We all know that Canada is a very large country, with a vast land area of 9.98 million square kilometers, and is one of the top three territorial powers in the world. In addition, Canada has a long coastline of nearly 200,000 kilometers, which is the longest coastline in the world.
Generally speaking, a large country of Canada's level has an extremely strong military background. After all, with such a large territory, someone always has to be stationed there, otherwise it will be put into the pocket by others. Look at the top territorial powers in the world today, like Russia, the United States, and our China, which can be regarded as one of the most capable countries in the world.
However, Canada is an exception, although it has a territory comparable to that of China and the United States, its military performance is so bad that it does not have many armed forces to support it.
According to the statistics of the well-known military ** "GFP" (Global Firepower Index), Canada currently has only about 70,000 standing troops, and even if you count other armed forces such as reserves, the total strength is less than 100,000. In addition, in terms of equipment, the Canadian army is currently only equipped with more than 60 aircraft, more than 370 military aircraft, and more than 80 tanks.
Faced with a vast territory of nearly 10 million square kilometers and the longest coastline in the world, Canada's military strength is undoubtedly insufficient. A regular army of 70,000 men has to defend an average of 142 square kilometers of territory. Even if they are just dragged to the border line to stand guard, it will be suspicious.
Of course, if the quantity is not enough, the quality can be made up, after all, as the saying goes, the soldiers are not more than the fine. It doesn't matter if the army has fewer people and less equipment, as long as the quality level is good enough, it can also give full play to the combat power of winning more with less. Especially at the moment of rapid development of military science and technology, there is a huge gap in combat power between different levels of equipment. Sometimes a fifth-generation aircraft is more effective than a hundred third-generation aircraft, and an aircraft carrier is more threatening than most navies.
Unfortunately, however, the Canadian military not only has no numerical superiority, but also a very average level of quality. Taking the level of equipment as an example, most of the current equipment of the Canadian army is average, and there is basically nothing that can be handled.
For example, the dozens of CF-18 fighters equipped by the Canadian Air Force belong to the old antiques of the seventies and eighties of the last century, and they should have reached the age of retirement. And the Canadian Navy is equipped with more than a dozen Halifax-class frigates, which were also products of almost thirty years ago, and they should basically retire.
Therefore, generally speaking, the Canadian military is currently in quantity but not quantity, quality and quality, and it cannot talk about how strong it is at all, and it is very inconsistent with its current status as a great power.
On the surface, Canada's current situation seems to be somewhat similar to that of our next-door neighbor, Mongolia.
Mongolia is also a large territory, with a vast territory of more than 1.5 million square kilometers, but its current defense force is disastrous.
According to the same "GFP" statistics, the number of standing armies that Mongolia currently has is about 350,000, equipped with more than 10 aircraft and more than 400 tanks. As for ** or something, they don't have one. Because Mongolia is a landlocked country, it does not even have a coastline, so naturally there is no navy.
In addition, the equipment level of Mongolia's army is also extremely poor, and most of the aircraft and tanks equipped are some old antiques, which are far inferior to Canada.
The reason why Mongolia's defense is so weak is simply because the shortcomings of its economy and population are too obvious. First of all, in terms of economy, Mongolia is one of the least developed countries in the world, with a lack of domestic infrastructure and a weak industrial base, and the export of minerals and meat resources is their main income**.
According to statistics, Mongolia's total GDP in 2022 is only 16.8 billion US dollars, while the fiscal budget revenue is only 5 billion US dollars. After excluding many expenditures such as infrastructure, education, and medical care, Mongolia is really limited in the amount of money it can spend on national defense.
If calculated according to the proportion of military spending of 2% GDP that is relatively common in the world, Mongolia's military expenditure is only more than 300 million US dollars, and the average military can only receive about 10,000 US dollars per person. It is worth mentioning that because Mongolia's economy is very bad, the state finances have been in a state of not being able to make ends meet for a long time, and they actually cannot even come up with more than $300 million in military spending.
According to the "GFP", Mongolia's current military budget is only about 98 million US dollars, less than one-third of the ideal situation. This amount of money is barely okay for their army to pay salaries as living expenses, and as for wanting to expand recruitment and purchase ** equipment, then don't think about it.
In terms of population, Mongolia is notoriously sparsely populated, with a lower population density than both Russia and Canada. So although Mongolia is not a small country, it has a small population.
