BRASS OVER CLASS: Canada’s Military is a $81.8 Billion Joke… Top-Heavy with Generals, Starved for Equipment

BRASS OVER CLASS: Canada’s Military is a $81.8 Billion Joke… Top-Heavy with Generals, Starved for Equipment

By Eddie Hardie, Sociopolitical Commentator @ Canuck🍁Post

In a stunning feat of bureaucratic jiu-jitsu, the Canadian Armed Forces have achieved what was once thought impossible: they have successfully outsourced their primary defense strategy from the battlefield to the boardroom. Forget fighter jets and warships; Canada’s new first line of defense is the Four-Star General.

A shocking report has peeled back the curtain on a military structure so bloated with top brass that it’s verging on self-parody. Canada now boasts a surreal ratio of nearly two generals or admirals for every operational fighter jet, tank, and warship.

Let that sink in.

If you are a Canadian CF-18 fighter pilot, look to your left, and look to your right. Statistically, there are two generals watching you fly. If you are a sailor on one of our frigates, there are two admirals for every vessel you might serve on. This isn’t a military force; it’s a top-heavy, leadership-saturated, floating (or rather, desk-bound) administrative miracle.

An Army of Chiefs, A Scarcity of Indians

The numbers, first highlighted by Derek Fildebrandt, are so absurd they would be comical if they weren’t so terrifying.

• More Generals than Tanks: Canada has approximately 130 generals and admirals, but only 82 operational Leopard 2 tanks. Our armored strategy appears to be crushing our enemies under a mountain of PowerPoint presentations and policy memos.

• More Admirals than Ships: The Royal Canadian Navy has a fleet of just 12 frigates and 4 submarines deemed “operational” on a good day. Yet, it is commanded by a small armada of admirals. Each ship could almost have its own personal admiral, with a few left over to command rubber ducks in the Ottawa River.

• Generals Outnumber Fighter Jets 2-to-1: With only about 60 CF-18 Hornets considered “combat-ready,” our air force has a pilot-to-general ratio that ensures every sortie is micromanaged into oblivion.

This is the grand Canadian military strategy: while potential adversaries build stealth fighters and hypersonic missiles, we have perfected the art of building organizational charts. Our enemies may have more firepower, but do they have more deputy assistant vice-chiefs of staff? We think not.

And for this privilege, the Canadian taxpayer is about to be shaken down for an unprecedented sum. The defence budget is slated for a meteoric rise, ballooning to a staggering $81.8 billion. That’s right, we’re pouring oceans of cash into a system that prioritizes brass over class, and bureaucracy over bullets.

References:

• FILDEBRANDT: Canada has more generals than tanks — more admirals than ships

• Canada’s Defence Budget Set to Hit $81.8B (CBC)

A Global Shopping Spree of Stupidity

So, what does the Corrupt Carney Regime plan to do with all this new money? Double down on the failure, of course! The plan seems to be a globe-trotting tour to buy the wrong equipment from the wrong people.

First, they’re flirting with buying more American armaments that come with a built-in “kill switch”—the whims of Uncle Sam. Remember the Qatar Backdoor Debacle? As reported, Israeli jets flew in, undetected, to conduct a strike, proving that our so-called allies’ technology can be rendered useless the moment it doesn’t suit their geopolitical interests. Why would we chain our sovereignty to a foreign power that can remotely deactivate our defence systems?

Then, in a move that defies all logic, they’re considering the hopeless 4th-Generation Gripen from Sweden. It’s a museum piece that hasn’t even been built yet, a financial black hole for a capability that is already obsolete. At this point, they might as well just buy the Chinese J-10C—at least it’s combat-proven, unlike the Gripen. And while the establishment media would scream, consider this: as reported by the British Defence Journal, Pakistan’s military (using similar technology) has claimed impressive victories, including shooting down 8 very expensive French Rafale jets. The point isn’t to buy Chinese; the point is that even considering the Gripen is so strategically bankrupt that it makes buying from a geopolitical rival seem rational by comparison.

