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Originally Posted by Seaver
The big thing Canada and America have to face are our priorities.
We as America put our place in the world very often above the welfare of our people. Now for us it's the king of the hill, we have so many people trying forever to knock us down we're busy pushing everyone else back. This isnt always intended, much of it is economic which the government has little to do with, it's the people themselves trying to make a buck.
The Canadians have never come close to that world power status. They dont care about it either, with their allies fronting the bill of a military powerful enough to stop anyone (UK and US are powerful allies indeed). They can spend lots of its resources because something like 2% of their budget (as of last living there, back in the early 90s... but it wouldnt have changed much) on military defense. They can afford to front a bill of much more progressive and welfare systems.
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You may want to re-read some of your history. when it has really counted, Canadians have been there in spades. We've had big navies, fierce troops, and the draft at one time or another. But countries evolve. Currently, there is no need to spend money on a standing military to defend ourselves from.... ummm who? A military force that can repel an invasion of the only possible country that can mount an offensive? That would be the US, and who can stop that military force? nay nay, I say!
so you may say we don't care about it, and it would be wrong, we do care about it, but the money can be better spent on special forces that can be surgically deployed such as a strong Coast Guard (like Charl is positing) or peace keeping forces, anti terrorism brigades. search and rescue etc.
Even so, our spending on health care is far below what Americans budget. and remember the economies of scale involved. Our country has to budget for infrastructure costs based on a huge geography - second only to Russia's - using a tax base wich is derived from a population roughly equivalent to that of the State of California, or new York. No wonder we got to be experts in communications (hardware, software and social). It is fitting that the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell!