By Terry Hughes
When was the last time you saw that many soldiers marching down East Main Street as shown in this photograph (top row). Unless you are as old as I am, we have not experienced a need to arm our country as shown in the 1945 picture when many of our people in the military were returning home. For a country of eleven million people, Canada had more than one million citizens in the three branches of our armed forces. We had the third largest navy, the fourth largest air force and the fifth largest army in the world!
Today, in these times of international crisis, our country of 40 million people only has between fifty and sixty thousand people serving in the military. On the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, we are flying forty-year-old CF 18’s, our navy is sailing a dozen frigates that are just as old and an army with heavy equipment that is in disrepair and outdated. While our people did honourable service in Afghanistan, it practically drained the budget for our entire armed forces. The first replacement for the frigates won’t happen until 2032 when the first vessel is launched and although we may see fifteen F 35’s next year to replace some of our old fighters, we will not reach replacing them all with the eighty-eight aircraft until 2030. An awful lot can happen on the international scene while we play catch-up!
Now before we wonder just why we should be alarmed about this predicament, a reality check is in order. Yes, we have needs that require attention within our own boundaries, but we cannot forget that we are surrounded by three oceans, a huge Arctic wilderness and our NATO and east Pacific responsibilities that require a proper defence posture.
Already, the head of NATO has raised the alarm about Canada’s refusal to meet its obligations of spending two percent of our GDP for defence. Twenty-three American Senators who do business with Canada have sent a letter to our prime minister for not living up to our responsibilities. As a member of the G7, our allies cannot understand how delinquent we are regarding our defence posture. Two visiting American presidents who spoke to our Parliament verbally requested increased spending on our military. Yes, the federal government has recently announced a huge order with various defence companies in an effort to play catch-up but the arrival for such weapon systems hasn’t been announced and as usual, they have not indicated how the government will pay for such equipment.
A large number of our army personnel are stationed in the Baltic states as our commitment to NATO due to the Russian incursion into the Ukraine. Since 1966 we have been using money intended for our military to support various internal social programs. Because of this situation, we are understaffed and ill equipped to defend our own country against the Russians and Chinese according to military sources, and are presently visiting our northern shores where we have no defence for these incursions. And our usual opinion is that we will let the Americans come to our aid. If Mr. Trump gets into office he will simply say: You’re on your own! As a result of a lack of funding and military planning, our standing in the world and at the United Nations is diminished while our prime minister plays “mister nice guy.” When the president of Ukraine was here last September, he asked our leader to encourage our NATO partners to increase military aid. He also said, “Oh and by the way Mr. Prime Minister, where are the military vehicles you promised to send last December! “
Unlike today, Canada, after the war, was proactive in maintaining a proper military posture. As Winston Churchill spoke of Stalin’s dropping the Iron Curtain across Eastern Europe, in 1947, Louis St. Laurent, Minister of State for External Affairs, first suggested the need for a group of North Atlantic Nations to stand up against any aggression by the Soviet Union.
In 1949 NATO came into existence with Canada being one of its founding members. As a lesson learned from the war, the need to develop jet aircraft was essential. The air force asked AVRO, its logo pictured here (middle row), to develop an all-weather fighter that would later be called the CF100 interceptor.
Some 500 aircraft of different marks were manufactured. For deployment in Europe, Canadair, a Canadian company, built 1100 F 86 fighters for fourteen squadrons stationed there. Pictured here (bottom row, left) is Capt. J.G. Sloan of Port Colborne with his F 86. And the development of Canada’s CF 105, the Avro Arrow, also shown here (bottom row, centre), took place in the late 1950’s. A network of three early warning radar stations and the introduction of NORAD as a continental defence with the U.S. was initiated. Our navy’s role in anti-submarine warfare was improved with the addition of three new classes of destroyers that played a vital role in monitoring Russian submarine movements during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Canada’s role in the Korean War gained recognition when a group of Canadian soldiers surrounded by hundreds North Korean troops successfully held them off and received a Presidential Citation from President Dwight Eisenhower for bravery. According to a government document, CANADIANS AND THEIR GOVERNMENT, the budget for 1963-64 provided 25 percent of our tax dollar for defence.
Unfortunately, the role that Canada would play as peacekeepers required less equipment leading to budgetary cuts and so our role began to diminish as a participant with our allies in defence and securing our national boundaries from possible aggressors. Although several Conservative Governments did little to improve our situation, the Liberals must shoulder the majority of the blame.
Now, a final thought that all of us need to consider. Like many of you, my parents were immigrants to this country between the two wars. They came here to Welland because of the many job opportunities but also, to escape the looming fear of facism and the Nazis threat. When war broke out in 1939 many of those men like my father shown here (bottom row, right), joined the military or worked in defence plants to turn out much needed weapons and materials to maintain our freedom that we enjoyed back then. Unfortunately, we are facing those same fears again. Our politicians need to respond to these continuing threats to our security but time is not on our side. Our enemies don’t respect a country for just being nice! Canada is not standing on guard for thee. Lest we forget.
Next Column: LOCAL MUSEUM CURATOR HAS CONNECTIONS WITH CANADA’S PAST
(Terry Hughes is a Wellander who is passionate about heritage, history and model railroading. His opinion column, Heritage Lives, appears on the blog once or twice monthly.)
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