Dear Sandra,
Military spending is out of control. Globally, governments squandered $1.73 trillion on militaries in 2011, and still the weapons corporations want more.
How would you better spend the money wasted on weapons and war? Share your ideas and let’s build a “word cloud” on Ceasefire.ca.
How many lives could be saved if even a small portion of the dollars spent on weapons and war preparations were instead spent on food for refugees fleeing war and drought, on public health care delivered to the HIV/AIDS-afflicted and their children, or on education for women and girls?
The weapons industry will not rest until they have every last public dollar for themselves. This week U.S.-based Lockheed Martin, the world’s wealthiest weapons corporation, launched a Canada-wide tour to promote its scandalous F-35 stealth fighter, according to the CBC.
Lockheed Martin’s sales force, including a former Canadian pilot, will take an F-35 simulator to Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa in the weeks ahead. They will never give up until Stephen Harper signs the contract for their planes.
The Harper government misled and withheld information from Canadians for years about the true cost of the F-35 stealth fighter, but through the efforts of thousands of Ceasefire.ca supporters like you, we forced him to seriously rethink his strategy to buy these war machines.
Our military spending has skyrocketed in the last decade. At $18.7 billion, Canada is the 6th highest military spender with NATO (and three of the five higher than Canada have nuclear arsenals!). Harper’s annual defence budget has climbed so high, it is now 20 per cent above the average amount spent during the entire four decades of the Cold War.
Join with other Canadians, and contribute your ideas on how these dollars could be better spent. Together, on Ceasefire.ca, we will build a fantastic “word cloud” of ideas to share with everyone.
After you’ve left your comment about how you would spend the money, be sure to share this image on Facebook and invite your friends to do the same.
Let’s stop Stephen Harper’s pro-war plans with his friends at Lockheed Martin. Let’s work for a world of peace and social justice, not war and militarism.
Thanks for doing what you can for peace,
Kathleen Walsh, Ceasefire.ca