@northernlights @SnowyCA @paulbusch How many of those are cold weather countries (Afghans had a fighting season), how long did those conflicts last (multi decade), how did they resupply (outside help). Your nearest comparable is Finland vs Russia and they have less than 1/10 the frontier to defend.

@SnowyCA @paulbusch Ukraine does A LOT more than just drones with grenades. They have an armoured and artillery corp that is very large as well and a mechanized infantry corp that's been fighting since the 2010s. They also get satelite Intel from Europe and the US (for now). They also benifit from the fact that the Russians have been largely incompetent with their force deployments.

@mpjgregoire We've always, existed at the leisure of the dominant empire. Canada has never been a country that is defendable by force of arms without a lot of outside help.

@paulbusch Personally I don't think small arms would do it no matter how well organized. Actually I think it would be less patriotic and more, suicidal. However we can resist in other ways.

@alan Or simply doesn't want the job anymore.

@virtuous_sloth When I do business with a Canadian, it's always who do you know? Do you know so and so? When I do business with Americans it's always how much, how fast? Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

@virtuous_sloth to digress I'm not especially fond of hate speech laws myself. I feel once you ban something it creates a curiosity that inadvertently promotes exploration of the subject being banned. However I also used to think that extremists usually hang themselves with their own words so I don't mind giving them rope. I'm not so sure about that anymore..

@virtuous_sloth Well said. I'm a 1970 baby so not far off from you. The biggest awakening was realizing how much of our liberal democracies were dependent on people simply adhering to a tradition of doing the right thing and how much things break apart when people stop adhering to that tradition.

3/ I guess I'm concerned because I usually temper some of my angst by telling myself that I live in a certain information silo and that I'm probably being overly influenced by partisan opinion. But now A) people I would usually consider outside my information silo are sharing the same angst and B) Usually very sober annalists are now speaking like they're from near future dystopian science fiction.

2/ The second is this podcast. It's usually pretty boring stuff about Canadian politics that only people like me that nerd out about Canadian politics would enjoy. In what's usually a boring podcast there was a lot of concern bordering on panic for lack of a better word. They're now talking about how what was once a trade issue is now becoming an existential crisis with NATO in peril and the US interfering in separatists movements in Alberta and Quebec. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3bRq2ct8k0

1/There's a couple things that have happened this week that have set off my alarm bells as a Canadian.
First I overheard a conversation between some people that I would shamefully profile as upper middle class WASPs :
"I'm not worried about aliens invading I'm worried about the Americans invading"
Another conversation I had, again with someone that I would traditionally label as conservative "There's no way we'll travel to the US anymore, it's just not safe"

In my mind the self defense narrative is complete bullshit. Just take one step to the right and you're out of harms way. If you have time to draw and fire your weapon you have time to take one step to the right. This was law enforcement with little to no regard for public safety using their firearm in a negligent manner resulting in death. Charges should be filed as in my mind there is more than enough video evidence. I'm interested to hear from any ex law enforcement on this.

The CBC's Andrew Chang as always with a thorough and from my standpoint an objective breakdown of the Minneapolis ICE shooting.
https://youtu.be/ZEiw1rMjZsc?si=cJKgVHif0VCs5veA

@gbhnews Bannock and tea.