Canada’s Military Revival Reflects a World Growing More Dangerous

Aaryan Bora, Political Reporter

Canada is cultivating its image as a very peaceful nation, positioned as a middle power, and diplomatically active and economically prosperous. The defense spending of Canada is very poor and it’s lagged NATO. The critics too cruised the armed forces as hollowed and unplanned. But suddenly Canada’s armed forces are recruiting at a very large scale driven by combination of rising tensions in the global order and economic certainty. We can analyse that Canada is planning something big as a few years back their military machinery was very poor and suddenly, they became powerful. There could be a huge reason behind it. Ottawa could be thinking that the protection which they used to get from the US military could end very soon so they need to be prepared to face any circumstances.

The change of building military very strong was in the minds of the people in Canada long time back when Russia invaded Ukraine and they thought how conventional warfare could return to Europe and how at the current moment manpower is still used in modern conflict. The war taught us that military power is not just about having advanced weapons but how to sustain it for national capacity. Nowadays the US always mentions Canada as their 51st state and the reactions to this statement make the people of Canada very anxious and nervous that their sovereignty could be under threat. To keep our country safe, we need to strengthen our defenses.

Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney decides to expand its military, and they reached NATO’s 2% defense spending target for the first time since the late 1980s. Mark Carney has decided to expand its infrastructure and to modernise its ageing military weapons. Canada is trying its best to recover from decades of strategic complacency. Canada had been using the security protection from the US and Donald Trump wants Canada not to build their own defense sector much at a larger scale. Critics within the NATO has accused Canada of using free US military power. Now Canada’s recruitment is going at a good scale but still its military capabilities are still very low and limited compared to its allies. It could take years and years of investment and planning. The World today is very different from the time during 1990s as now great power rivalry has started to emerge at a very large scale. Wars in Ukraine and Middle East is a great example of great power rivalry, as well as China emerging in the top 5 of powerful nations and forcing the west to rethink its security. In this current environment it is necessary to build strong foundations of defense to protect the people.

There is also a huge economic problem occurring in the world, rising of youth unemployment and the promise that stable careers have made the younger generations choose military service over others. The armed forces now are no longer committed towards patriotism; they are mainly putting themselves as a sole provider of economic security in a fragile economic state. Canada has made new rules that even permanent resident of the nation’s not just citizens can join the military which marks a milestone shift in the nations and in the service and it reflects an urgency to build a strong military with good amount of capacity. There is still a doubt that the new rules will be effective for a longer period or not. If you want to develop the whole machinery it will take quite a lot of time because it will be built from scratch. But one positive thing is that Canada no longer sees the military as a secondary thing, they see it as the top priority. The country is slowly understanding in this world we need to take some measures to protect our nation and for a nation which has been long accustomed to peace to American power, a realisation marks a very profound change.

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