Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday at an EU-Canada summit in Brussels formally signed a historic security and defence pact between Canada and the European Union. In signing the agreement, Carney cemented Canada's participation in the EU’s €150 billion (C$237 billion) joint arms procurement fund (SAFE), a five-year loan facility that allows participating countries to borrow funds to jointly purchase military equipment. The €150 billion figure represents the total borrowing capacity of the fund, not a fixed contribution by Canada or any other single country. Canada will only be responsible for repaying the amount it chooses to draw from the fund ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Prime Minister Mark Carney signalled he hopes Canada will be able to sign on to a major European defence rearmament plan by July 1, a step toward reducing the country's dependency on the United States for weapons and munitions. He made the remarks on CBC's Power & Politics following the speech from the throne, which committed his government to joining ReArm Europe. The speech did not set out a timeline, but Carney said he wants to move aggressively ... CLICK HERE for the full story

Dear President Trump, This past Saturday (02/08/25) I attended the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games in Vancouver, British Columbia; games honouring the sacrifices made by men and women in uniform injured during war defending their countries. You are likely not familiar with these games. There are no, “ I faked a bad foot, but I can’t remember which one to avoid the draft ” games. Perhaps you should start one. No doubt they will be the “biggest” and the “best”. When the American Team of Veterans entered the stadium, the crowd applauded, just as they did when the Canadian Team entered. The Canadian and Ukrainian Teams receiving a standing ovation. When our Premier, David Eby spoke, he reminded us of the generations of friendship between our nations. How Canadians and Americans fought and died alongside each other in WWI, WWII, Korea, and Afghanistan. As he spoke the crowd cheered and many in the American Team held their hands up with the heart sign. Many had tears in their eyes. I ...

Three new public opinion surveys suggest Canadians are growing more concerned about the state of the country's military — and about Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's threats to abandon allies who don't invest in defence. The Angus Reid Institute released new data Tuesday showing a larger share of Canadians — 29 per cent — are choosing military preparedness and the country's place on the world stage as their top political priority. Almost a decade ago, that figure was just 12 per cent. "Slightly more than half (53 per cent) say Canada should increase its spending level to two per cent or beyond," the survey analysis said . . . . CLICK HERE for the full story

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mark Norman, the former vice-chief of defence, made a prediction that sounded overblown at the time. “I really think the Americans are going to start ignoring us because they don’t think we are credible or reliable. They are not even putting pressure on us anymore,” he said in a January 2022 National Post interview, based on his conversations with contacts in Washington ... CLICK HERE for the full commentary from John Ivison

  A lot of you have written to ask where the Centre Ice Canadians team is at, with all the nuts and bolts of considering preparing a new political party.   This week, we’re sharing our draft policy framework . When you’ve had a chance to read it, please let me know what you think, at dcardy@gmail.com .   Early in the summer, we asked for policy ideas, and we asked for them in a demanding format. We heard from well over a hundred of you, with a lot of excellent ideas. Some of them are thought out to a level of detail that they could be submitted as government policy notes.   There is a lot of experience and sophistication in this group. Thank you for sharing it.   I have tried to synthesize those ideas, and to put them in a framework that begins to describe our potential party’s values and vision. They’re your ideas; with weight given here to ideas that were raised the most often or that justified their urgency most convincingly.   I heard a desi...

Growing threats demand a global defense for democracies. Could the answer be a New Alliance Treaty Organization?    After 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) largely succeeded in its mission to protect democratic Europe by keeping “the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down,” in the words of its first Secretary General. Russia has never invaded a NATO member, the US has guaranteed alliance security for almost 75 years, and Germany was so successfully kept down that its current generation of leaders struggled to embrace the idea of hard power, even when full-scale war returned to the continent.  Russia’s brazen and brutal invasion of Ukraine, however, has thrown a spotlight on NATO’s strategic and structural weaknesses. Even after years of Russian hybrid warfare and election interference against NATO member states, military aggression and expansionism in Georgia and Ukraine, and now a full-scale war and attempted genocide, i...

  At the author’s request, this commentary is shared anonymously ...     Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would say something like this. But I feel I must. Even though I know full well that it will achieve nothing.    I am an unashamed peacenik. I have spoken out against war my whole life. My prayer is, “ Lord, make me an instrument of your peace .” My favourite saying from my youth is “ Suppose they gave a war, and nobody came .”   But I am also the son of a Canadian farm boy who left his home and family to lay down his blood in the fields of France to liberate Europe and rid the world of a tyrant. He quietly suffered from his wounds the rest of his life. It was as a price he was willing to pay so that his children would never have to face a similar horror. It was his hope that this would never happen again. Yet, it has. And, we all have skin in this game; our peace was purchased with our father’s blood.    " Take up ...

  I can’t help but feel I am not alone in worrying, and wondering, about what the world can do following the rolling of Russia’s military in to the sovereign and independent country of Ukraine.   Just 39 years old when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed at the end of 1991, former military intelligence officer Vladimir Putin seems, by all appearances ready to once again use the hammer of military force to overpower any resistance to his aspirations.   While crushing resistance at home to a war which many everyday Russians oppose strongly, and indiscriminate bombing going on in the Ukraine, it seems that the megalomaniac President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, will not counter any resistance to his imperialistic intents. But now, what should western democratic countries do? In addition to actual military targets, Putin has unleashed the targeted bombing of schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and homes – with the end result of innocent civilians bei...