Mid-Week Post

 

Why doesn't anyone talk about Canada's military achievements during both world wars?

It cannot be humility. Our reticence is drowned out by international accounts of the wars, the achievements, the objectives and the sacrifices.

We do not hesitate to signal our virtue and spew empty platitudes but we will not relate our own history which would require not just the knowledge of it but its comprehension.

We are empty. We have aimed for mediocrity and then failure.

We have forgotten that rough men did rough violence because an important job needed to be done and there was no morally or politically wrangling one's way out of it.

Had one told the boys on Juno Beach that we would one day applaud a Ukrainian Nazi in the House of Commons and that our government would kill the veterans and grandmothers who shaped the post-war world, they would have dropped their guns and gone home.

What would it all be for?

Your government hates you:

Sahir Khan, exec VP at the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy on CBC: “10 cents of every dollar that taxpayers pay goes to paying the interest on that debt and it’s only going to get bigger.” Accurate. Debt charges are already ~11% of revenue and projected to hit 13.6% by 2030–31—the fastest-growing major expense, more than doubling since 2021–22 and recently equaling ~90% of the headline deficit But then softens it: “There’s nothing that tells us that we’re in any kind of danger zone. And particularly when you look at us compared to the other G7 countries, Canada’s doing quite well.” This rests on low net debt. On gross debt Canada has seen one of the largest increases in the G7 since 2014; the federal debt stock keeps rising past $1.3 trillion. Interest is paid on the marketable debt, not the net figure On the books: “Even though the operating budget is getting balanced and likely a year earlier, we are borrowing for all that capital. So it doesn’t show up in that operating budget balance, but it shows up when you’re issuing bonds…” The operating/capital split is accounting trickery. The PBO has called the definition overly expansive and inconsistent—it reclassifies tax credits and subsidies as “capital,” improving the operating balance on paper without cutting total borrowing or the debt path Khan is right that growth won’t jump from 1% to 2% overnight. The problem is the reassurance. “Not a danger zone,” with selective G7 comparisons, and acceptance of an operating surplus that depends on accounting reclassification understate a trajectory in which interest is already taking 11 cents of every revenue dollar and is projected to keep rising to 14 cents Serious analysis requires serious accounting

— cbcwatcher (@cbcwatcher) November 5, 2026

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Cabinet will add $182.4 billion in new borrowing over the next three years under a budget plan tabled yesterday. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne justified ongoing deficit spending as reasonable: “I stand by our projections.”

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Changes to the federal government's much-maligned Temporary Foreign Worker Program could beef up lower-wage employees from outside the country.

On Friday, Patty Hajdu, Minister of Jobs and Families, said the changes will "strengthen" the program, created to address labour shortages in critical sectors where there are not enough Canadian workers to fill the gaps.

The government said, as of Nov. 6, changes to the low-wage stream of the program include allowing foreign workers to be employed with the same company for a maximum two-year duration, up from one year.

In addition, early childhood educators have been added to the healthcare, construction, and food processing exceptions as priority sectors for metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of 6% or higher.

Under the program, a job is deemed low wage if the employer pays workers less than 120% of the regional median wage, according to the federal government's Job Bank.

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Cabinet will grant permanent residency to nearly a quarter million foreigners in Canada on temporary permits, according to a budget document yesterday. The Department of Finance did not specify whether it would include amnesty for illegal immigrants subject to deportation: “Up to 200,000 temporary residents already in Canada would have the opportunity to become permanent residents.”

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Canada’s existing ban on foreign ownership is set to expire in just under two months. Despite quietly inserting exemptions in the ban just 86 days after the law took effect, policymakers say they’ll renew the policy. Sort of. 

“[Canada will] extend the ban on foreign purchases of existing residential properties for two years, to January 1, 2029, while exempting new residential properties,” reads Budget 2026. 

That’s right. Policymakers plan to reopen foreign buying of new homes, the segment that sparked the ban in the first place. The doublespeak doesn’t end there. 

“This would help protect housing affordability by keeping the vast majority of the market available for Canadians, while unlocking additional investment in new housing supply,” explains Budget 2026.  

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Over a recent five-year period, the United States added 7.6 private-sector jobs per 1,000 working-aged people, but Canada added none, according to a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

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A House of Commons committee will not study vandalism, arson, and other criminal attacks against places of worship in Canada after its chair ruled that a proposed study fell outside the committee’s mandate.

Conservative MP Andrew Lawton challenged the ruling, but committee members voted 7-4 to uphold it.

Lawton introduced a motion on Oct. 29 calling on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to examine vandalism, arson, shootings, and other criminal attacks against churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship across the country.

Committee chair Lisa Hepfner ruled the motion inadmissible, saying it dealt primarily with matters related to the Criminal Code rather than heritage or identity. She suggested Lawton bring the proposal to the justice or public safety committees instead.

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In its account of the deadly fire at CFB Wainwright, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) describes an extraordinary chain of events on Oct. 17.

The base, it says, was monitoring a common grass fire that erupted in "uncommonly strong winds," with flames soon devouring a kilometre in just 30 to 60 seconds.

The military called the event "entirely anomalous."

A Global News analysis of satellite imagery and weather records, reviewed by seven Canadian wildfire experts, paints a different picture.

As soldiers continued their training on that day, satellites showed the fire had already spread. But the day before, Environment Canada forecast a cold front bringing powerful winds and later issued wind warnings for the area.

And experts say the flames were unlikely to travel at the speed the military suggests, although estimates made during a traumatic event may understandably be imprecise.

More importantly, however, experts say base leadership should have known the dangers posed by the incoming weather, even if they couldn't predict the precise timing or consequences.

"This was not unexpected given the forecast cold front, the actively spreading fire and the wind warnings that were issued earlier in the day," says Jen Beverly, an associate professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta.

According to the military, four soldiers were killed and 39 injured, including 19 critically, when the fire swept through the military training grounds.

It said the fire rapidly intensified and overran soldiers around 4 p.m.

But satellite imagery and weather records show a two-kilometre stretch of fire at noon was likely spreading as winds picked up and a violent cold front approached.

Nearly two weeks after the disaster, crucial questions remain unanswered: What did commanders know about the growing fire and approaching weather? What warnings were passed on? And why were soldiers still training nearby?

The military says its Board of Inquiry, which will answer those questions, could take more than a year.

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U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin purchased Ultra Maritime,the Dartmouth, N.S. company founded in 1947. Ultra plays a key role in the development of sonar and other undersea warfare systems. It’s equipment is on board the Royal Canadian Navy’s Halifax-class frigates and will be installed on Canada’s new River-class warships. Lockheed Martin purchased the firm for more than $3.4 billion.

The deal follows the purchase of a Canadian underwater drone manufacturer by an Israel firm. Elbit Systems announced that it had completed the purchase of International Submarine Engineering, an autonomous underwater vehicle company based in Port Coquitlam, B.C., the National Post reported on Oct. 29.

Critics have raised concerns that the deals fly in the face of Carney’s initiative to ensure Canada has a domestically controlled defence industry. The prime minister, whose government is spending tens of billions of dollars on new military equipment, has repeatedly warned about Canada’s over-reliance on military equipment from foreign-owned companies. He has particularly focused on American.-owned firms in the wake of threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to economically cripple Canada and suggest it could be annexed to be the 51st state.

In addition, media reports revealed in late September that another Canadian drone firm, awarded a significant contract from the Canadian military, had just received a $10-million investment from a company associated with Donald Trump Jr.