Everyone complains about government waste, and when they come up with an idea to actually save some money, we’re all freaked out that we’re losing our sovereignty. Sorry people, that ship sailed decades ago when we reduced our military to nothing and subcontracted that role to the U.S.. We should also note we have a whole province that doesn’t even think they’re part of this country, we watch programming created in the US – though personally I prefer the BBC programming you can get on Netflix. Spend the money on healthcare and education – not embassys – IMHO.

The fact that this comic was created shows that some including Opinion250 either don’t understand what’s happening or are pandering to the left. I think pandering is the most obvious choice.

For those either too slow or too biased to understand, Canada is not giving up any sovereignty any more than the British would be when our diplomatic missions represent them in countries where they have no representation.

It’s mutual exchange of diplomatic responsibilities when one country or the other doesn’t have a diplomatic presence in that country.

I have no idea why every time opinions are expressed disagreeing with something any government does, you can bet a right winger will always make reference to “pandering to the left”, as if everything negative is a left wing idea. That attitude is absolute rubbish. I am on the left. I have been on the left for nearly all my life (i am now 69), and I see nothing wrong with sharing consulates and embassies. That is my left wing opinion. I wish some people would stop pandering to the bigoted right!

“Sorry people, that ship sailed decades ago when we reduced our military to nothing…”

So, let me get this straight: “nothing” has been fighting in Afghanistan and the 147 lives lost were lost by “nothing”? And all the many billions of Canadian dollars were for “nothing” as well?

Sorry PrinceGeorge, clearly you did not get my sarcasm in that post. Probably better wording would be “reduced our military to a shadow of what it once was”. During WW2 we had the 4th largest airforce, 3rd largest surface fleet, and over 1.1 million Canadians fought. Compared to now, what we have for a military really is insignificant. I certainly didn’t mean to denigrate the role the people who serve in our armed forced play, I meant to denigrate the governments, both Liberal and Conservative, that claim to support them, and then send them off ill equipped. Stories of Canadians buying body armour from American troops during Iraq war #1 were all to prevalent. Somehow, along the way, we got convinced to demilitarize, and now, we rely on a foreign country to defend us. So, sharing embassies – really? you think that’s giving up our sovereignty. That’s what I meant by the ship has sailed. So, if we can save a few bucks on sharing embassies – here’s an even better thought, let’s use them to support our veterans who have suffered, rather than having our very own embassy so we can claim to be sovereign.

Apologies to all vets and current service people. I truly did not mean to slur your contributions.

ski50, please let us all know how any foreign government has had to defend Canada?

“….better wording would be “reduced our military to a shadow of what it once was”.

Yes, that’s more like it.

WWII had different needs for Canada and its armed forces. I think a very strong home force which is capable to protect our coasts and land would be sufficient now.

But even there the governments have missed the boat. We don’t even have a navy with modern light and fast ships and modern conventional subs to patrol our coasts.

A lot of money was spent on useless stuff. Veterans deserve much better…politicians are a pain in the you know what!

RUEZ, I guess it depends on how define defend. I have never had to defend my own home, but I consider the RCMP to be defending my home and person – even though I’ve never actually had to ask them to do it.

Now if I had personal security, a walled property, I’d probably consider that I’m defending myself.

I believe Canada has subcontracted it’s defense to the USA, which is why we’ve never been attacked by Russia, China. The fact we’ve never been attacked, means we’ve been defended.

Like PrinceGeorge, I feel we should have kept a stronger armed forces capable of defending our borders – including against the Americans.

But we didn’t, and it just get’s back to my point, that sharing embassies is small potatoes in the sovereignty issue when you look at the overall picture.

Each country should have its own embassy! Supposing someone has an axe to grind with Great Britain’s policies and an attack on the joint embassy happens (heaven forbid)? Canadian embassy staff will be a target as well, even though whoever has the gripe may not have anything against Canada!

Let’s get real!

I say let those federal politicians take a pay cut and a (goldplated) pension cut instead to bring them more in line with what the resr of the country is facing in every day realities!

Use the many tens of millions saved to maintain independent Canadian embassies and to improve the lot of our veterans!

Will we ever get LEVEL HEADED not-feeding-at-the-trough government?

(The question is purely rhetorical – everybody knows the obvious answer).