[Newsbot]

Title: Lloyd Axworthy calls for Canada to lead on de-militarized Arctic
Category: World
Posted By: Hyack
Date: 2015-09-16 11:32:23
Canadian

[martin14]

Canadian Liberals " We surrender ".

[bootlegga]

Ugh, the Liberals are making it impossible for me to vote for them.

[Freakinoldguy]

I'm sure Vlad will be happy to hear this.

[Jabberwalker]

martin14 martin14:

Canadian Liberals " We surrender ".

Exactly.

The Russians will laugh in our faces. The Americans will continue to do for us what we should be able to do for ourselves. Lloyd Axworthy and his old boss are directly responsible for that situation, standing down our armed forces at the height of the Cold War danger.

[romanP]

all wars are boss' wars.

[BartSimpson]

martin14 martin14:

Canadian Liberals " We surrender ".

Four words to summarize the story.

[Jabberwalker]

I wonder if Lloyd Axworthy has been on the Russian payroll all of these years? It wouldn't surprise me one bit if that came to light.

[Winnipegger]

My view was the opposite. The Resolute airport was originally an air force station. Not a base, a station. Which means it can host aircraft, but the majority of combat aircraft will be hosted elsewhere when there isn't an active action. Build it up with hangers to host an entire squadron of 24 CF-18 fighter jets, and a tarmac "parking lot" capable of hosting a second. Pilots and support for the hornets would have barracks, not houses. Again, they would be based where they are now.

And dismantle the port at Nanasivik and rebuild it at Resolute. Prisoners would be used to break up the concrete of the dock, and recycle the concrete into new cement powder. Clean the mooring posts to be reused. Steel rebar would be sold to a smelter for recycling, the new port would have new rebar. Dismantle the steel buildings, clean them, and reassemble at Resolute. This means the dock doesn't have to be exactly the same, we can ensure the new dock can host the largest oil tanker ever built, and the largest container ship ever built. Because that's what will go through there. Ensure the port has ship repair capability, because ships travelling through the Northwest passage often run into a sharp rock, ripping a hole in their hull. And ensure the dock can host all Canadian icebreakers, and frigates and destroyers.

Stephen Harper promised a cold weather training base for Canadian army at Resolute. It's never been built. Build it.

Resolute airport can currently host Hercules and C-17 cargo planes. Aurora patrol aircraft can fly from there. It will permanently have UAVs for reconnaissance. Ensure the air wing at maximum will be equivalent to an American supercarrier: Hornets, Aurora instead of Viking, Hercules instead of Greyhound, UAVs with the same radar as E-2D Hawkeye, SAR helicopters. I'm not sure which helicopter is best for the arctic. Canada has 5 Hercules aircraft fitted as mid-air refuelling tankers. And 2 Airbus aircraft (Polaris) for the same purpose. Polaris are reserved for trans-Altantic or trans-Pacific flights, Hercules are used in the arctic.

[Thanos]

Prisoners? People could use a good paying remediation job and you want use the equivalent to slave labour? You sound more Tea Party than Liberal if you want to do things like that.

[Winnipegger]

Most business does not like to recycle. The issue is labour required to separate materials. With concrete, the issue is breaking up concrete into chunks that fit in a kiln. In fact, I don't know anyone who properly recycles concrete right now. They break concrete into pieces small enough to be used as aggregate. But look at how cement itself is made: stone is quarried, broken into small chunks, ground into powder, baked in a kiln to break down the mineral structure into oxides. The result will aggregate into chunks that have to be ground again into powder. So why can't you recycle concrete? A large portion of cement is quicklime, formed by baking limestone. Quicklime is calcium oxide and magnesium oxide; limestone is calcite (calcium carbonate) and dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate). Baking releases CO2 from the carbonate. Concrete does not have any carbonate, so baking does not release CO2. But concrete is a mixture of cement with sand and gravel. (Ignoring concrete chips.) Cement has carefully selected minerals to ensure the right balance of oxides: calcium, magnesium, aluminum, iron, etc. The sand and gravel will not have the right balance, typically too little limestone. So fresh limestone has to be added to the kiln to make cement.

But again, the key to making concrete recycling affordable is to keep labour cost down. Concrete has to be broken into chips, and steel rebar separated and removed. That's where prisoners come in. This is never going to be "a good paying remediation job".

My house was broken into 4 times in 1992/93. My vehicle stolen several times. My garage broken into. My new vehicle vandalized. I have no patience for criminals. Other Liberals point out many criminals never held a real job, so don't know how to manage money. Ok. But prison is not supposed to be a luxury resort. Stoney Mountain federal penitentiary is just outside Winnipeg. It was build were it is because it was a limestone quarry. Limestone quarried by prisoners was used to build the provincial legislature, and law courts building. I feel prisoners should be put to work. And sending particularly bad ones to break up concrete in the high arctic, in winter, sound particularly appropriate.