I agree. The CPP has been out of control for way too long, that damn Canadian Pension Plan committing atrocities, while claiming they are simply providing a better life for their senior demographic. Everybody pays the price!
Seriously though, I'm totally with Johnny. My desire to have as little to do with and be protected from the reach of the CCP is strong. I feel the best/ easiest/ most efficient way to achieve that is to ally with a large and powerful military. The U.S. has a strong desire to have a presence in the Pacific and has the largest defence budget in the western world, so they are the obvious choice. They also have a record of not being afraid to jump into a fight.
Aligning with them shouldn't mean we need to 'be their bitch' or 'follow them into stupid conflicts', it could mean that we have the opportunity to influence decisions made. The level of influence needs to be realistic though, probably a similar proportion to the bar graphs below...
We are a minnow by comparison.
View attachment 396841
Our population is 7.9% the size of the U.S. and our defence budget is 4.7% of what they spend, meaning we spend significantly less per capita on defence than they do. I also suspect that we get much poorer value for money from our defence budget than the yanks.
Recent events on the other side of the planet only strengthen my view.