Canada’s Role Present but Shrinking Role in the Middle East
Canadians are always perceived to be the polite and kind bunch, this is a stereotype that has stuck with people from the vast North American country. When you speak to a Canadian, the topic at the very bottom of the list of discussion is the Canadian military and their involvement in both past and present conflicts around the world.
In all fairness, one of the reasons for this is that the Canadian military is quite tiny in comparison to other continental North American countries. As of 2017, Canada has just under 67,000 military personnel split across various infantry and armoured corps, the Royal Canadian Air Force, and the Royal Canadian Navy. In comparison, Canada’s neighbors to the South have over a million active military personnel split over five different branches.
In terms of yearly budget and military spending, the differences between the Canadian Armed forces and other militaries across the world deepens even more. The yearly budget for the Canadian military lies at about 18.6 Billion Canadian Dollars (14.8 Billion USD) or less than 1% of the Canadian GDP. The United States allocates close to 4% of their yearly GDP, roughly close to 600 Billion Dollars USD.
Canadian soldiers in recent years have seen action in conflicts ranging from the Iraqi invasion of 2003, the Afghanistan war that’s been going on since 2001, and the more recent military intervention in Iraq and Syria to battle the Islamic State. But the Canadian military has come a long way to get to where it stands as an international military now.
Since Canada’s founding 150 years ago, its military has played major roles in different overseas engagements including the Second Boer War in South Africa, both World Wars, and recent conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Being a part of the Commonwealth, many of the Canadian Military’s first engagements included aiding the British in any conflicts that they were taking part in.
One attribute unique to the Canadian military at the time of the Second World War was the immense support that it received from the general Canadian population, a level of support unparallel to almost any other nation at the time. From start to finish of the Second World War, nearly 1.1 million Canadians served in the Canadian Armed Forces with just 2,400 having been involuntary conscripts.
Canada’s early military history is deeply tied in with the sentiment of a young nation trying to prove itself. After the gruesome and important victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War, Brigadier-General Alexander Cross famously stated “It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade. I thought then, and I think today, that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation”
To this day, remembrance day for Canadian soldiers killed in action is a major Canadian event. Many wear poppy pins on their clothes, honouring the famous poem “In Flanders Field” by former Canadian field medic John Mcrae. Canada may not be the most patriotic of countries today, but remembrance day is alway treated with respect and honour by most from across the provinces.
However, apart from rememberance day, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces in modern Canadian society has greatly changed. In the first half of the the twentieth century, the role of the Canadian military was much larger and much more noticeable than its current role today across the globe.
This isn’t to say that there is no role, only that it has greatly shrunk from what it once was. Of course, no army is fielding millions of troops in a single conflict as war has changed greatly over the last few decades. However, the Canadian military has gone from taking major roles in conflicts alongside other commonwealth nations to more subsidiary and backup roles in United States or NATO led coalitions.
Throughout the War in Afghanistan, Canada played a backing role to United States, British, and other coalition forces in battling Taliban rule and insurgency. The height of the war came in the mid to late 2000’s, as did the height of Canadian involvement. In 2006, Canada led Operation Medusa in the embattled Afghan province of Kandahar, one of the few operations in the war that were lead by Canadian forces. The operation included the Battle of Panjwaii which was won by coalition forces and effectively removed Taliban insurgency from the district.
Canada’s role in the conflict, although a backing one, was still much more present then their role in the United States led invasion of Iraq in 2003 to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein. That is to say that the role was essentially non-existent as the only thing coalition forces received from then Prime Minister Jean Charest were wishes of good luck. Still, the war was the catalyst for numerous protests across the country over the years that followed.
The Canadian Armed Forces began to pull troops out of Afghanistan in 2011, with certain teams staying behind to help train Afghan military personnel until 2014. That year marked the end of major Canadian involvement in Afghanistan, something that still made national news almost daily since the start of involvement in 2002. In total, 158 Canadian soldiers were killed in action in Afghanistan throughout the period of Canadian involvement. On a lighter note, Canadian military presence in Afghanistan was serious enough that a Tim Hortons, was set up in the Canadian Forces Main Operations base in Kandahar.
The recent escalation of the Syrian Civil War, the rise of the Islamic State, and the spillover of the conflict into neighboring Iraq has brought Canada back into the region for the first time since the Gulf War of the early 1990’s. Beginning in 2014 with Operation Impact, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced scheduled airstrikes that would target Islamic State controlled regions in both Iraq and Syria.
The airstrikes continued into the tenure of current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s first term, ceasing in mid-2017. However many Canadian special forces soldiers remain in the region in a similar training and special operations role as was the case in Afghanistan. Headlines came about in May 2017 when an unnamed Canadian Forces member recorded the longest ever recorded sniper kill in history, striking an Islamic State target 3,540 metres away. To put this into perspective, the coriolis effect of the rotation of the Earth had to be taken into account by the shooter before firing.
As Canada’s role in the Middle East and surrounding regions continues to minimize, there is no real sign that there will be any increase in the near future. This isn’t even because of public opinion, as major anti-war protests have become a rare sight in major cities across Canada. Rather, the Canadian military is shrinking at an alarming rate.
The Canadian Armed Forces state there must be 68,000 active personnel within the different branches of the Canadian military in order to ensure proper and efficient function. Recent statistics show that the current figure is close to 66,000, under the mandated amount. Because of this, all the branches of the Canadian military have begun to step up recruitment activities across the country, even reaching out to major Canadian universities for help in publicity.
So before Canada wants to take a more active role in fighting alongside more Western coalition forces, it will have to find a way to increase its own numbers to a satisfactory level. In the meantime, the Canadian Armed Forces have been fairly present in more humanitarian missions and especially those in the Caribbean in the wake of numerous destructive hurricanes and tropical storms.
