October 2018 – Ted Campbell's Point of View … an old soldier's thoughts on shoes and ships and sealing wax and many other things. I self describe as a classical liberal ~ which means, in 21st century Canada, that I’m a Conservative. I believe in four fundamental rights for each and every individual: Life, Liberty and Property, as described by John Locke in 17th century England, and Privacy, as defined by Brandeis and Warren in 19th century America. Your comments are welcome, but my views (and obvious biases) are pretty well established after 75+ years.

How many is enough?

I have been saying, almost since this blog began, that 2% of GDP is about the right amount fo a G7 country like Canada to spend on its defence … my guesstimate is that a defence budget that consumes about 2% of the nation’s GDP will buy us the kind of ‘Triple A Plus’ (AAA+)Continue reading “How many is enough?”

The fall of the house of Merkel

The Economist reports that “The result of the regional election in the German state of Hesse on October 28th was a serious blow to Angela Merkel’s party, even if it was not quite the catastrophe some had feared. According to provisional results, her centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) won the most votes with 27%, giving itContinue reading “The fall of the house of Merkel”

Just asking …

Back in the 1940s, when we finally finished beating them in battle we hanged the guys who did (and ordered) this sort of thing, or we cheered when our allies hanged ’em … … and that was the right and proper thing to do. They were monsters, beyond redemption … But now it’s 2018 andContinue reading “Just asking …”

Credo

So, I see, according to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, by Shachi Kurl who is Executive Director of the Angus Reid Institute, that “In a trend reminiscent of Sally Field’s famously misquoted Oscar speech, “You like me … you really like me!” let there be little doubt that members of the Liberal Party base still like Justin Trudeau. They reallyContinue reading “Credo”

How to avoid a war with China

There is a very insightful article in Foreign Affairs by former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose views on China I have discussed before, headlined “How to Avoid an Avoidable War ~ Ten Questions About the New U.S. China Strategy.“ Prime Minister Rudd begins by reminding us that “This November, we will commemorate the 100th anniversaryContinue reading “How to avoid a war with China”

What Canadians want

Justin Trudeau did, indeed, say that “the budget will balance itself” (in a CPAC interview on 11 February 2014) and he repeated that (in a speech in Newmarket, ON, on 26 August 2015) when he said that a government he led would “grow the budget back into balance,” after running a few small deficits. Now,Continue reading “What Canadians want”

Migration

The United Nations has produced an interesting video promoting its Global Compact on Migration, which I have discussed just a couple weeks ago. I have no real problems with the first 1’16” of the 2’31” video ~ they are simple statements of fact and I assume the UN is smart enough to not fudge theContinue reading “Migration”

And still another ship proposal

There is a very interesting thread over on Army.ca which begins with a post by Chris Pook, who often comments here, too, in which he wonders if we should not have a new ship conversion projects (à la converting the Asterix into a useful fleet support ship) to provide us with an ‘Afloat Support Base’ orContinue reading “And still another ship proposal”

Today is …

… Saint Crispin’s Day, the 25th of October, and while Agincourt (1415) is, probably the battle we most often associate with Saint Crispin, because of the words, about “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers” and being “warriors for the working day” that Shakespeare put in the mouth of his King Henry V, itContinue reading “Today is …”

Another step down the Cold War 2.0 path

I see, in an article in the Globe and Mail, that “President Donald Trump said Saturday he will pull the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty because Russia has violated the agreement, but he provided no details on the violations … [and] … The 1987 pact, which helps protect the security of the U.S.Continue reading “Another step down the Cold War 2.0 path”