Canada's Army - Post Peacekeeping

Abstract

Canadians have been comfortably living with the myth of Canada as a peacekeeping nation since the Suez Crisis of 1956. The myth is so compelling that many, too many, actually insist that our current role in Afghanistan is peacekeeping in the Pearsonian tradition. Faced with this durable myth the restructure, expansion and reequipping of our Army is made all the more politically challenging. Of all the countries in the world that would benefit from maintaining “an Army afloat”, Canada stands at the head of the list. Paradoxically, unification and integration foisted on the Canadian Forces in the 70s has stood in the way of this imaginative development.