January 2023
It’s good news that Canada is donating some Leopard 2 Battle Tanks to Ukraine. However, it’s quite disturbing that we are only donating four. Is that all we can spare? When Defence Minister Anita Anand was asked by Vassy Kapelos on CTV’s Power Play how many fully operational tanks the Canadian Army has, she failed to answer the question, despite Vassy’s numerous attempts to get a proper answer, giving only the usual political obfuscation answer that is so common these days amongst politicians.
Now, I understand for security reasons, she probably couldn’t give an exact number of fully operational tanks that the Canadian Army has, but her answer didn’t inspire confidence. Is the actual number that shockingly low?! It’s bad enough that the Canadian Army hasn’t had any air defence systems since 2012.
I realize that both Conservative and Liberal governments have allowed the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to rust-out, and that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau despises the CAF as much as Pierre Trudeau did, but at what point do we just disband the CAF and contract the American Armed Forces to protect Canada, despite the sovereignty issues?
In a related issue, The Beaverton, a Canadian satirical news web site, recently published an article titled “Ukraine begs Canada not to donate Canadian military tanks.” If I didn’t know that The Beaverton was satire, I might think this was a real article. This is a perfect example of why the editors of another satirical new web site, The Babylon Bee, recently joked that it’s getting harder to come up with new material.
I could also add that yes, we’re donating four of them. We never said they’re fully-functional, or even have engines, so maybe the joke’s on them.
Sources: https://www.thebeaverton.com/2023/01/ukraine-begs-canada-not-to-donate-canadian-military-tanks, https://www.theepochtimes.com/john-robson-beware-the-governmental-word-continue_4988327.html.
