Canada S Maritime Defence

This book is a collection of papers on maritime defence up to 1950, beginning with an overview of Canadian maritime defence 1892-1914. Subsequent papers cover the defence of British Columbia, the naval aspects of Canadian sovereignty, Pacific coast defence, rearmament and mobilization in the late 1930s, coastal fortifications of World War II, anti-submarine warfare in the north-west Atlantic 1943-45, and submarine warfare 1909-1950.

A critical look at the whole range of Canadian current and projected defence activities.

In 1993, Canada’s Liberal Party cancelled an order to replace the Sea King maritime helicopter. The Liberals claimed the Tory plan was too expensive, but the cancellation itself actually cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. The incident drew public attention to the waste in Canada’s defence spending and to the under-equipped state of its military. Aaron Plamondon ties the bungled attempts to replace the Sea King – before and since 1993 – to the evolution of the weapons procurement process in Canada since Confederation. He reveals that partisan politics, rather than a desire to increase the military’s capabilities, has driven the nation’s policy-makers.