It’s a complete waste of money with no direction whatsoever. A multi-billion dollar dart thrown blindly at a world map.

Why This is a Catastrophe for Canadians

This isn’t just a silly statistic; it’s a symptom of a deeply sick system with real-world consequences.

1. It’s a Colossal Waste of Taxpayer Money. Generals and admirals command six-figure salaries, hefty pensions, and require large staffs. Every dollar spent on a general who will never see combat is a dollar stolen from buying competent equipment, providing better training, or offering a living wage to our overworked junior ranks. We are funding a “leadership class” while our troops report to food banks.

2. It Cripples Our Combat Capability and Sovereignty. A military needs teeth, not just a big brain. By having a tiny, rusting fleet of equipment overseen by a vast command structure, we have created a military that is all talk and no action. Buying foreign gear with strings attached means we don’t control our own destiny. We can plan a mission to the moon, but we don’t have the fuel—or the permission—to get a plane off the ground.

3. It Makes Canada a Laughingstock on the World Stage. When we show up to NATO meetings, our contributions are measured not in battalions or squadrons, but in the sheer density of our flag officers and our terrible procurement choices. Our allies are modernizing their militaries; we are perfecting the art of administrative redundancy and strategic confusion. It undermines our credibility and our ability to be taken seriously as a sovereign nation.

What to Expect Next? A Parade of the Absurd.

If we continue on this path, the future looks bleakly hilarious. Expect to see:

• The promotion of Canada’s first Five-Star General in charge of Paperclip Procurement.

• A new warship class, the HMCS Desk Jockey, equipped with 50 conference rooms and a single, ceremonial deck gun that requires Washington’s permission to fire.

• A new military doctrine where enemies are defeated not by bombs, but by being buried alive in triplicate forms and Terms of Reference documents.

• A formal request to NATO to recognize “Administrative Superiority” as a key battlefield metric.

What to Expect Next? A Parade of the Absurd.

If we continue on this path, the future looks bleakly hilarious. Expect to see:

• The promotion of Canada’s first Five-Star General in charge of Paperclip Procurement.

• A new warship class, the HMCS Desk Jockey, equipped with 50 conference rooms and a single, ceremonial deck gun.

• A new military doctrine where enemies are defeated not by bombs, but by being buried alive in triplicate forms and Terms of Reference documents.

• A formal request to NATO to recognize “Administrative Superiority” as a key battlefield metric.

Justin Trudeau’s armed forces in Canada. Putin laughs. pic.twitter.com/AE39XrYxJR

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) November 13, 2024

The Solution: A Necessary Purge

This isn’t a complex problem. It requires a simple, brutal solution: A Great Brass Cull.

1. Mandatory, Drastic Reductions: The number of general and flag officer positions must be slashed by at least 30-50%. This isn’t about firing people; it’s about offering early retirement and not replacing roles as they become vacant. A leaner command structure is a more agile and effective one.

2. Tie Brass to Brass: Implement a hard rule: you cannot have more generals than you have main battle tanks, or more admirals than you have major warships. Let the equipment dictate the command structure, not the other way around.

3. BUY SOVEREIGN, BUY SENSIBLE: Halt all plans for the Gripen and other foreign white elephants. The funds from the $81.8 billion budget must be invested in developing and procuring sovereign, Canadian-made solutions wherever possible, or buying equipment without political strings attached. Every penny saved from culling the brass must be reinvested into equipment and our junior ranks.

The Canadian military is suffering from a severe case of “rank inflation.” It’s time for a drastic diet. We need to stop building an army of managers and start rebuilding an army of warriors. Our national security, our international reputation, and the sanity of every Canadian taxpayer depends on it.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. And Canada’s problem is that it has enough generals to storm a beachhead, but not enough landing craft to get them there—and the ones we’re buying might be remotely disabled by a “friend.”