Yes. Wherry indicates clearly where his words are and aren’t.

It matters, hypocrite.

Also Tony, come to think of it, “spy on others”???

You do realize that you’ve posted your comment in the public comments section of a national magazine, don’t you?  I don’t think that reading your public comment on a blog post constitutes “spying” on you.

From my POV, at its lowest level, it is simply about clarity.

May I suggest that you use the blockquote/blockquote HTML tags…if you do you would address pretty well all of the related criticisms that have been directed your way.

Which is largely what LKO suggests, below.

And we’ll apparently be spending $240 billion in the next 20 years on new equipment, training and bases (so, $120 billion over 10 years).  I know that $120 billion over the next 10 years isn’t the same as $170 billion, but given the population disparities between our two countries if your $170 billion figure for the Russians is accurate we’ll be spending $3476 per Canadian to upgrade the military over the next 10 years while the Russians spend  $1189 per Russian.

It seems to me that we’re still the ones who are “scared” in that scenario.  Or would you suggest that spending more than double the Russians on military upgrades over the next ten years isn’t sufficient?

Actually, the Canada First document you refer to suggests spending of $60 billion on equipment over the next 20 years (assuming you would like an apples to apples comparison).  That would mean, I assume, approximately $30 billion over the next ten years, compared to the $170 billion announced by the Russians.  Russia also gets somewhat more “bang for the buck”, if you’ll pardon the expression, as most of her purchases will be made within Russia, where domestic labour and material rates are lower than in Canada or the countries from which we generally purchase military hardware.  So I don’t think your comparison between the two plans is particularly apposite.
By the end of that period Canada will have 65 combat jets.  How many will the Russians have to oppose them?  And why do you think they are making that commitment?

Well, I don’t know where you got the $170 billion figure from but I added in improvements to training and infrastructure (bases etc…) along with the strictly “new equipment” money to come up with my 120 billion figure.  Still, if you want to stick with the $170 billion versus $30 billion figures over 10 years I can do that too.  That means that the Russians will be spending $144,000 per active member of their forces over the next 10 years on new equipment for them while Canada spends over $440,000 per active duty member over the same time period.  Which is great, imho, but hardly an indication that we need to “keep up” with the Russians.  On a per-capita basis we’re LAPPING them.

As to how many jets the Russians will have to oppose our fighter jets, you can’t be serious.  Russia has over a million people in their armed forces.  They’ve got about 1500 fighter jets today.  Yes, they have us outnumbered in the skies 23 to 1, but what’s your point?  Are we going to build up our military to the point that we can single-handedly defend ourselves against the RUSSIANS?  Is that it?  ‘Cause I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that’s going to require us to TRIPLE our defense budget and increase the size of the Canadian Forces by over 17 times their current size.  I don’t know how recruiting is going for the Canadian Forces these days, but I’d be willing to bet that it’ll take them a while to increase the current force by over 1.1 million personnel.

Whether the Russians spend $170 billion on new military equipment, or zero dollars on new military equipment, or $1.7 trillion on new equipment really doesn’t matter.  Under none of those circumstances could even the most robust CF plan imaginable create a force capable of independently stopping the Russians from doing whatever they darned-well please in the Arctic, or elsewhere (vis a vis Canada).  Canada would have as much chance of stopping the Klingons or the Romulans from taking the Arctic from us as we’d have in stopping the Russians, and I think we should put as much thought and energy in to figuring out how to independently defend ourselves from an air force that has us outnumbered more than 20-1 as we do figuring out how to defend ourselves from interplanetary invasion.  No amount of military spending by Canada is going to stop the Russians from doing anything, anywhere, ever (OK, maybe not EVER, but until something causes the Russian Federation to collapse they’re going to have us outgunned in perpetuity).

Well, I don’t know where you got the $170 billion figure from but I added in improvements to training and infrastructure (bases etc…) along with the strictly “new equipment” money to come up with my 120 billion figure.  Still, if you want to stick with the $170 billion versus $30 billion figures over 10 years I can do that too.  That means that the Russians will be spending $144,000 per active member of their forces over the next 10 years on new equipment for them while Canada spends over $440,000 per active duty member over the same time period.  Which is great, imho, but hardly an indication that we need to “keep up” with the Russians.  On a per-capita basis we’re LAPPING them.

As to how many jets the Russians will have to oppose our fighter jets, you can’t be serious.  Russia has over a million people in their armed forces.  They’ve got about 1500 fighter jets today.  Yes, they have us outnumbered in the skies 23 to 1, but what’s your point?  Are we going to build up our military to the point that we can single-handedly defend ourselves against the RUSSIANS?  Is that it?  ‘Cause I hate to be the one to tell you this, but that’s going to require us to TRIPLE our defense budget and increase the size of the Canadian Forces by over 17 times their current size.  I don’t know how recruiting is going for the Canadian Forces these days, but I’d be willing to bet that it’ll take them a while to increase the current force by over 1.1 million personnel.

