A founding member of the
NATO
alliance, Canada currently employs about 62,000 regular and 26,000 reserve military personnel.
[5] The unified
Canadian Forces (CF) are comprised of: the
Canadian Forces Land Force Command
(Army), the
Canadian Forces Maritime Command
(Navy), and the
Canadian Forces Air Command
(Air Force).
Equipment deployed by the forces includes 2,400 armoured fighting vehicles, 34 combat vessels, and 140 combat aircraft.
Defence spending in fiscal year 2004-5 was approximately $14 billion.
[6] However, in the 2005 federal budget, the Liberal government allocated an additional $12.8 billion over five years to the armed forces, and committed to increasing troop levels by an additional 8,000 regular and reserve personnel over the same period.[7]
Canadian forces have served in various wars including
World War I, World War II,
the Korean War and recently, in
Afghanistan. Since
Lester B. Pearson proposed the first
UN peacekeeping force in 1956, the Canadian Forces have served in 42
peacekeeping missions — more than any other country. Canada was also the prime destination of American draft dodgers during the Vietnam War. These factors – along with its comparatively low level of military spending, other positions such as nuclear non-proliferation, and an international treaty banning personnel land mine usage – have led to Canada sometimes being referred to as a pacifist country.
Currently, CF personnel are involved in the
NATO mission in Afghanistan.
Smaller missions are also taking place in Haiti and Kosovo. Canada's
Disaster Assistance Response Team
ù (DART) has participated in two relief operations in the last year. The two-hundred member relief crew helped in
Southeast Asia after the
December 2004 tsunami,
and DART was also deployed in response to the devastating earthquake that
struck the
Kashmir region in
South Asia in October 2005. Moreover, CF
(and RCMP) personnel recently assisted in
Hurricane Katrina
relief efforts.
Sources: University World and Wikipedia
