There are no US bases in Canada, and i doubt there ever have been [? - not absolutely sure] ... there was a 1940s USAF base at Gander but remember Newfoundland did not join Confederation until 1949 ... in the second world war MacKenzie King was careful to guard our sovereignty and would permit no handover of continental defence on canuck soil to US command until after the japanese had established a firm beachhead on the BC mainland, which never came to pass, not even close
What happens, is the two militaries cooperate to a degree that would surprise many citizens of both countries if they were to look into it ... there were US Rangers at Dieppe in 1942, and JTF2 went with them into Afghanistan in 2001 ... there are canadian personnel in the US at this moment, in uniform and on duty, also serving with US forces overseas, and on many canadian bases there will be US personnel ... special forces of both countries are quite accustomed to working together, more than people realise, more than is reported of course because a lot is classified, much more the governments are not eager to advertise
Tens of thousands of US nationals crossed the border and joined up in 1939-42 before the US got rolling on the war effort ... most went into the RCAF i think, but not all ... some came here, adjusted their identity and age appropriately, and joined the RAF, as did many canadians before the RCAF was organised for the full air training programme ... some went the other way as well, i grew up with a kid whose father was a bit young to enlist, he went south and got into US airborne eventually, was shipped overseas and did jump into combat, would never talk about it with us, but drank occasionally and would lead us in the 'gory gory what a helluva way to die' song ... going further back, there were about forty thousand canadians who fought in your war between the states 1861-65, a little over ten per cent of those for the confederacy, rest for the north
Getting off track here ... point is, all this takes place without the interference of politicians from either side in day to day affairs, not much in year to year even, and it would be quite surprising if this were to change, it is obviously useful as we share a continent and a lot of mutual interests to defend
The base at Nanoose is leased to the US for underwater testing ... highly unlikely to be any nuclear ordnance there [note there is no 'i' in ordnance teevee, so to stick one in is quite inordinate, lol], as they would have no shortage of secure storage of their own nearby ... the reason they don't want civilian craft in Whiskey Golf is that they have a grid of underwater sensors and wiring suspended above bottom, so just one sport fisherman with cannonball downriggers could take out millions in expensive technology that is slow to fix and even slower to calibrate ... in another post recently teevee raised the idea of russian subs around there, well i think that unlikely - what could they get? - the sensors just pick up raw data, the info to steal will be in the data and analysis centre which is more likely to be in the continental US
Aaanyway, you people are stuck with a boorish lying juvenile head of state who is out to make all the trouble he can, so there will be trouble, we just have to survive through this period and come out the other side ... there are positives - he does seem to have been a uniting force here, another time i might have something uncomplimentary to Mr Trudeau, but not today when i'm agreeing with his 'we will not be pushed around' policy ... more than a few USians applauding that as well, i'd bet, the breadth and depth of US-Can relations will endure this dickhead's little spasm of self-aggrandisement, myself i will like LC not support a full boycott of US goods, but would for something targetting supporters of the problem |