According to statistics, by the end of 2022, the total population of Mongolia was only about 3.4 million. After removing the old and weak women and children and the necessary productive forces, the military population that Mongolia can mobilize is really not much, and it is able to pull out 350,000 people is pretty good.
Combined with the situation in Mongolia, it is not difficult for us to find that for army building, military expenditure and military resources are the two most basic elements. And these two things are directly related to a country's economy and population.
In short, a country must have enough money to get enough military spending, and a large enough population to have enough troops, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain an army with both quantity and quality.
So generally speaking, a country's poor military construction is due to two reasons: either the country has no money, or the country has few people. But Canada is an exception, because they don't have either.
First of all, Canada is not short of money at all, they are one of the major developed economies in the world today, and they have a very strong economic foundation. According to the World Bank, Canada's total GDP in 2022 was as high as 2At $21 trillion, it is the ninth largest economy in the world. In addition, their GDP per capita is as high as 5$50,000, a proper high-income country level.
It is worth mentioning that Canada, as a serious developed country, not only has good GDP data, but also has a fairly high level of actual economic content, which is not at all comparable to countries like Mongolia that need to rely on God's food, so they are not bad at all.
Secondly, Canada is not short of people, although Canada is also notoriously sparsely populated and has a very low population density. But with the blessing of the vast land, they were still able to make up a lot of people after all.
According to statistics, the total population of Canada should be around 40 million. Although this is not a large amount, it is definitely not less. You must know that the old powers like Britain and France have only a population of more than 60 million. So for Canada's current military power, they can mobilize more people to join the military.
All in all, Canada is not short of money or people in its defense construction, and they are fully capable of maintaining a larger and higher-quality defense force. But why doesn't Canada do it?In fact, the problem is still with the next-door neighbor.
Although Canada is a large country, it has few neighbors because it is located on the North American continent and is surrounded by the sea on three sides. They have and only one country bordered by land - the United States. So as far as Canada is concerned, their main purpose in national defense is to guard against the United States.
But it is clear that the United States, as the leading force on the planet today, is simply not something that Canada can resist. Even if Canada multiplied its current defense capabilities several times, it would not be an opponent of the United States. As long as the United States wants to, it will be a matter of minutes to eat Canada.
In layman's terms, in the face of the United States, no matter how hard Canada tries to build its national defense, it will be in vain, and there is basically no possibility of victory. Instead of doing useless work like this, it is better to choose to lie flat and save manpower and financial resources to do other things.
Even Canada not only fails to vigorously build up its national defense, but also shows weakness as much as possible. Because as the saying goes, how can others be allowed to sleep soundly on the side of the couch?If Canada has something that threatens the United States, then the United States will not be reassured. Most of them will find an excuse to clean up Canada and put out the crisis in the cradle. Peace in Canada is only possible if they think that Canada does not threaten them.
Therefore, Canada's current military weakness is purely a goodwill to the United States. Even their army, in itself, is just an ornament and does not play much of a role in national defense. After all, in North America, only the United States can threaten Canada, and as long as relations with the United States are good, then Canada's national defense will not have problems.
Of course, there is a price to be paid for playing like this, not that if you abolish your martial arts in Canada, the United States will definitely let you go. After all, for a robber, he won't rob because he gives up on you to resist.
The reason why Canada can seek stability next door to the United States is mainly because they have bowed their heads and admitted defeat as the little brother of the United States, giving everything they have. From the construction of national defense and military defense, the control of economic resources, to the choice of international politics, it is completely following the United States.
That's why people say that there are two states in the United States, one is California on the west coast, and the other is Canada next door. To put it bluntly, Canada, although it appears to be a country on the surface, is actually more like a colony of the United States.
In fact, Canada is to blame for not choosing a more promising path.
Back then, when the United States was not yet independent, Canada and the United States were both colonies under the hands of the British, and they had almost the same origins. Later, the United States was dissatisfied with being sucked by Britain, and rose up to make an independent scene, and finally succeeded, which is what the United States is today.
And when the Americans were fighting for independence, they originally wanted to bring Canada together. But Canada did not agree, they were determined to become a British colony, and thus missed the opportunity to be the world boss.
If Canada had joined forces with the United States back then, how could it be regarded as a partnership now, how could it still be regarded as a little brother to the United States?