Randy McDonald ([info]rfmcdpei) wrote,
@ 2004-02-01 18:44:00
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"Atlantic Canada's role in the military"
From CNEWS:

"Atlantic Canada's role in the military"
ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - When friends and family gather in a snow-covered graveyard this week to bid a final farewell to Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy, Atlantic Canada will have buried four of its own since the war on terrorism began in Afghanistan two years ago.

Though the region makes up less than eight per cent of the Canadian population, it accounts for 22 per cent of the Armed Forces.

Yet it is still shocking to the loved ones left behind that four of the seven Canadian soldiers killed on duty in Afghanistan hailed from the East Coast, most recently Murphy, killed by a suicide bomber last Tuesday in Kabul.

Read more..

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Recruiting
[info]escondidoid
2004-02-01 06:52 pm UTC (link)
I'm not surprised Canada's Armed Forces are comprised mostly of people from economically depressed areas. The US military's no different; my boot-camp company in Orlando back in 1984 was about half black Southerners, with most of the rest being either from elsewhere in the South (I enlisted in Houston) or from the Philadelphia area, itself at the time having high rates of urban unemployed. I'd say a fair number of people I served with on active duty, or those actives I work with when overseas, are from areas for the most part left behind by the '90s economic boom. In fact, until recently of the fifteen people I knew in the Misawa mine shop at least four were from Oklahoma. That state lost a congressional seat after the latest census, while Texas gained two.

Oddly enough, though, I didn't meet too many people from New England in my years of service. Considering the similarites to Atlantic Canada you'd think there'd have been more. Lots of Southerners, though....

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Re: Recruiting
[info]rfmcdpei
2004-02-01 09:07 pm UTC (link)
I think that New England is substantially richer--both absolutely, and relative to the rest of the United States--than Atlantic Canada. Perhaps northern New England, though?

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Re: Recruiting
[info]escondidoid
2004-02-01 10:03 pm UTC (link)
On the other hand, while there is still considerable wealth in New England, most of that is tied up in highly-taxed property. Unless the money is either "old" or well-invested, one can earn six figures and still be stuck living paycheck-to-paycheck. Additionally, the region's economy has not been growing at the same rate as the national average, much less the Sunbelt, so there is still pressure to leave- and lots of places for New England's well-educated people to go besides the military. Also, the liberal attitudes of New Englanders can be a disincentive to military service. Why put yourself in a regimented situation where you just might get shot at when you can simply move south and not have to shovel as much snow in the winter?

The South's education system, while improving, isn't yet to the level of New England's despite the more robust economy. Thus those that fall through the cracks in that region are more likely to enlist than their Yankee counterparts, especially when you factor in the more conservative, patriotic outlook of the local culture. To compare the situation with Canada's: British Columbia has similar high levels of unemployment as Atlantic Canada, yet a lower percentage of BCers enlist. Could it be the regional culture?

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Re: Recruiting
[info]rfmcdpei
2004-02-02 08:14 am UTC (link)
Unemployment in British Columbia is about as high (though I understand that you should distinguish between the high-income/low-unemployment Lower Mainland and the low-income/high-unemployment rest of the province--[info]kalev?).

Income generally, however, is substantially higher. GDP per capita in Canada is 80% of the American figure; Alberta is 25-30% higher, Ontario 10-15%, British Columbia on par, Québec and the Prairie provinces a bit below (though Québec has been improving of late), and Atlantic Canada one-third below the average. I wasn't kidding when I compared GDP per capita in Atlantic Canada to figures from the fringes of the EU-15; unfortunately, I wasn't kidding when I mentioned that figures there are improving, while in Atlantic Canada they've been stagnant since the 1970s.

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