This article originally appeared in the National Post. Below is an excerpt from the article.
By Christopher Dummitt, February 10, 2025
Although it’s not considered polite to say it, Canada has never really been an independent country. Not quite.
A reading of a new book on Canada’s military history tells us this without meaning to. David Borys’s “Punching Above Our Weight” offers a comprehensive account of Canada’s military entanglements from Confederation to Afghanistan, and beyond.
If you want a clear summary of the slow creation of an independent Canadian military, tracing its roots from early battles against the Métis in the West up to the Boer War and through the great wars of the 20th century, you’ll find it here.
Borys is especially good on the great wars, but there’s plenty more to chew on. This isn’t a book of nitty-gritty detail, but it does give an overarching account and pops into conflicts to tell the stories of heroic Canadians and to recount the shifting military tactics and strategies used and developed by Canadians.
The title — “Punching Above Our Weight” — is inadvertently revealing. It seems complimentary — like Canada has done more than you’d expect. In the shadow of our bigger and more powerful allies, Borys makes the case that Canada has contributed mightily to military entanglements abroad.
This, though, is the problem. Reading this book right now brings home the extent to which Canadian history has been a buddy movie, with Canada being the less good looking, weaker, very much “lesser” buddy.
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