Great White North Alert!
Daniel Leblanc shocks in the Globe and Mail with Worn-out navy says it's taking a 'pause' for a year:

OTTAWA -- Tired and broke, the Canadian navy is slowing down for a year, cutting back on major training exercises and delaying a return to NATO's Atlantic fleet, senior officers say.

"We're just taking a pause here," said Rear-Admiral Glenn Davidson, commander of the navy in the Atlantic.
...
Retired naval officer Richard Gimblett, a research fellow at Dalhousie University, said the navy is doing what is required to survive. He said the navy has learned a lesson from the army, in that it refuses to take on tasks that will mortgage its future.

"The navy has a severe personnel shortage," Mr. Gimblett said. "The navy doesn't want to get caught in the trap that the army has been in for the last decade, of sending people over to Bosnia three tours in a row, and just basically wearing out the army."

You know, we could have our armed forces in a similar state if we would just take the advice of the Ohio elf and fully fund a "Department of Peace":

He said the department would work with the United Nations and other countries before conflicts arise.
...
The forum, sponsored by Cultural Creatives in Action, a Connecticut-based peace group, had the feel of a 1960s peace rally, although most of the crowd was middle-aged.

Peace and love, man. No word on what the elf would do if someone started dropping airliners on major cities.