Introduction to Deeply Canadian, sample chapters

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INTRODUCTION

Mention the Snowbirds (with a capital S) to any Canadian and they immediately know that you are talking about the Canadian air force. As a nation we are very proud of our fighter aviation heritage that stems from WWI and our Snowbirds aerobatics team. Mention HMCS Onondaga or HMCS Victoria and you are met with a blank stare. Sadly our underwater heritage, although the same age and just as distinguished, is virtually unknown. I suspect that if submarines performed at air shows from coast to coast and starred in movies, the Canadian Submarine Service would also have earned a place in every Canadian's heart. As it is, few Canadians know we have a submarine service; still fewer understand why we have one. Hopefully this book will change that.

At a time when many feel that Canada has little need of her armed services, the navy has acquired four submarines for the new millennium to replace the three old Oberon class boats. Deeply Canadian examines why Canada needs submarines at this time in the context of the current and predicted world order, our foreign and defence policies, and our maritime geography. What makes submarines so special, what kind of submarine we need, and whether the newly acquired Victoria class boats are suitable for the Canadian navy's requirements are discussed too. Along the way the book also takes brief looks at our submarine heritage, the traditional lack of enthusiasm for submarines in this country, and the unusual deal that the navy struck with the British Ministry of Defence to get the new submarines. Deeply Canadian does not make the argument to acquire submarines; it simply examines why we must keep our submarine force. It is an interesting story overall but it is often a disheartening one. The lack of visibility of our Canadian Submarine Service has meant that the submariners have had to fight for recognition and understanding from within the navy, successive governments, and the population as a whole. While they have made much progress, especially in the navy in the 1980s due to the enthusiasm of many non-submariners, they still haven't arrived--submarines are not and, probably never will be, the household name that the Snowbirds are.

I am not a submariner--merely a Canadian interested in defence matters in general and submarines in particular. I wrote this book because our submarine force needed more exposure and explanation as we move into a new era. Deeply Canadian is written by and for the average citizen in a way that avoids the buzzwords and jargon of defence matters and demystifies this specialized subject. It should be required reading for all our Members of Parliament.

I gathered much of the meat of the book from papers and articles written by experts that never reached the popular press and from documents obtained through Access to Information. In 1997 I spent ten days in Ottawa talking with those involved with the submarine replacement program and spent three days in England discussing the proposed offer with the Upholder Sales Team. I visited all four of the Upholders, now known as the Victoria class, spent hours on board HMS Unseen (newly arrived in Halifax as HMCS Victoria), and toured the shore development facility at Barrow-in-Furness.

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The collapse of the Warsaw Pact scrambled the balance of power, sending us from a bi-polar world to a multi-polar one overnight. The world is now less predictable, with pockets of unrest, rising tensions, and conflict springing up in all sorts of unexpected places. In late 1996 the incumbent minister of national defence told Canadians that the Canadian Forces (CF) were facing more demands on their expertise than they had since the Korean War in the 1950s. Coming after the end of the Cold War, it was a sobering observation. In a time of severe defence cuts and a loss of 28,000 personnel, it was also worrying.

Much of the domestic demands have come from a shift in focus away from meeting NATO requirements to concentrating more on the protection of our sovereignty. At home the Oceans Act, a piece of federal legislation proclaimed in the late '90s, changed the way we manage our oceans and increased the navy's responsibilities in our vast holdings of maritime real estate. The number of serious encroachments on our ocean territory and resources has grown over the last decade and are unlikely to diminish.

Internationally the demands on the Canadian Forces have stemmed from the growth in the number of UN-style operations around the world in which Canada tends to participate. These have become more hazardous over the last ten years, putting Canadians in more danger than ever before. Our submarines have not participated abroad so far but that could change.

Canada's tiny submarine force is a surprise to many who don't realize we operatesubmarines. It is also a surprise to those who know about submarines--they can't believe we have managed for thirty years with only three. Neither can they believe that all three are based on the Atlantic coast; we have not had a submarine presence in the Pacific for nearly twenty-five years. To set the size of the Canadian Submarine Service into perspective, other countries that operate less than six boats include Libya, Argentina, and the Netherlands, for example, and their maritime territories are vastly smaller than ours. By way of contrast, another small northern maritime country, Norway, operates twelve.

Here then are the arguments for the continuation of the Canadian SubmarineService....

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