We weren't going to do it before...

[Drake Tungsten]

It's obvious that China won't strike at Canada directly over the Pacific. They'll take Siberia first, then invade through Alaska while Cuban soldiers who snuck in through your porous southern border strike elsewhere.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Asher
Hundreds of billions of dollars for trillions of dollars worth of resources doesn't sound like it's not worth it.

3 million Albertans with 4 million rifles and shotguns says they can get stuffed.

[notyoueither]

Re: We weren't going to do it before...

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
but now we might

Has this guy not figured out our mindset yet? 5.3 billion dollars isn't that much to spend if it means we get to piss off the Americans. Telling us not to do it just means that this makes the issue a popular opinion slam dunk for Harper. He proposed it as part of the campaign, and now that he's elected he gets to show he's not a Bush lapdog by going through with it over the objections of the Americans. Wilkins also deflates the opposition (most particularly by the Liberals) who went after Harper for his perceived closeness with Bush. They're going to have to be careful opposing this now...

It was rather nice of the kind fellow to get Harper's defence spending passed by forcing Liberals and Blocists to vote for it.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Krill
First thought: what is up there that is worth protecting?

Shipping lanes in the event that the ice recedes.

Canada wants to have some say over the regulation of tanker traffic so that we don't have a horendous mess to clean up due to a complete lack of regulation.

If oil and gas, then I would say it is probably worth it, depending on the quantities.

Oil, gas, and lots of minerals, not to mention the ways of life of Canadian citizens and a fragile ecology.

As said, there is no point building up an army, navy, air force, there is no chance you would be able to defend yourselves from the US or China short of Nukes...(BTW, what would happen if someone declared war on Canada, with regard to the Common Wealth and Britain?)

Good question that most people never remember. The Commonwealth is a bit more than a tea society.

[PLATO]

Good Job Canada! The NSA will love tuning in on your new listening posts. That should save us quite a bit in running sigint operations up there.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Flubber
Does anybody believe that there hasn't been some Chinese high level guy look up at the empty vastness of Russia and fantasize that it might not be alll that difficult?

Why would anybody want that frozen wasteland?

After all, the US hasn't invaded Canada yet...

[atomant]

sounds like a rather moot argument.... even assuming China could invade Canada, why would they want to? It's like Australia invading New Zealand.... except without the sheep, the culture, or the influence of triad gangs....

[atomant]

CANADIAN WARSHIP SEIZES TANKER IN... WAIT...
CANADA HAS A WARSHIP?
Oh Right, and Switzerland Has Nuclear Weapons
Arabian Sea (SatireWire.com) — Canadian television reported Friday that a Canadian warship in the Arabian Sea had seized a tanker suspected of smuggling oil from Iraq, leading many to suspect that the report was a hoax.
"You're kidding, right? Canada has a warship?" asked U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. "Like for war?
"Does Canada know?" he added.
"Nobody was more stunned than we were," said Kali Omari, first mate of the seized vessel. "We saw this frigate steaming toward us, and we were worried, but then we saw the maple leaf on the flag, and we thought, 'Oh, Canadians. What the hell do they want?'"
When an officer of the HMCS Vancouver announced that the tanker was about to be boarded, the crew of the detained ship was confused, said Omari, but their confusion quickly turned to anger when they saw what the Canadians sailors were carrying.
"They were armed. With guns," said Omari. "Canadians. With guns. And a warship. What is this world coming to?"
"They were pretty rude, too," Omari added. "They started asking us all sorts of questions, like 'Where did that oil come from?' But first we wanted to know who gave them the damn warship."
According to Canadian defense officials, the Vancouver is one of four frigates deployed in the region to assist in the U.S.-led Afghanistan conflict. The tanker was stopped, officials said, because its cargo of crude oil violated United Nations sanctions, which prohibit Iraq from selling oil unless in exchange for food and medicine.
The U.N. said the incident is already under investigation, and promised swift action against those found responsible for giving the Canadians guns. Initial findings indicate that the Vancouver crew may have been watching too many American television shows.

Taken from satirewire.com

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Why would anybody want that frozen wasteland?

After all, the US hasn't invaded Canada yet...

It's called oil. Loads and loads of it under the permafrost (some geologists say it is as much as in the entire ME). As technology advances, it'll be easier and easier to get to it.

And Canada is perfectly willing to deal oil to the US at market price. There would be absolutely no benefit to having the oilfields under US control.

Who knows what position Russia will take with China, who have been involved in their number of serious disputes, some fairly recently.

[Seeker]

You see, this is why we should never have given back those US missiles.

What tremendous leverage to drop a few h-bombs!

And if they were based right along the border they would only have seconds warning time...

If we built 300-350 h-bombs like France we could possibly win a first strike nuclear exchange, especially if we had a good civil city evacuation plan. From Windsor nukes could reach washington during the state of the union address with only seconds warning! To say nothing of hitting the missile silos and all the airstrips. We're just so much closer than the soviet union.

The only thing standing in our way would be the us nuclear submarine fleet.

Think of how much better the USA would be if brought under our benevolent occupation!

Most of them would go along just fine, but we might have to create special 'resettlement camps' for the southerners...

[Seeker]

Or our nations could just agree to follow international agreements and use diplomacy.....

....but diplomacy is soooo boring! At some point the truly evolved individual launches a few h-bombs just for the hell of it.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui


It's called oil. Loads and loads of it under the permafrost (some geologists say it is as much as in the entire ME). As technology advances, it'll be easier and easier to get to it.

And oil spilled on our shores when people try to float tankers through ice-infested waters.

Pay attention. I'll say it one more time, slowly. I won't use overly large words.

Nanook wants to keep black icky stuff off the front lawn.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by Seeker
Most of them would go along just fine, but we might have to create special 'resettlement camps' for the southerners...

Hey ya'll! Bring it on! We uns is ready for you sissies anytime!

[PLATO]

Originally posted by notyoueither


And oil spilled on our shores when people try to float tankers through ice-infested waters.

Pay attention. I'll say it one more time, slowly. I won't use overly large words.

Nanook wants to keep black icky stuff off the front lawn.

Can Nanook spell P I P E L I N E ?

[notyoueither]

From Norway to Japan?