Canada Just Blew 22 Billion Dollars On Warships That Were Obsolete Before Construction Even Started

Endless money for war while people can't afford homes.

The Canadian government just quietly handed the Irvings 8 billion dollars, and they hoped you wouldn’t notice. The price-tag for the three new destroyers they’ve just put a down payment on is expected to eventually climb to over 22 billion dollars. Given the history of cost-overruns in ship-building for the Canadian government, it is a safe bet that they will eventually cost more than that.

You might wonder why they released this information on a weekend, when the house is prorogued, the day before the new Prime Minister of Canada is announced. Two reasons: they hoped you wouldn’t notice, and if you did notice they hoped you wouldn’t blame the new Prime Minister. Any blowback can be pinned on Trudeau, while Carney takes the helm.

It is a staggering sum of money. These billions could be better spent on healthcare, education, housing, poverty reduction… well, just about anything, to be honest. To put it in perspective, this could pay the tuition for almost a million Canadians to get a bachelor’s degree. Alternatively, this would be enough money to build dozens of new hospitals. This kind of money could end homelessness in Canada. It is more money than the entire budget of the government of Manitoba.

And what do we get for our money? Three warships that are obsolete before construction has even started.

It is often said that major military mistakes happen because generals are fighting the last war. Military strategy is constantly evolving as technology changes the battlefield. In this case, we have government procurement operating on outdated foreign policy. If we want to be really honest about it, Canada’s defense strategy has never been about defending Canada. The Canadian military is built mostly for projecting power overseas, as part of a broader coalition. Being a small player on a strong team, was the basic strategy.

This strategy must be entirely re-written. It is becoming clear that the greatest military threat to this country comes not from overseas, but from our neighbour to the south. If you think that statement is crazy, you haven’t been paying attention. Contrary to popular belief, wars are never fought for moral reasons. Countries do not go to war to defend democracy, or to stop terrorists, or to liberate people from tyrants, or for human rights (if you have trouble accepting this, ask yourself why Canada sells weapons to Saudi Arabia). That’s just the PR campaign. Wars are fought over strategic interests. It is the competition for essential scarce resources that drives military conflict. In a capitalist world, wars are fought in the interest of capital.

You might think Trump is just playing politics. I will remind you that politics is concentrated economics, and war is politics by other means. America’s threat to annex Canada by economic force can turn into military force in the blink of an eye.

The global realignment that is underway is the result of a declining American empire. America is retreating from its role as world police. China’s economy has now surpassed America’s. China’s global influence is also surpassing America’s. The end of the multi-polar moment (yes, three decades is a moment in historical terms), changes all equations.

In the new world, the United States will focus on securing immediate interests in its own back yard. America is not in the position to challenge other great powers for their resources, so they will focus on the low-hanging fruit. The Trump regime’s focus on Canada, Mexico, Greenland and Panama is about securing America’s vital interests in the coming decades. This is bigger than Donald Trump.

Henry Kissinger said "America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests". America has major interests in Canada. They’ll get them, “one way or another”. As the world warms, those interests become much more important, even existential. Shipping lanes and resource exploitation will open up in the North. A third of the world’s fresh water is in Canada, while the United States is threatened with increasing drought. Canada is rich with rare-Earth minerals which are essential for the techno-fascist future dreamed up by Silicon Valley billionaires. This is also one of the major interests the Ukrainian war is being fought over.

The war in Europe is a real war, over real interests, but it is also the world’s biggest arms expo. For the first time, we are seeing top-tier military tech from many countries facing off on the battle-field. The weapons manufacturers are booming and the blood money is flowing, but we are also seeing the way technology has changed the battlefield. Tanks, for example, are now extremely vulnerable to cheap, lightweight drones. Electronic warfare can be overcome by fibre-optic cables.

It is in this context of modern warfare that we must consider the role of the destroyer. Russia has lost half of the Black Sea Fleet to a country without a navy. They’ve had to pull most of their ships from Sevastopol for safer harbours in Novorossiysk. For all practical purposes, the fleet is out of commission. Large ships are sitting ducks, when waves of small, cheap naval drones can overwhelm defenses. Sea drones can be assembled cheaply, in large quantities. It doesn’t take much to stick explosives and a remote controlled motor in a kayak. That’s not to mention the hypersonic anti-ship missiles that have been developed by multiple world powers and aerial drone swarms that are cheaply available to anyone. These ships won’t last long in a real battle.

If Canada was actually concerned with defending itself, military procurement would look very different. They would be stock-piling small weapons and ammunition, in decentralized locations. They would be arming and training citizens’ militias to resist occupation. They would be stockpiling and producing cheap anti-personnel drones, anti-ship drones and anti-tank drones. They would purchase tens of thousands of light-weight man-pad systems. They would drop the F-35 contract and completely divest from American weapons platforms.

Clearly, this is not what is happening. It reeks of corporate welfare: giving out a multi-billion dollar contract in the dying days of a government… spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need.

No war, but the class-war.