Operation Narwhal

Just finished watching an excellent piece on Newsworld about the war games the Canadian Forces held last summer in the high Arctic. An interesting blend of tension and comedy as our beloved Sea Kings perform up to their reputations. I know we're not a warmongering nation, but do you think maybe, just maybe, we could afford helicopters that don't have a tendency to burst in to flames when you try and fly them?

Actually, the final note of the piece clearly spelled out a number of weaknesses in the Canadian military. These are especially troubling if we want to seriously claim sovereignty over the north:

• Ships whose hulls are too thin to endure the northern ice.
• Aircraft incapable of navigating so close to magnetic north.
• An inability to move men around quickly in the absence of aircraft - no land vehicles.

So our ability to enforce our own sovereignty is a joke where the north is concerned. It would be nice if we could elect a government that would take national security seriously, but the first step is actually getting the Canadian people to take it seriously. Seeing as most Canadians usually rank the military somewhere below education and health care, we've got some work to do.

Does anyone else think it's a bit odd that a nation which claims Santa's workship within it's jurisdiction doesn't have a northern military? Of course, Santa and his elves might be better armed than Canadian soldiers, given their problems...