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Younghusband
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Younghusband

Date

December 3rd, 2006

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Refuting Canada’s “PKO tradition”

Military History of CanadaSome Coming Anarchy readers have asked me to provide some material that delves into Canada’s true military tradition, rather than the recent manufactured tradition of peace-keeping. Desmond Morton’s A Military History of Canada is a sweeping historical perspective of Canadian military operations from the Fenian Raids to the Congo. It is an easy read meant for the non-military historian, so I recommend it as a starting point for anyone interested in this topic. Upon reading this book you will realize how small a role peace-keeping has played for Canada in the past 4 and a half centuries. Yes, I realize that Canada is only 139 years old, but this book goes into the roots of the Canadian millitary experience. It illustrates through example the valour and duty that is the true tradition of Canada’s military.

PS. Sorry for the recent silence. I spent the last week moving across Canada in preparation for returning to Japan. I am now in BC, enjoying the snow.

Comments to this entry

Lexington Green
December 4, 2006
1:59 am
Good to see this post. Canada has punched far above its weight throughout the 20th Century. Typically, the politicians would starve the military for funds, and then the troops would pay in blood for the lack of preparation. Nonetheless, the Canadians have kicked ass on many occasions.

It is tragic that Canadians do not generally know about Vimy Ridge, and Ortona and the Atlantic Convoys, and Normandy.

Also, Bring back the Red Ensign!

(This post and the embedded links and ensuing argument in the comments, may be of interest.)
Pavlov3
December 4, 2006
4:17 am
A canadian I met in Korea told me that Canada has been at the forefront of combating US facism for the past 300 years. Bwahahaha.
However, there are a lot of good canadians out there, unfortunately few know how brilliantly there armed forces represent them.
Younghusband
December 4, 2006
4:27 am
The Red Ensign is very cool but I must defend the new flag as it is "based":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flag_Debate#Special_flag_committee_September_10.2C_1964 on the flag of my _alma mater_.
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
December 4, 2006
5:18 pm
The Red Ensign is a comfort to those who are nostalgic for the British Empire. In many was it was nice to be part of the British Empire. Canada still clings to that notion, and many people find it more comforting than what they percieve as an amorphous, PC pseudo-nationhood that Canada (others approve of the idea of Canada as a non-nationalistic nation).

The fact is that there is no going back to the Red Ensign, since that would be going back to the British Empire, but there is no Empire to go back to...

Unless you replace the Union Flag in the first quarter with something else... maybe a Quebec flag to highlight the new "nation within a united Canada" approach? That might work...
Lexington Green
December 4, 2006
11:42 pm
"The fact is that there is no going back to the Red Ensign..."

If the current union falls apart, which it might, it would be going forward to the Red Ensign. If Quebec leaves the Union, Anglo-Canada already has a history and an identity. Just take the fleur de lys off the Ensign. We are living in an age of devolution and reassertion of regional identities. The United Kingdom, which celebrates it tricentennary next year, is probably not long for this world. Scotland wants out. Quebec autonomy, if not outright independence, is more likely than not in the medium term. That is the spirit of the age. Quebec would probably want to stay in NAFTA, NATO and NORAD. If not, we could work with that.

If that scenario plays out, the need for some vague, multicultural, Op Art '60s era Maple Leaf will no longer be there. Anglo-Canada will be able to draw on its own heritage, Quebec on its own, and they can be friendly (one hopes) neighbors, rather than grumbling room mates.

So, it is not mere nostalgia that leads me to invoke the Red Ensign. I think it may come back.
von Kaufman-Turkestansky
December 5, 2006
9:15 pm
In the event of the break-up of Canada there would be a nolstalgic fringe looking back to the Red Ensign, but it would not be adopted. Probably the current flag would stay, until other regions started to splinter off. If anything, the rumble of separation might shake up the once-Loyal-She-Began-Loyal-She-Remains Ontario, prompting it to change its flag into something silly and post-modern, dropping (perhaps along with Manitoba) the current Red Ensign flags.

Ontario was once the Loyalist, Protestant Mecca; it is much different now. Manitoba could just as easily adopt a Red Ensign with a Ukranian flag in the first quarter. If any province remained militantly British (in spite of mass immigration from China and the Punjab) it would be BC, I guess.
subadei
December 6, 2006
1:41 am
It's funny. More often than not I hear (in the US) about the lack of Canadian martial fortitude and it's subsequent reliance on the US. A quick look at the current NATO op. in Afghanistan might shed some light on the fortitude of our northern neighbors in uniform. Especially in light of the restrictions two more "formidable" states put on their own troops; Germany and France.


YH, where in Japan are you headed?
Younghusband
December 6, 2006
1:58 am
_subadei said, "YH, where in Japan are you headed?"_

Why, sunny Nagoya of course! Joy of joys... Can't you just feel the electric excitement?
Phil (Pacific Empire)
December 8, 2006
6:47 am
Excellent. This misconception is also true of NZ and many other Western countries. Peacekeeping operations are dominated by poor developing countries, not by Canada or New Zealand. Peacekeeping isn't really a big part of our history, supporting our allies is.