Newly released documents show Ottawa has spent almost $1.3 billion on cloud services provided by US companies, with most of the money going to Microsoft — and its uses include what it calls "mission-critical" defence applications.
There’s plenty of shit that would stop working if the American government decided to disable us that are far more critical.
The US/Canadian militaries are very closely intertwined. NORAD and Five Eyes both come to mind. We also have hundreds of military members stationed on US bases, and they have people stationed on some of our our bases as well.
Besides, if the US chose to attack Canada, there’s not a godamn thing our miliary could do to stop them. Fully operational or not we simply are no match for the American military, nor could we ever be. We have 1/10th of the population.
So why waste money on preparing for something that would 100% result in us losing anyways?
I disagree, there’s always a balancing act between being dependant and what you have to give up in order to do it yourself. In this case, I think being dependant is the better choice.
The thing is, this is just the tip of the tech iceberg. We’re also dependant upon the US for high-end computer parts, they can ban the sale of chips from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia to Canada if they wanted. And in turn, the US and Canada are both dependant on Taiwan and other countries for the actual chip production from those companies.
Does that mean Canada should also invest in developing our own microprocessor design and manufacturing? Currently, the only two countries even trying that are the US and China, and China is still a ways behind. Those are the two largest countries by GDP in the entire world, Canada’s GDP is tiny in comparison. Anything we invest in isn’t simply going to be inferior, it’s going to be pathetic in comparison and leave us at a significant disadvantage in terms of operational capabilities.
We have to recognize the reality of the situation, and that is that being dependant here is the only realistic path forward given our size.
The keyword here is mission critical. That shit should work in case the American companies flip the account off for some reason.
There’s plenty of shit that would stop working if the American government decided to disable us that are far more critical.
The US/Canadian militaries are very closely intertwined. NORAD and Five Eyes both come to mind. We also have hundreds of military members stationed on US bases, and they have people stationed on some of our our bases as well.
Besides, if the US chose to attack Canada, there’s not a godamn thing our miliary could do to stop them. Fully operational or not we simply are no match for the American military, nor could we ever be. We have 1/10th of the population.
So why waste money on preparing for something that would 100% result in us losing anyways?
It is nevertheless better to steer away from those dependencies instead of being complacent.
I disagree, there’s always a balancing act between being dependant and what you have to give up in order to do it yourself. In this case, I think being dependant is the better choice.
The thing is, this is just the tip of the tech iceberg. We’re also dependant upon the US for high-end computer parts, they can ban the sale of chips from Intel, AMD, and Nvidia to Canada if they wanted. And in turn, the US and Canada are both dependant on Taiwan and other countries for the actual chip production from those companies.
Does that mean Canada should also invest in developing our own microprocessor design and manufacturing? Currently, the only two countries even trying that are the US and China, and China is still a ways behind. Those are the two largest countries by GDP in the entire world, Canada’s GDP is tiny in comparison. Anything we invest in isn’t simply going to be inferior, it’s going to be pathetic in comparison and leave us at a significant disadvantage in terms of operational capabilities.
We have to recognize the reality of the situation, and that is that being dependant here is the only realistic path forward given our size.