Canada lags in Arctic arms race

Qu'elle surprise...

Nobody should lay awake at night over this wondering how we got here.

Well I should damn well hope so considering our Arctic shoreline is many, many times the size of theirs.

But it isn't just the Arctic, Canada lacks many of the capabilities possessed by other middle power armed forces.

This, for me, is the biggest reason I didn't vote Conservative in the recent election.

Harper's been in office for 5 1/2 years and we still don't have plans, nevermind hulls laid for Arctic ops. And if they ever get around to it, the ships they will build will be a far cry from what he promised in 2006.

I fully understand that the war in Afghanistan consumed a lot of resources, but the his government has such a record of inconsistency vis-a-vis defence spending (dropping $3.4 billion for four C-17s, but refusing to spend $3.4 billion for three JSS, building one heavy icebreaker instead of three, building arctic patrol vessels instead of real armed icebreakers, decommissioning a third of the Aurora fleet without having a replacement on order, etc), that his promises ring as false as everyone else's.

Canada First my ass...