Canada

In the 2008 Canadian National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy, $26 billion was planned for the construction of the 15 vessels of the Surface Combatant (CSC) Project, with the British Type 26 design being selected for the ships. In 2017, the cost jumped to $62 billion. The cost ramped up to $70 billion in 2019, after Canada selected Lockheed Martin’s design for the ship, and then to $77 billion in 2021 and now sits at $84 billion, more than $5 billion per ship.

They are going to need to recruit a lot of foreign Trannies to crew those 15 vessels.

The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) announced on Friday that permanent residents will now be allowed to enlist, as the military struggles with low recruitment levels.

Permanent residents were previously only eligible under the Skilled Military Foreign Applicant (SMFA) entry program, which was “open for individuals … that would reduce training costs or fill a special need … such as a trained pilot or a doctor,” according to the Royal United Services Institute of Nova Scotia, a not-for-profit association of retired and serving members of the CAF.

I got a feeling they’ll be setting up shop at Roxham Road by spring.

8 Reasons Why Rome Fell

For most of its history, Rome’s military was the envy of the ancient world. But during the decline, the makeup of the once mighty legions began to change. Unable to recruit enough soldiers from the Roman citizenry, emperors like Diocletian and Constantine began hiring foreign mercenaries to prop up their armies. The ranks of the legions eventually swelled with Germanic Goths and other barbarians, so much so that Romans began using the Latin word “barbarus” in place of “soldier.”

The only passport office in Ottawa lives in a dingy strip mall that seems ready to collapse from low self-esteem. A sign posted on the exterior doors commands, ominously, “FORM ONE LINE HERE. DOOR UNLOCKS AUTOMATICALLY AT 0700.” The mall now seems to exist only for the unfortunate souls who come to wait. There’s a tiny photo lab that rapidly prints passport photos for people found to be wearing the wrong facial expression or shirt colour, and a dentist office with a large, futile sign asking people not to block the entrance.

Thank you Shortcake for getting our passports renewed for ten years.

Ontario is a peculiar place.

There have been two full years of school closures—of dubious necessity—and now that the COVID regime has finally been lifted, just as children are getting settled back into regular class time, what happens?

Opposition parties are criticizing the Liberal government’s fall economic statement released yesterday, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre calling it an “inflationary scheme.”

“We had two demands: no new taxes on workers and seniors and no new spending unless matched by equal savings,” said Poilievre in the House on Nov. 3.

“Today, this inflationary scheme, triples, triples, triples the tax on home heat, gas, and groceries, and adds $20 billion of inflationary spending that will drive up the cost of living.”

Why was Singh even asked what he thought? He’s just a doorstop.