@ISIDEWITHQuestionsForeign policyStarted 9yrs agoActive 13hrs ago

Should the government increase or decrease military spending?

Canada’s defense budget is currently $20 billion a year which is less than 1% of its GDP. This is much less than the $600 billion a year the U.S. spends and the $6.5 billion a year the UK spends. Only 5 other countries of the 28 in NATO spend less. To join NATO each member country pledged to spend at least 2% of their GDP on military spending and defense and defend each other against threats from any non-member country. In a July 2016 U.S. Presidential nominee Donald Trump suggested that the United States would not defend NATO member countries who had failed to increase their military budgets to above 2% of Gross Domestic Product. France, Turkey, Germany, Canada, and Italy are countries that are currently spending less than 2% of their GDP on military defense. 

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Response rates from 942 Calgary Heritage voters.

43%
Increase
28%
Decrease
37%
Increase
28%
Decrease
6%
Increase, but only after our deficit is drastically reduced

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Unique answers from Calgary Heritage voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

 @9HDV4JKfrom Alberta  answered…12mos12MO

increased, but to an extent. not everything the military buys is useful. so if we are to give more money then we should monitor what they are spending it on.

 @9H5JSPPfrom Ontario  answered…1yr1Y

Increase drastically. we can not rely on foreign countries to protect us when we will soon enough have to fight for ourselves

 @8XJMDVYfrom Nova Scotia  answered…3yrs3Y

People who serve in the military should be paid more

 @8TWDTHBfrom Alberta  answered…3yrs3Y

Yes, and capabilities in the north need to be prioritized and procurement must be rationalized.

 @8SX7FGBfrom British Columbia  answered…4yrs4Y

Yes, as the United States of America has proven to be unreliable.

 @8J8WW99from Ontario  answered…4yrs4Y

I would use military for more reconstruction and aid events, rather than actually going to war. So if we use our military for post war clean up efforts and to support countries own peace making efforts, I would increase the spending. I would not increase the spending for war ships or military planes.

 @9ZDQ9FMfrom Ontario  answered…2wks2W

increase if Canada get their standing army back and if the situation demands it otherwise find a baseline that keeps the troops up to date and taken care of, take care of material cost and maintenance and also provide for our veterans when peace is in the horizon

 @9YGJXM9from Ontario  answered…2wks2W

Generally it should be increased, but the goal should be to reduce the deficit. However, if there are situations where it is necessary to spend more on military, then it should be allowed.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…2wks2W

Trump's Deportation Storm: America Braces for Mass Exodus of Immigrants

For months, immigration advocates have been planning for the possibility of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Now, their worst fears have arrived.Immigrants’ rights groups have spent the last year preparing for a second Trump term and an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, analyzing Trump’s proposals, drafting legal briefs, coordinating messaging and organizing aid for immigrants and asylum seekers. They responded to Trump’s victory with alarm and vowed to put up a fight, setting the stage for four more years of contentious court battles with his administration.Some are already preparing to push current leadership at the Department of Homeland Security to take steps to stymie the incoming Trump team, particularly on immigrant detention and the use of AI in enforcement.“We should expect to see the devastation of immigrant communities all over the country. We should expect to see family separation,” said Kica Matos, the president of the National Immigration Law Center. “It is entirely possible that he will try to use the military to carry out deportations, so that means that Americans all over the country will see the military engaging in enforcement against civilian populations, which is horrifying.”Trump, after winning a historic victory on a platform of turbo-charged immigration enforcement, has said he will conduct mass deportations at a scale never before seen. Immigrant advocates have warned this would be expensive and inhumane, separating families and wrecking communities. The president-elect has also vowed to build huge detention camps, hire thousands more border agents, funnel military spending toward border security and invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs without court hearings.He has also said he would end “catch-and-release” — allowing migrants to remain free, often with monitoring, while they await immigration court hearings — and restore a policy from his first term requiring asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases are processed. And he has dodged questions about whether he would try to bring back family separation.

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