I just read (WSJ) that most of the canadian armie’s armored vehicles are on a chartered freighter, of the coast of New Brunswick. Seems the shipowners haven’t been paid or something-and a few Canadian army personnel are on board.
Time to invade canada, eh?
Heh, heh. I can see it now:
Actually, we’re waiting for the anarchic chaos caused by the secession of Quebec. We’ll swoop in, destroy Ottawa, and make the Canadians hold a convention to form a governemnt that can actually do something. 
Ummm… if the bulk of thier armored vehicles even FIT on a chartered frieghter it doesn’t seem like a big enough threat to stop anyone but the boyscouts from invading anyway. I did wonder why they added a merit badge for demolition.
CandyMan
The Canadian army isn’t exactly known for their AFV’s. It’s got only one (1) platoon of tanks.
The purpose of the Canadian military is more to project its power for minor reasons like intimidating Spanish fishing vessels. That’s why it’s more navy / air force oriented.
It’s not like the Americans can invade us. They can’t win. Even if we lose we win. When winter comes how will all those new-fangled “automobiles” help you when they’re frozen stiff? Only our dogsled-mounted infantry will be able to move around.
Curses! Foiled again!
If “General Mud” did not help the poles in WWII, then “Admiral Snow” will not help you Canucks, either!
BwaHaHa!
Er, Konrad?
The Canadian Army has around 140 Main Battle Tanks, mostly the German-built Leopard I, plus around 200 Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicles, around 200 Light Armoured Vehicles (variants of the British Scorpion light tanks) and close to 2,000 Armoured Personnel Carriers (mostly old US-build M113s). There are (I think) 20 armoured regiments alone.
There wouldn’t be much point in maintaining one platoon of tanks.
mattk sez:
Since when? When I talked to some young officer a few years ago he told they only had one platoon of servicable tanks. Maybe they got a lot more recently or maybe he just didn’t know much about the army because he was air force.
KeithB sez:
You’ll be singing a different tune when you get caught in a snow storm in May.
[hijack that only serves to reflect just how sad I am]
Konrad – the Canadian Army’s website mentions that they bought 130 (some other sites mention 115) tanks in 1979, and have been upgrading them since, as well as working on some of their own models. The Army has one armoured division and a number of mechanised brigade groups, all equipped with tanks.
[/hijack that only serves to reflect just how sad I am]
Talk about a detail-oriented society. The website mattk linked above has a detailed page on the Canadian army’s underwear, including pictures.
Sua
The ship has now been boarded: Read it here
God bless Canadians and that you for whoever had the decency to geographically align two countries that get along so well together.
You know folks, I’m Canadian and proud of it! I have, however, always admired how both our people have done business, occasionally taken friendly (and not-so-friendly) jibes at each other and still managed to remain good friends.
After reading the potings on this particular subject, I can but conclude that Americans are great trading partners, have spunk and are fun-loving folks! Canadians are a tad bit more sedate but… we’re learning!
As for the freighter incident - I believe the matter was cleared up overnight because, at the root of things, lay an administrative oversight.
(I still like our brand of football better!)
Canada has only one small unit of tanks, the Royal Canadian Dragoons, equivalent to an armoured regiment. We certainly do not have 20 regiments; the entire Canadian Army does not have twenty full strength combat arms regiments in both infantry AND armor. Canada most certainly does not have an
“Armored division.” Canada has exactly ONE division in its army, which appropriately is the First Division, comprising Canada’s entire land force.
Most of Canada’s Leopard tanks are in storage. Few are still used; the Leopard was originally designed for service in Europe against the Soviets. Canada being out of Europe, it serves little purpose now, and for all the upgrade it might have received the Leopard is a very old tank.
As another poster pointed out, Canada - having no land threat - has an air force and navy-heavy armed forces. The Navy recently got new missile destroyers (Halifax-class) and the Air Force’s complement of 100+ CF-18 fighters can dish out a lot of punishment.
Canada’s supply of armored vehicles are spread out among its infantry forces.
Some time back, I read that a shopping center in Edmonton had more submarines than the Canadian Forces. I think the numbers were 5 for the mall and 3 for the military.
Anyone know if this is still true?
dtilque, that was a joke told by a standup comic called John Wing. He was talking about the West Edmonton Mall, which for the time being is the largest mall on Earth (over the next decade or so the Mall of America will be expanded and become larger).
As John Wing said:
“There’s a water park in that mall, with three fully functional submarines for the kids to ride in. The Canadian Navy… has two… fully functional… submarines… for the kids to ride in. Let’s face it, Disneyworld has a bigger navy than us. But if an enemy ship ever attacked that mall… well, you can be sure it wouldn’t make it to the Gap.”
Actually, the submarines at the mall aren’t real, and the waterpark is separate from where the subs are. The Canadian Navy DID have only two submarines a few years ago, but then it bought some more from britain. The Canadian Navy doesn’t have a whole lot of submarines, but that doesn’t mean that it has very few ships. In fact, I recently heard that the H.M.C.S. Montreal is the finest ship in its class on Earth (and that the Québec separatists made a big fuss that the ship was called the H.M.C.S. Montreal and not the H.M.C.S. Montréal).
What do you mean they aren’t real? Here’s a web page with their specs and a picture. And not only that, but there’s now 4 of them.
Let’s see the Candian Forces top that…
I’m assuming you know your stuff, RickJay. I was going by sites like this listing all of the units. It shows 8 brigades, 3 mech brigades and a division (I’m not counting up all of the regiments, though).
Well, Canada may have a small Army, but it’s a pretty good one, eh? They seem pretty professional from where I stand, and are not like some of our other Allies. I am very impressed with the quality of their Naval and Air Force personnel. They know what they can and can’t do and are quietly competent. I believe their Tank crews have done pretty well in NATO-wide competition.
You have to give them a lot of credit for doing so well with so comparatively little. The US forces could learn a thing or two from them, perhaps.
Canadian politics have not treated the Armed forces there well. Correct me if I am wrong, but I heard that in the 70’s the politicains decided to eliminate what they saw as inter-service rivalry and integrate the services into The Canadian Armed Forces/Armed Forces Canadian(ne?): no more Army, Navy, Air Force. Big flop. Morale was bad, no one knew their basic missions. They do it the regular way again now. The whole Quebec thing doesn’t help, either. The US Navy and all the other air arms that operate the F-18 call it the “Hornet”, but apparently there is some goofy ass law up North that says the name for equipment has to have a French counterpart and amazingly there is no French word for “Hornet” (that’s what I read, but I find it hard to believe), so in Canada it’s just the CF-18 (with no name). (What? They don’t have hornets in France?) Anyway, I don’t know if these stories are true or not… to me, they seem too stupid to be real.
I’ve yet to hear a bad word about the canuck’s, their participation in various nato endevours seems to have been exemplarary.
I understand the UK and Canadian forces are well used to co-operating.
When your army is so small that 1/10 of it fits on one tanker, its pretty easy to train/outfit them well. Canadia’s army guys routinely chip in on small NATO missions for training and uses US and other friendly instructors. You would think that such a small force for a decently populated country would be well funded, but using force to settle a $100,000 bill? Bad news. Also, whatever you say about their navy, having to use commercial freighters to transport their army is pretty sad. Time to stop relying on the monroe doc, eh? All that said and done, montreal is one of the cooler cities I’ve been to, and I like the fact that our bordering countries don’t feel the need to stock up on the big guns or build pill boxes along the border.