8 comments

  • 8note 10 hours ago ago

    I dont know if this actually translates to opportunities to start new defense businesses though, vs canada putting more money into existing supplier and european partners

    • rich_sasha 6 hours ago ago

      European arms manufacturing seems quite fragmented, but keen to integrate as a viable alternative to the US. I can imagine Canada being a part of this?

      Europe kind of sort of has all the same competences of the US in this area (tanks, APCs, AA missiles, SA missiles, aerospace, radars to name a few) but lacks the scale of production, there's clear scope for collaboration.

    • Tiktaalik 9 hours ago ago

      BDC, the Business Development Bank of Canada, has shifted toward investing in Defence, which from my understanding they didn't really do much of before, so it's probably a better time than ever to be a defence startup in Canada.

      https://www.bdc.ca/en/about/mediaroom/news-releases/bdc-intr...

      • compounding_it 9 hours ago ago

        The Canadian defense budget is quite small (30bn). 4bn is a big number compared to that but in general this is quite small compared to most developed countries. I believe Canada has been quiet thanks to their neighbors protecting them but with that changing I’m wondering whether there will be a shift in defense spending.

        This will also create new jobs and a market which the economy probably needs.

        • huxley 8 hours ago ago

          There are only 15 countries worldwide with a higher defence budget than Canada so the budget is hardly tiny, it just doesn’t meet the arbitrary and obscene targets of 2/5% GDP. In actuality, Canada spends more than twice as much per capita than the world average.

          The only realistic threat to Canada is the new one from Donald Trump, but it would take closer to 30% GDP to protect from that one.

          • palmotea 4 hours ago ago

            > There are only 15 countries worldwide with a higher defence budget than Canada so the budget is hardly tiny...

            Canada is pretty big: it's the second-largest country by land-area. Surely there must be certain defense expenditures that need to scale with that?

            > In actuality, Canada spends more than twice as much per capita than the world average.

            That seems like a twisted measure, due to 1) the land-area issue I mentioned above, and 2) there are a lot of countries in the world that are small and poor, and thus cannot afford a military that can actually defend themselves.

            > The only realistic threat to Canada is the new one from Donald Trump...

            That's actually not a realistic threat, either.

            • watwut 3 hours ago ago

              How is USA not realistic threat? They are already going out of their way to harm and weaken Canada. They are openly talking about expanding. They are already commiting war crimes in pacific and have fascist leadership. With president likely having alzeihmer or dementia or other mental healt issue

          • k12sosse 5 hours ago ago

            Would be cheaper to just buy a billion worth of his crypto and then he'll be offering us all the bubba treatment, eh?