beardedbruce, "Shame on the US for having a Military, or for developing capable arms for our Military and for making these same arms available for other Nations to ensure their sovranty."?

By your own reasoning, why should Canada's involvement in the continued manufacturing of arms, be considered, by you, a bad thing that Canada has done?

Is this a dislike of competition by others in a free market economy with US manufacturers or, is there some moral issue, on your part, with regard to the sale of arms?

For most Canadians here at Mudcat, the manufacture and sale of weapons by Canada is not news and has been commented upon before in other threads. I can recall myself posting, a couple of years back, something regarding the manufacture of gumby and pokey dolls in the same Canadian Hamm chemical factory that was manufaturing napalm or some such thing, to supply the US during the war in Vietnam.

It is very useful to the US to have Canada appear as an independant nation state at times at odds with US policy, while at the same time supplying the US with valuable information as well, from a position not available directly to the US. This was certainly the case during the Vietnam war and I doubt little has changed in the halls of power behind the scene, in subsequent years.

DougR, in this country, unless one is decidedly apolitical or oblivious, sometimes it is difficult for Canadians not to feel the need to comment on stuff which directly affects them as well. This does not mean that Canadians do not have great fondness for many Americans as individuals or an admiration for some aspects of US society, particularly in areas where Canada lags. (Whistleblowers come to my mind in particular and freedom of information regarding the machinations of government). Whatever routes the US decides to pursue, affects us directly more than any other nation on earth.      

And, if the US feels the right to mould other nations in its own image, why be suprised that others feel the need to comment. As Pierre Elliot Trudeau remarked, Canada's relationship with the United States is like that of "a mouse in bed with an elephant…no matter how friendly…one is affected by every twitch and grunt."