Again?

So a company that makes armoured combat vehicles will move into the place where Dodge Chargers once rolled out.

Stellantis has been called back to America by Trump and the sprawling assembly plant in Brampton, outside Toronto, will be sold to Roshel Inc., a Canadian defence contractor. Soon it will be churning out ‘smart’ troop convoys.

The auto union had a cow, of course, since over 2,200 workers have been on layoff, waiting for the Chargers to come back. Now, gone for good. The feds are piqued since Stellantis took a mess of government money, then walked. And this all unfolds as we’re here on Remembrance Day.

It’s a new world. The US has a Department of War. The rest of the world is scrambling for weapons. Defence spending has been lit. Here in Canada, too. Our new subs alone will cost $24 billion upfront, and another $80 billion over two decades for gas and tune-ups. Total defence spending will be $114 billion this year, and soon be averaging north of $150 billion.

It’s serious money after years of letting the military fade.

Of course the US is also tooling up, especially after burning through massive piles of ordinance in Iran. Soon spending there will be a trillion a year.

In Europe, it’s a scramble now to get tanks, nukes, missiles and especially drones, drones and more drones. The Ukraine conflict has rewritten the rules of modern warfare, as have the Iranians – whose $20,000 drones took $3 million Patriot missiles to down them.

It’s a defence orgy across the continent. Soon defence spending by EU nations will top €500 a year. Some smaller nations – Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania – are diverting huge amounts of GDP towards defence, while Germany, France and the UK ramp up their military budgets in a way not seen since WW2.

Russia is a major threat. America has become an unreliable, aggressive, untrustworthy partner. The Middle East remains a cauldron of hate and instability. The NATO alliance has been frayed. Governments are afraid for their national security. Everybody is strapping on the hardware.

And it happens at a perilous moment. The guns, nukes and missiles are running headlong into far-right politics.

In Germany the AfD made big gains in regional elections and are supported by about a quarter of the national electorate. That’s more support than the guys currently in charge enjoy. In France it looks like Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party will hold power after elections in the Spring. In the UK the Reform guys, headed by Brexiteer Nigel Farage, are surging in popularirty.

These are Trumpian folks. They believe in inward-looking domestic policies and are suspicious, hostile or worse about the EU, NATO and international alliances. Many of the leading candidates are overtly pro-Russian. For example, Germans are being told life would be vastly more affordable if that country could turn on supplies of Russian gas again. After all, who cares about Ukraine, except the Ukrainians? Le Pen says she would cut off all support and withdraw from NATO when that country falls. Germany’s AfD would sever military funding to Kiev, and wants a new national security arrangement with Moscow.

Far-right parties are making gains on public discontent over rising costs and falling living standards. France has been rocked by protests and violence in recent weeks. Critical cross-border industrial projects have been negatively impacted as isolationism sweeps through the political ranks. Countries are re-arming fast, fostering nationalism and shedding alliances. Not a good combination.

China has more than two million in its armed forces, a growing nuclear arsenal and more ships than the US. There are over 400,000 in the air force alone, deploying 5th-gen stealth fighters. The Americans have a few hundred thousand troops stationed in Japan as a deterrent against China taking Taiwan.

By the way, the Ukrainian-Russian war has so far killed or wounded about 2.1 million people. Russian military deaths are believed to number 450,000. Over 1.3 million have been killed, wounded, maimed or gone missing. Russia lost 54,000 men in a single month. Ukrainians have buried 115,000 soldiers, with another 400,000 wounded. There have been 74,000 civilian casualties.

In this world of conflict and cruelty most of us live in peace and prosperity. In fact our retirement and investment portfolios plump up with defence stocks and index ETFs which hold them. Military spending creates jobs and feeds local economic growth, as it about to happen in Brampton with the car plant.

So there is more to reflect upon today than just the men and women (and service animals) who laid down their lives and walked into peril to confront evil and aggression. We are deeply grateful they did. Our debt is enormous. But now we see a similar path.

Lest we forget.

About the picture: (reposted from Veterans Affairs Canada) –

“Sergeant Gander was a Newfoundland dog raised by the Hayden family on the airport base in Gander, Newfoundland. He was a friendly dog who loved playing with children. He enjoyed living on the base but spent too much time on the runways, trying to catch the planes as they came in to land.

“Because he was growing to be so large, the Hayden family gave the playful dog to the Royal Rifles of Canada Regiment stationed at the Gander airport. He quickly became a good friend and mascot. In 1941, the Royal Rifles of Canada Regiment was sent to Hong Kong to defend the land from an enemy invasion. The men couldn’t bear to leave Gander behind, so they gave him the rank of “Sergeant” and he boarded the troopship with his fellow soldiers.

“Fred Kelly was the soldier responsible for feeding Gander and giving him cool showers to keep him comfortable in the heat. Gander was a mascot, but he was also a fellow soldier with a job to perform. He would bark and nip at the legs of the enemy, scaring them away. One night in December 1941, Gander showed his true courage. He knew what a grenade was and how it could hurt people. That night, Gander saw a grenade tossed near a group of wounded Canadian soldiers. He ran to it and rushed away with it. The grenade exploded and Gander was killed. But he had saved the lives of the seven soldiers! 

“In 2000, Gander was awarded the Dickin Medal for his bravery during a gathering of Veterans in Ottawa. There stood Fred Kelly with a Newfoundland dog named Rimshot, who represented Gander, the brave mascot-soldier. Gander’s medal was the first awarded to a Canadian animal and is now displayed at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.”

Source: https://www.greaterfool.ca/2026/11/11/again/