out this nation’s military joining the growing conflict in the Middle East, practically speaking Canada’s armed forces don’t have a lot of tools for this particular fight, say experts.
Speaking Thursday in Australia’s capital Canberra, the prime minister said Canada would not be involved in the “offensive actions” the United States and Israel have launched against Iran, but could potentially offer some support to allied countries in the region.
There is a way the U.S. could play hardball with Canada, if the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney decides it wants to limit its purchase of F-35s in favour of the Gripen.
Critics who favour the Lockheed-Martin stealth fighter have long argued that the Swedish-built Gripen would not be interoperable with American aircraft and the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD).
That’s not what you see at the NATO air policing mission in Iceland, where Danish-owned F-35s have been training and operating alongside Swedish JAS-39 Gripens-Cs.
In recent months, the discussion that Canada may look abroad to supplement the ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has stirred unease. Canada has long prided itself on a citizen military — professional, volunteer-based, and rooted in a shared civic identity. Any significant move to recruit non-citizens at scale would represent more than a staffing adjustment. It would be a strategic signal with political, social, and reputational consequences.
Canadian anger toward U.S. President Donald Trump is understandable, but there is a real risk that this leads to poor policy choices. A case in point is the growing pressure to revisit the decision to buy a fleet of American F-35 fighter jets.
In economics, we think that governments should set policy goals, then decide how many workers to employ and how much capital equipment to use in order to achieve those goals at as low a cost as possible. A key goal underlying the decision to buy fighter jets is to protect Canada from military intervention by hostile countries. Swedish Gripen fighter jets are less costly, but also less militarily effective than the F-35s. Given this cost difference, the key question is whether the policy goal of keeping Canada safe from foreign aggression can be achieved using Gripens instead of F-35s.
OTTAWA — Defense Minister David McGuinty says rising global uncertainty is driving a surge of Canadians to enlist in the military.
“Applications are up because Canadians want to serve,” McGuinty said Tuesday at an announcement about increasing and upgrading the stockpile of housing on military bases. He said in the past eight months, there has been a 13 percent increase in new recruits to the Canadian Armed Forces.
“They’re very engaged in the project called ‘Canada’ right now. I think they want to make sure that Canada remains a secure and sovereign country.”
13% of very little isn’t all that much. And how much of that increase is owed to poor economic circumstances?
The Liberal government is on a mission to recruit foreigners to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), which is facing a significant troop shortage — a consequence of years of Liberal government policies.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government will trust foreigners with military secrets and arm them to protect Canada’s sovereignty. They’ll train while security clearances are being processed.
(Incognito)
HALIFAX — The head of Canadian Armed Forces says a policy aimed at attracting highly skilled foreign military members is getting a boost from the federal Immigration Department as the military scrambles to fill jobs amid a protracted personnel shortage.
Gen. Jenni Carignan, chief of defence staff, said Monday the military already has a program in place to attract military members with specialized skills, including pilots who already know how to fly F-35 fighter jets, which Canada is in the process of buying from the United States.
Carignan gave the example of a fighter pilot from the Netherlands who wants to move to Canada, saying the federal Immigration Department would now offer some help
A new age of ‘total war’ may be approaching. What would it mean for a generation of young, fighting-age Canadians to be thrust into a military conflict? For that, we look to Ukraine
Around this time of year, Grade 12 students across the country are starting to hear back about their university applications. For many, an acceptance letter represents the pinnacle of a long and arduous process – not only the countless hours of studying and prepping for exams, but also the gauntlet of sports practices, music lessons and volunteer hours that fill out the applicant’s extracurricular profile.
University admissions are but one milestone in a larger social script – one that reflects our assumptions about what it means to “make it” in contemporary society. It’s a familiar script, whose story beats are the stuff of a thousand bank advertisements: convocations, starter jobs and starter homes, painting a baby’s room, a luxury car, a long stretch of golden years, laughter on a beach.
I doubt many will sign up and Ukraine is not exactly a role model.
The upper range of the budget estimate for a new fleet of Arctic vehicles has jumped from $249 million to $1 billion in less than a year, the defence department has confirmed.
Defence industry representatives were told in April 2025 that the budget for the project to buy the 170 vehicles would be between $100 million and $249 million.
Who does their budgeting? This sounds like graft is built into the system.
Our trailblazing Prime Minister was at the podium in Montreal. “Over the last few decades,” Mark Carney said, “Canada has neither spent enough on our defence nor invested enough in our defence industries.”
That has to change, he added, setting out plans for far more domestic spending on military hardware because “the assumptions that defined decades of Canadian defence and foreign policy have been turned upside-down.”
Canada is finally having the defence conversation it has deferred for a generation. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new $6.6 billion Buy Canadian defence plan promises to prioritize domestic production, expand small- and medium-sized firms into the sector, and create up to 125,000 jobs over the next decade.
At the same time, Canada has pledged to raise core defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP within 10 years, alongside an additional 1.5 percent for dual use security infrastructure. By 2035, that implies annual defence-related spending approaching $160 billion.
The federal government is shaking up its main economic immigration program to facilitate the entry of high-skilled military recruits for the Canadian Armed Forces, part of Ottawa’s renewed focus and spending push on the defence sector.
On Wednesday, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced new categories for selecting immigrants via Express Entry, a points-based system that is the main entryway for skilled workers seeking permanent residency.
The Canadian government’s long-awaited defence industrial strategy formally landed on Tuesday and arrives in the shadow of a push by the Trump administration to further make the United States the arms-maker of choice among allies.
The new strategy has been in the works for more than a year and promises to use defence investment to leverage the Canadian economy and jobs.
It sets out a series of important, high benchmarks for the country to achieve over the next decade, including buying and maintaining most of the military’s equipment domestically.