Whether the Russians spend $170 billion on new military equipment, or zero dollars on new military equipment, or $1.7 trillion on new equipment really doesn’t matter.  Under none of those circumstances could even the most robust CF plan imaginable create a force capable of independently stopping the Russians from doing whatever they darned-well please in the Arctic, or elsewhere (vis a vis Canada).  Canada would have as much chance of stopping the Klingons or the Romulans from taking the Arctic from us as we’d have in stopping the Russians, and I think we should put as much thought and energy in to figuring out how to independently defend ourselves from an air force that has us outnumbered more than 20-1 as we do figuring out how to defend ourselves from interplanetary invasion.  No amount of military spending by Canada is going to stop the Russians from doing anything, anywhere, ever (OK, maybe not EVER, but until something causes the Russian Federation to collapse they’re going to have us outgunned in perpetuity).

OTOH, I’m not at all sure about the budget/enlistment rates are for Afghanistan first when they opposed the Russians and then again as they are opposing NATO forces, but clearly you don’t actually need juge budgets and/or large numbers of forces to prevail – at its simplest you just need to be motivated enough to outlast your opponent.

So I’m quite confident that even if Canada was not able to stop an initial Russian invasion there are enough motivated citizens in this country that in the long run we would be able to force them to withdraw.

Goes for other potential invaders as well…

I should say that I’m in favour of a robust budget for both our military and our defence of arctic sovereignty, don’t get me wrong, it’s just this notion that we have to respond to the Russians militarily (as though we could ever hope to  match them militarily) that I find strange.  By all means though, lets get those damned icebreakers already.  And build a deep sea  port, why not?  And regular patrol flights, and more permanent bases, higher up (winter combat training anyone?) and do more science up there, and training for astronauts (isolation training for long missions and the like).  Do it all, but lets not pretend that there’s some amount of military spending that we could apply to fighter jets and naval vessels that would stop the Russians if they decided they wanted to get into it.

I should say that I’m in favour of a robust budget for both our military and our defence of arctic sovereignty, don’t get me wrong, it’s just this notion that we have to respond to the Russians militarily (as though we could ever hope to  match them militarily) that I find strange.  By all means though, lets get those damned icebreakers already.  And build a deep sea  port, why not?  And regular patrol flights, and more permanent bases, higher up (winter combat training anyone?) and do more science up there, and training for astronauts (isolation training for long missions and the like).  Do it all, but lets not pretend that there’s some amount of military spending that we could apply to fighter jets and naval vessels that would stop the Russians if they decided they wanted to get into it.

The $170 billion figure comes from an announcement by President Putin that they will spend that much on new equipment in the next ten years.
You can have all the fun you want making apples to oranges comparisons between their budget and ours. The point is  they, and most other northern nations, are making serious investments in new defence infrastructure and equipment. No one has suggested they are planning to invade Canada nor has anyone ever suggested Canada would stand alone against any invasion from anyone were it threatened. That, after all, is the point of belonging to military alliances.  My point is simply that the juvenile taunts that the Canadian is spending defence funds because it is “scared” or trying to make Canadians “scared” are just that – juvenile. Serious nations, like Russia and our northern allies such as Denmark and Norway are also making serious investments in defence. They, wisely, do not subscribe to either the pollyana style of foreign policy apparently believed in by Wells and Wherry that there are no threats to Canada and never will be, or the defeatism of some who post on this board that there are no defences against foreign threats and nothing to be done if we are threatened.

The $170 billion figure comes from an announcement by President Putin that they will spend that much on new equipment in the next ten years.
You can have all the fun you want making apples to oranges comparisons between their budget and ours. The point is  they, and most other northern nations, are making serious investments in new defence infrastructure and equipment. No one has suggested they are planning to invade Canada nor has anyone ever suggested Canada would stand alone against any invasion from anyone were it threatened. That, after all, is the point of belonging to military alliances.  My point is simply that the juvenile taunts that the Canadian is spending defence funds because it is “scared” or trying to make Canadians “scared” are just that – juvenile. Serious nations, like Russia and our northern allies such as Denmark and Norway are also making serious investments in defence. They, wisely, do not subscribe to either the pollyana style of foreign policy apparently believed in by Wells and Wherry that there are no threats to Canada and never will be, or the defeatism of some who post on this board that there are no defences against foreign threats and nothing to be done if we are threatened.