By Moderator, 12 September 2022
Canadians of a certain age will remember tv commercials for Participaction, a government program formed to encourage Canadians to exercise more. The commercials involved an elderly Swedish man out-skiing/out-running a much younger huffing and puffing Canadian man. It pains me to say this but there seem to be parallels today with Sweden, a soon-to-be member of NATO, and Canada, a long-time member of NATO. Even given its much smaller size in terms of territory and population, Sweden packs a significant military punch, and has some impressive new naval capabilities. When it comes to new naval capabilities, Canada has, hmm, the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships! Do we need a new military Participaction program! See an article a few weeks ago by Robert Smol on this topic, “Why Sweden will be a stronger NATO member than Canada,” https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/smol-why-sweden-will-be-a-stronger-nato-member-than-canada
5 thoughts on “Participaction, Sweden and the CAF?”
Hello,
This comparison should extend to each country’s industrial sectors. Sweden has been a strong producer and exporter of complex machinery and technology for a long time. It has an export-oriented high value-added manufacturing sector. As such, it can build and export arms of all types and maintain technologically well-equipped forces. Canada does not have the same industrial capabilities so cannot produce and maintain comparable forces.
Hello Curious Civilian. It seems that you are trying to explain away Canada’s lack-luster NATO performance over the past decades. Unlike Canada, Sweden will be a formidible NATO partner. It already has a comparable GDP Defence percentage ratio with Canada of 1.3 % in 2021 and growing stronger each year annually. They also require their young men and women to serve in their military unlike Canada. Canada has become a drag on the NATO alliance unlike what Sweden will do within NATO.
Hi David,
Explain, no. But context is important. Whatever the decisions about spending on Defense specifically, my point is that Canada spends less on high-value manufacturing, compared to other countries (NATO and non-NATO). Detailed numbers take some digging, and indicators are seldom equivalent, but here is a high-level comparison from the word bank:
% of GDP spent on value-added manufacturing https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?locations=SE-CA
Canada sits around 10%
Sweden 12%-14%, both having dropped noticeably post 2000
Medium and high-tech manufacturing value added as % of the above https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.MNF.TECH.ZS.UN?locations=CA-SE
Canada at 36% since 2005
Sweden at an average 50% since 2000
Rough comparison, but it shows that Sweden spends a greater portion of its GDP on the higher-tech manufacturing than Canada. Coupled with its export orientation, this means that it exports more high-value higher-tech products. This in turn provides a higher critical mass of work between defense procurement cycles, permitting its industry to deliver defense products on more advantageous terms than ours can.
All this to say that Canada does not invest sufficiently in its high-tech, high-value added manufacturing sectors, and this is a very significant factor in our Defense procurement. Increasing the procurement budgets alone won’t solve the underlying capability gaps.
On level more tangible than often-manipulated GDP, skewed by the financial sectors, the following short list of companies should make the point that Sweden designs, produces and exports significant volume and value of complex machinery. The raw tonnage and complexity it produces translates to its greater ability to produce Defense equipment.
SAAB AB
AB Volvo
Sandvik
Eriksson
Electrolux
A comparison of Canada with other nations that out-perform us on the Defense front (ex. US, Italy, Germany, UK, France, China, South Korea, Japan and yes Russia) will yield similar results.
“Increasing the procurement budgets alone won’t solve the underlying capability gaps”. Could not agree more with that statement however how does that solve Canada’s less than ideal performance WRT military defence spending of a “true” 2% GDP spending on defence (not including non-military spending)?