Mark Carney is setting up a “people’s army”. The Former Goldman Sachs banker and chair of Brookfield Assets is turning Canada into socialist republic and anti-imperialist beachhead.
If you believe Carney is setting up a “people’s army”, Charlie Angus has a bridge to sell you in Moose Jaw. The former NDP MP and member of the NATO Parliamentary Association is promoting the government’s recently announced plans for a 300,000+ person reserve force. In a column headlined “Canada Mobilizes a People’s Army” and widely viewed videos titled “Canada’s Citizens army – the Maple Leaf forever” and “Canada defies Trump with citizens army — FAFO [fuck around and find out]”, Angus claims the “people’s army” is a response to the annexationist US president. The self-described leader of the resistance to Trump claims “the government is sending a message to Donald Trump.”
But Trump has repeatedly demanded Canada increase military spending and has pressured NATO to increase its military spending target. Additionally, Carney officials haven’t mentioned the US in establishing the force while they have mentioned US geopolitical competitors.
Amidst Trump’s threats, Canadian military leaders have sought to deepen ties with their US counterparts. Leading military reporter David Pugliese has published at least a dozen articles in recent months about how Canada’s military hierarchy continues to deepen its extensive ties to the US war machine.
As the US military has blown up boats in the Caribbean, they’ve refused to end Operation Caribbe or other joint naval patrols with the Pentagon across the globe. They’ve failed to pause officer exchanges or halt US arms testing in Canada. As I detail in Stand on Guard for Whom: A People’s History of the Canadian Military, Canada’s armed forces act as a virtual extension of the US empire. Over the past 35 years they’ve fought in US-led wars in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya. It’s also supported US backed coups in Haiti and Congo.
There’s nothing “people’s” in the Department of National Defence’s history. The Canadian military’s roots are in a British force that conquered today’s Nova Scotia by putting the heads of Mi’kmaq soldiers on spikes and suppressed First Nations in British Columbia through ‘gunboat diplomacy’. More recently, thousands of troops were deployed during the Oka Crisis while Canadian Forces played a smaller role in conflicts with Indigenous communities at Gustafsen Lake, Ipperwash and Elsipogtog.
The Canadian military has also been used to clamp down on Québecois nationalism. 6,000 troops were deployed to Montreal during the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) crisis and In March 1918 over a thousand English-speaking soldiers were deployed to maintain order and enforce conscription in Québec City after some French speakers were arrested for not carrying their conscription exemption cards. At least four were killed and dozens injured when soldiers opened fire on protesters.
Initially a central function of the Canadian militia was to quell labour unrest. Between 1867 and 1933 the military aided the civil power at least 133 times and strikes represented half of all deployments. While technically designed to maintain law and order, writes Mike O’Brien, militia “intervention in industrial disputes … [were] in virtually all cases to the advantage of employers.”
Early Canadian militia leaders were drawn from the upper classes. In the 1890s, the military began appointing wealthy individuals as honorary colonels, bolstering ties between the armed forces and Canada’s economic elite. Notable examples include George Stephen, who was the principal shareholder of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and Lord Strathcona, a cofounder of Canadian Pacific Railway. As Carman Miller notes, honorary colonels were “carefully chosen for their long purses.”
The military continues to offer honorary ranks to wealthy non-soldiers who are tasked with advocating for their regiment, advising on relevant policy matters, and promoting broader military interests. Dozens of well-to-do and ultrawealthy individuals have received honorary ranks in recent years. Canada’s armed forces are a ruling class institution, as I detailed at the start of the year in “Canadian CEOs Want More Guns, Less Bread”.
The Department of National Defence isn’t establishing a “people’s army”. Charlie Angus is simply giving ‘left’ cover for Mark Carney’s radical expansion of military spending.
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