From Peter Polack

Peter Polack

Canada has had an extensive connection with the Caribbean while it was a colony and later as an independent state. Unlike many of the Caribbean nations now driving towards being a republic unconnected to the British crown,Canada has no such desire. It has maintained a close connection with the United Kingdom and Commonwealth as almost a deputy leader while others leave.

What has persisted for many, many decades has been trading, military and political relationships with the Caribbean and some specific islands. There have been numerous stops and starts with discussions, proposals and legislative debate without any outcome. Trade connections continue today , writ large the popularity of Canadian banks in the Caribbean as safe but not tax havens. There are also generations of Caribbean immigrants to Canada who have stayed while maintaining connections with their former homeland.

As a former colony itself, Canada has not been keen on become imperial itself although it has maintained ties as subjects of a King far overseas in a land full of turmoil. The Caribbean nations like Canada must have some difficulty being differential to those whose own house is not in order.

But the world has changed and grows more polarized every day in a confusing array of geopolitical nightmares with the exception of what one American official once called the known knowns. One known known is that the world is creeping towards political and economic division among the three superpowers. Original concepts of independence and alliances no longer exist and their iterations transform sometimes daily.

Canada is a strong part of NATO but given recent battlefield developments, NATO is unlikely to be of practical assistance given the distances involved from Europe. This is more so given the closer distances of the biggest potential threats from the North and East as well as possibly, elsewhere.

The Canadian choice is to draw those closer that are closer in distance, historical ties and a likely asset to Canada.

It has to become its own superpower and own defence option. A start would be a closer relationship with the Caribbean and the willing manpower it contains.

This is not about colony, sub state or the eleventh province.

For now it is about future survival.

Economics are not the first part of conflict prevention or deterrence. Military capability and the projection of power has now become all important.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decade. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. 

His views are his own.