Canada Needs a New Civil Defence Corps.
Trump’s aggression means it’s time to train thousands more civilians for disaster preparedness. Would you join?
Peter MacLeod
The Tyee
5 Mar 2025
Letter to the Editor
When Sweden joined NATO last year, it wasn’t a decision made lightly. Swedes are famously independent, deeply pragmatic and serious about their security. During the Cold War, they built a robust civil defence system, training their population in preparedness, stockpiling critical supplies and ensuring that in any crisis—natural or man-made—Sweden could stand on its own feet.
After the Berlin Wall fell, Sweden, like much of the West, took a “peace dividend.” Civil defence was scaled back and military spending shrank. That all changed in 2017. Seeing the world shift under its feet, Sweden reinstated partial conscription, restarted preparedness training and began fortifying its infrastructure.
Today, following the reactivation of its Psychological Defence Agency, every Swedish household receives a booklet titled “If Crisis or War Comes,” outlining what to do in an emergency. The country has retrained thousands of reservists and rebuilt its civil protection programs—not because it wants war, but because it takes security seriously.
Canada should be doing the same.
[I and others among my friends and acquaintances, including a few members of CACOR, have long advocated from a Green Corps to undertake projects aimed at improving our interactions with our environment. Lately, I have felt that some sort of corps might go a long way to help us maintain our sovereignty. Ed.]